Ziran Zhang
Ziran Zhang
Researcher @ Shanghai Academy of AI for Science
Working with Prof. Siyu Zhu at SAIS Visual generation, editing & evaluation Model acceleration & inference Computational photography & imaging
Shanghai, China Ph.D. @ Zhejiang University (2025)

About Me

I am a Researcher at the Shanghai Academy of AI for Science (SAIS), where I work with Prof. Siyu Zhu. My research centers on visual generation, editing, and evaluation, with an emphasis on controllable image and video generation and reliable assessment of generated content. I also work on model acceleration and efficient inference for generative models. My earlier research focused on computational photography and imaging.

I earned my Ph.D. from Zhejiang University in June 2025. Prior to SAIS, I was a Senior Vision Algorithm Engineer at Honor, leading AI-native imaging pipelines. I was also a member of the inaugural cohort of the Pujiang National Laboratory Joint Training Ph.D. Program (2022–2025), jointly advised by Dr. Yueting Chen and Prof. Tianfan Xue.

I obtained my B.S. from Central South University, where I received the National Scholarship and was recognized as an Outstanding Graduate of Hunan Province. My Master's research at Zhejiang University was advised by Prof. Huajun Feng. Afterwards, I pursued my Ph.D. through a direct Master-to-Ph.D. program, with joint research supervision from Shanghai AI Lab.

I have collaborated with Siyu Zhu, Shi Guo, Zhihai Xu, Jinwei Gu, Yihao Liu, Xuelong Li, Qi Li, and Bin Zhao.

Research Interests

Visual Generation, Editing & Evaluation
Model Acceleration & Inference
Computational Photography & Imaging

Recent Highlights

  • 01.2025A paper is published in IEEE TGRS 2025 on physics-guided jitter-aware image restoration.
  • 12.2024A paper is published in SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 on event-based low-light frame interpolation.
  • 07.2024A paper is published in AAAI 2024 on deep restoration for linear-array imaging.
  • 10.2023A paper is published in Optics Express 2023 on computational imaging.
  • 08.2023A paper is published in IEEE TGRS 2023 on real-world imaging pipelines and restoration.
  • 06.2023A paper is published in AAAI 2023 in computer vision and imaging.
  • 11.2022A paper is published in Optics Express 2022 on deep reconstruction for interferometric imaging.

Technical Skills

Visual Generation, Editing & Evaluation

  • Image/video generation and instruction-guided editing.
  • Evaluation and alignment of generative models.

Model Acceleration & Inference

  • Acceleration and efficient inference for diffusion models.
  • Practical optimization for scalable deployment.

Computational Photography & Imaging

  • Low-light imaging, event-based vision, line-scan restoration.
  • Interferometric and optical reconstruction.
  • AI-native camera & ISP pipelines.

Selected Publications

Full list on Google Scholar.

TGRS 2025
Jitter-Aware Restoration with Equivalent Jitter Model
IEEE TGRS, 2025
Physics-guided restoration for push-broom imaging.
#remote-sensing #deblurring
AAAI 2023
Real-world Deep Local Motion Deblurring
AAAI, 2023
Spatially-varying blur modeling for dynamic scenes.
#deblurring #real-world
SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
Event-based Low-light Frame Interpolation
SIGGRAPH Asia, 2024
Sim-to-real framework for event-based low-light video.
#event-cameras #low-light
Optics Express 2023
ASF-Transformer for Atmospheric Turbulence
Optics Express, 2023
Alternating spatial-frequency learning for turbulence compensation.
#atmospheric #imaging

Industry Translation

HONOR "Da Wang Imaging": Cloud-enhanced Long-range Super-resolution

Developed and deployed a diffusion-based cloud enhancement pipeline for long-range super-resolution on HONOR Magic flagship smartphones.

Contributions included model adaptation, data and quality evaluation, artifact suppression, and efficient inference. Product details are confidential.

Experience & Education

Professional

  • 2026–Present — Researcher @ SAIS
  • 2025–2026 — Senior Vision Algorithm Engineer @ Honor
  • 2023–2025 — Trainee Researcher @ Shanghai AI Lab
  • 2022 — Media Algorithm Intern @ Huawei 2012 Lab

Education

Advisors & Collaborators

Advisors

Honors & Service

Honors

  • Outstanding Graduate of Zhejiang University (2025)
  • National Scholarship (Undergraduate, 2019)
  • Outstanding Graduate of Hunan Province (2020)

Service

  • PC Member — AAAI 2026, AAAI 2027
  • Reviewer — IEEE TCI, TGRS, Optics Express, Applied Optics, ACM MM, ECCV, ICCV, BMVC

Contact