Ding Zou   |   邹定🧑‍🚀

Hi, I'm Ding Zou. I currently work as a Large Language Model Algorithm Engineer (Team Leader) at ZTE Corporation for the Blue Sword Project, where I lead a research team focusing on Agentic Training research (Algorithm & Infra). I hold a Master's degree in Computer Science and Technology (2021–2024) and a Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering (2017–2021), both from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

My research spans multimodal large language models, reinforcement learning post-training, embodied intelligence, and knowledge-aware recommendation.

Portrait of Ding Zou
News
  • May 2026One paper in terms of TeleCom-domain benchmark is accepted by KDD'26.
  • Apr. 2026One paper in terms of LLM post-training is accepted by ACL'26.
  • Jan. 2026One paper in terms of Graph RAG is accepted by ICLR'26.
  • Nov. 2025One paper in terms of MLLM data sampling is accepted by AAAI'26.
  • Oct. 2025One technical report in terms of embodied AI is published.
  • Aug. 2025One paper in terms of MLLM reasoning is accepted by EMNLP'25.
  • Jul. 2024Joined ZTE Corporation for the Blue Sword Project.
  • Feb. 2024One paper in terms of KG recommendation is accepted by WWW'24.
  • Jan. 2024One paper in terms of sequential recommendation is accepted by Pattern Recognition.
  • Nov. 2023One paper in terms of bundle recommendation is accepted by TKDE.
  • Aug. 2022One paper in terms of KG recommendation is accepted by CIKM'22.
  • Jul. 2022One paper in terms of KG recommendation is accepted by SIGIR'22.
  • Feb. 2022One paper in terms of bundle recommendation is accepted by AAAI'22.
Publications

† Equal contribution. * Corresponding author. See my Google Scholar for the full list.

TeleCom-Bench method overview
TeleCom-Bench overview
TeleCom-Bench: How Far Are Large Language Models from Industrial Telecommunication Applications?
Jieting Xiao, Yun Lin, Huizhen Qiu, Rui Ma, Chen Zhong, Dongyang Xu, Xiao Long, Chaoyu Zhang, Qiaobo Hao, Ding Zou, Zhiguo Yang, Yanqin Gao, Fang Tan
Paper
KDD 2026

A systematic benchmark evaluating how far large language models are from real-world industrial telecommunication applications.

Dynamic policy optimization method
Bridging SFT and RL overview
Bridging SFT and RL: Dynamic Policy Optimization for Robust Reasoning
Taojie Zhu, Dongyang Xu, Ding Zou, Sen Zhao, Qiaobo Hao, Zhiguo Yang, Yonghong He
Paper
ACL 2026 Findings

Proposes a dynamic policy optimization scheme that bridges SFT and RL post-training for robust LLM reasoning.

Cell complex-augmented generation method
Topology of Reasoning overview
Topology of Reasoning: Retrieved Cell Complex-Augmented Generation for Textual Graph Question Answering
Sen Zhao, Lincheng Zhou, Yue Chen, Ding Zou
Paper
ICLR 2026

Augments retrieval-augmented generation with retrieved cell complexes to support topological reasoning over textual graphs.

Hierarchical post-training framework
Difficulty-distinguish data sampling overview
Revisiting the Data Sampling in Multimodal Post-training from a Difficulty-Distinguish View
Jianyu Qi, Ding Zou, Wenrui Yan, Rui Ma, Jiaxu Li, Zhijie Zheng, Zhiguo Yang, Rongchang Zhao
Paper
AAAI 2026

Revisits multimodal RL post-training data sampling from a difficulty-distinguish perspective, with two complementary difficulty metrics (PISM & CMAB) and a hierarchical post-training framework.

