Peng Xu Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Computer Science and Engineering The Chinese University of Hong Kong Email:pxu22@cse.cuhk.edu.hk

Biography

I build learning- and optimization-driven tools that automate analog design end to end — from circuit representation and sizing to placement, routing, and migration across process nodes — so that analog design can be reused and scaled like digital.

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow working with Professor Bei Yu in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where I also received my Ph.D. My dissertation received the Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award (Analog and Packaging) from the EDA Ecosystem Development Accelerator. I am also a research scientist at Istar Tech, developing AI-empowered methods for analog design automation. I received my M.S. from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and my B.S. from Central South University.

Besides research, I enjoy a variety of sports and activities in my spare time, including pickleball, badminton, billiards, hiking, and fitness training.

Research Interests

• Analog layout automation: performance-driven placement and routing that close the loop with circuit performance. PAPlace (TODAES'26), DiffSP and AlphaPlacer (DAC'26), PARoute (DAC'24), DaVinci and PARoute2 (TCAD'25).

• Design reuse and process migration: carrying sizing, placement and legacy layout knowledge to new designs and technology nodes. AMigration and PatchWork (ICCAD'26), MigSizer (ICCD'26), IP-Matcher (DATE'26), RSizing (ICCAD'25).

• Circuit representation and verification: learning models that respect circuit physics. KCLNet (AAAI'26 Oral), Ckt2Vec (TCAD'25), AnalogVerifier (ICML'26).

• EDA flow and design space optimization: tuning tool parameters and exploring architectures for better QoR. RankTuner (ICCAD'24, TCAD'25), RATuner (DATE'26), CausalTuner (ASPDAC'26), Rank-DSE (TODAES'25).

News

Education

• Ph.D. Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Aug 2022 - Jan 2026

• M.S. Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Sep 2019 - Jan 2022

• B.S. Software Engineering, Central South University, Sep 2015 - Jun 2019

Research Experience

• The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Feb 2026 - present
  Postdoctoral Researcher, supervised by Prof. Bei Yu

• The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ), P.R. China, Jul. 2023 - Jul. 2024
  Visiting Student
  Topic: Performance-driven Analog Placement and Routing

Professional Experience

• Istar Tech, Shenzhen, May 2024 - present
  Research Scientist
  Topic: AI Empowered Methods for Analog Automation Design

• Tencent, Shenzhen, P.R. China, Nov. 2021 - May. 2022
  Research Intern, Interactive Entertainment Group
  Topic: Graph Neural Architecture Search for Social Networks

• SenseTime, Beijing, P.R. China, Jun. 2020 - Jun. 2021
  Research Intern, Exploration and Exploitation Group
  Topic: Neural Architecture Search with Big Single-Stage Models

• Intel Asia-Pacific R. & D. Center, Shanghai, P.R. China, Jul. 2018 - Jan. 2019
  Research Intern, Data Center Group
  Topic: Select Best Model Quantization Scheme with Reinforcement Learning

Publications

Honours & Achievements

• Best Ph.D. Dissertation, Analog and Packaging, EDA Ecosystem Development Accelerator, 2026
  

• DAC Young Fellow, ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, 2026
  

• Full Postgraduate Scholarship, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2022-2026
  

• Huawei Ph.D. Scholarship, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong), 2022
  

• Outstanding Graduate Awards, Harbin Institute of Technology, 2022
  

• First-class Scholarship, Harbin Institute of Technology, 2019-2022
  

• Third Prize of CCF BDCI Competition Aliyun Database Sub-track, CCF & Aliyun, 4/684, 2019
  

• Outstanding Graduate Awards, Central South University, 2019
  

• First Prize of the Intel National Student Software Innovation Competition, The Pilot Software Engineer Schools Association & Intel, 4/5000, 2018
  

• First-class scholarship, Central South University, 2015-2019
  

Patents

• Li Huang, Mingyu Liu, Peng Xu, Chenfei Wang, “A Similarity-Based Routing Method for Target Layouts Using Original Layout Routing Information”, Chinese Patent Application No. 202511960964.5, filed Dec. 24, 2025.

Professional Service

Program Committee Member

• 2026 International Symposium of EDA (ISEDA), Analog-Mixed Signal Design Automation

• 2026 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), Cell Library Design, Partitioning, Floorplanning, and Placement

Journal Reviewer

• IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD)

• ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES)

Conference Reviewer

• 2025 IEEE/ACM Asian and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASPDAC)

• 2023 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD)

Teaching

• 2023-R1, CSCI2720, Building Web Applications,

• 2022-R2, ENGG2020, Digital Logic and Systems,

• 2022-R1, ENGG2020, Digital Logic and Systems,