About Me
Hi! I’m Wenji Fang (方闻绩), a Ph.D. candidate at the Electronic and Computer Engineering Department of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, advised by Prof. Zhiyao Xie. Previously, I received my M.Phil in microelectronics from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), advised by Prof. Hongce Zhang & Prof. Zhiyao Xie, and my B.Eng in electrical engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
My research focuses on AI for Electronic Design Automation (EDA), with the goal of advancing AI-driven paradigms for VLSI design and verification. I have published 10+ first-author papers in leading EDA and AI venues, including DAC, ICCAD, ASP-DAC, TCAD, and ICLR.
I received the inaugural LLM-Aided Design Fellowship and the 2nd Place Award in the ACM SIGDA Student Research Competition. Beyond academia, I have gained industry experience through my internship at NVIDIA Research and Peng Cheng Laboratory.
Education
PhD Electronic and Computer Engineering
2024-09
Now
HKUST
MPhil Microelectronics
2022-09
2024-08
HKUST(GZ)
BEng Electrical Engineering
2017-09
2021-06
NUAA
Interests
Research Highlight
Method View: Evolving AI for EDA Paradigms
4. Agentic AI for EDA
— Agentic Design Automation
- Self-improving agentic RTL optimization: Arxiv'26
3. Foundation AI for EDA
— Circuit Foundation Model
2. Supervised AI for EDA
— Task-Specific Learning
Task View: VLSI Design and Verification
- Design Quality: PPA Evaluation & Optimization
(first-authored publications)
Wenji Fang, Jing Wang, Yao Lu, Shang Liu, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Jing Wang, Yao Lu, Shang Liu, Yuchao Wu, Yuzhe Ma, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Wenkai Li, Shang Liu, Yao Lu, Hongce Zhang, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Shang Liu, Jing Wang, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Shang Liu, Hongce Zhang, Zhiyao Xie
Zhiyuan Yan*, Wenji Fang*, Mengming Li, Min Li, Shang Liu, Zhiyao Xie, Hongce Zhang
Wenji Fang, Yao Lu, Shang Liu, Qijun Zhang, Ceyu Xu, Lisa Wu Wills, Hongce Zhang, Zhiyao Xie
Shang Liu*, Yao Lu*, Wenji Fang*, Mengming Li, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Shang Liu, Hongce Zhang, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Yao Lu, Shang Liu, Qijun Zhang, Ceyu Xu, Lisa Wu Wills, Hongce Zhang, Zhiyao Xie
Wenji Fang, Guangyu Hu, Hongce Zhang
Experience
Research Intern
- Manager: Dr. Mark Ren
- Mentor: Dr. Rongjian Liang
- Topic: GenAI for physical design optimization
Research Assistant
- Advisor: Prof. Hongce Zhang
- Developed an symbolic simulator for CPU formal verification
VLSI Physical Design Intern
- Mentor: Prof. Biwei Xie & Prof. Yungang Bao
- “One Student One Chip” Project
- Completed the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow of an SoC
Awards
- Inaugural LAD Fellowship, 2025
- 2nd Place Award of ACM SIGDA Student Research Competition (SRC), ICCAD, 2025
- ICCAD Student Scholar Program Grant, 2023, 2025
- IEEE CASS Student Travel Grant, 2025
- IEEE CEDA Student Travel Grant, 2025
- DAC Young Fellow, 2024, 2025
- ISLAD Best Paper Nomination, 2024
- ISLAD Travel Grant, 2024
- Full Postgraduate Studentship of HKUST, 2024-Now
- 3rd Place Award of EDAthon Contest, 2023
- Full Postgraduate Studentship of HKUST(GZ), 2022-2024
- Infineon Technology Scholarship, 2020
- First Class Scholarship of NUAA, 2017-2021
Talks
- Advancing AI for EDA: from Supervised Learning to Circuit Foundation Models
- ACM SIGDA Student Research Competition (SRC) @ ICCAD, 2025
- Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Science, 2025
- RTL-Stage PPA Prediction for Early Optimization
- Synopsys, 2025
- Southeast University, 2025
- Towards Automatic and Scalable Hardware Formal Verification
- Intel, 2024
- MPhil thesis defence, 2024
Services
- Journal Reviewer
- IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD)
- ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES)
- IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems Part II: Express Briefs (TCAS-II)
- Conference Reviewer
- ICLR 2026 Workshop on AI with Recursive Self-Improvement
Teaching
- Teaching Assistant
- Introduction to Computer Organization and Design, HKUST
- Electronic Design Automation for VLSI Design, HKUST
- Logic Design Automation of Digital Systems, HKUST(GZ)