EmbodiedBrain framework
EmbodiedBrain overview
EmbodiedBrain: Expanding Performance Boundaries of Task Planning for Embodied Intelligence
Ding Zou, Feifan Wang, Mengyu Ge, Siyuan Fan, Zongbing Zhang, Wei Chen, Lingfeng Wang, Zhongyou Hu, Wenrui Yan, Zhengwei Gao, Hao Wang, Weizhao Jin, Yu Zhang, Hainan Zhao, Mingliang Zhang, Xianxian Xi, Yaru Zhang, Wenyuan Li, Zhengguang Gao, Yurui Zhu
Paper
arXiv 2025 (Technical Report)

A large-scale embodied planning model trained with multimodal post-training and Step-GRPO reinforcement learning, significantly outperforming RoboBrain2.0 on multimodal reasoning, spatial perception, and task planning benchmarks.

Curriculum reinforcement learning method
Curriculum RL overview
Boosting the Generalization and Reasoning of Vision Language Models with Curriculum Reinforcement Learning
Huilin Deng, Ding Zou, Rui Ma, Hongchen Luo, Yang Cao, Yu Kang
Paper
EMNLP 2025 Findings

Introduces a curriculum reinforcement learning strategy from the reward-acquisition-difficulty perspective, enabling a Qwen2.5VL-3B model to outperform InternVL2.5-26B on multiple general benchmarks.

InKT framework (Figure 2)
Knowledge Enhanced Multi-intent Transformer Network for Recommendation
Ding Zou, Wei Wei, Feida Zhu, Chuanyu Xu, Tao Zhang, Chengfu Huo
Paper
WWW 2024 (Industry Track)

A knowledge-enhanced multi-intent transformer that integrates global heterogeneous information to model user intents while selectively filtering intent-irrelevant knowledge triples.

Hierarchical intent disentanglement framework (Figure 2)
Towards Hierarchical Intent Disentanglement for Bundle Recommendation
Ding Zou, Sen Zhao, Wei Wei, Xian-Ling Mao, Ruixuan Li, Dangyang Chen, Rui Fang, Yuanyuan Fu
Paper
IEEE TKDE 2024

Disentangles user intents hierarchically for more accurate bundle recommendation.

Session-based recommendation framework
Exploring Global Information for Session-based Recommendation
Ziyang Wang, Wei Wei, Ding Zou, Yifan Liu, Xiao-Li Li, Xian-Ling Mao, Minghui Qiu
Paper
Pattern Recognition 2024

Explores global information beyond the current session to improve session-based recommendation.

Multi-level interactive contrastive learning framework
Improving Knowledge-aware Recommendation with Multi-level Interactive Contrastive Learning
Ding Zou, Wei Wei, Ziyang Wang, Xian-Ling Mao, Feida Zhu, Rui Fang, Dangyang Chen
Paper
CIKM 2022

A multi-level interactive contrastive learning framework that enhances knowledge-aware recommendation with self-supervised signals.

MCCLK model framework
Multi-level Cross-view Contrastive Learning for Knowledge-aware Recommender System
Ding Zou, Wei Wei, Xian-Ling Mao, Ziyang Wang, Minghui Qiu, Feida Zhu, Xin Cao
Paper
SIGIR 2022

Studies the sparse supervision problem in knowledge-aware recommender systems with a multi-level cross-view contrastive learning framework.

Multi-view intent disentangle graph networks
Multi-view Intent Disentangle Graph Networks for Bundle Recommendation
Sen Zhao, Wei Wei, Ding Zou, Xianling Mao
Paper
AAAI 2022

Disentangles latent user intents from multiple views with graph neural networks for bundle recommendation.


Experience
ZTE Corporation, BlueSword Program
2024.07 - Present
Algorithm Expert — Large Language Model Algorithm Engineer (Team Leader), Agentic Training research (Algorithm & Infra)
Alibaba 1688
2023.05 - 2023.09
Recommendation Algorithm Intern
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Computer Science and Technology
2021.09 - 2024.07
M.S. in Computer Science and Technology
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Electronic Information and Communications
2017.09 - 2021.07
B.E. in Electronic Engineering

Service

  • Program Chairs / Committee: AAAI'27, EMNLP'26, ACL'26, COLM'26, ICME'26, AAAI'26, EMNLP'25, WWW'25, etc.
  • Journal Reviewers: TKDE, Knowledge Based System, Information Fusion, etc.

  • Awards and Honors

  • 2023: National Scholarship
  • ✅ Copied