Zheng Yu (于峥)

Daily immersion in evil leads to withering; the diligent pursuit of goodness leads to flourishing.

Email / Github / Google Scholar / DBLP / Blog / ORCID / Gallery / X / Red / Linkedin

About Me (CV)

My name is Zheng Yu. I am a PhD candidate in the Computer Science department at Northwestern University, advised by Prof. Xinyu Xing. My research interests include System Security and AI Security. My goal is to enhance the security of programs with minimal human intervention.


I obtained my bachelor's degree from the ACM Honor Class at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, majoring in Computer Science. My advisor was Prof. Chao Li. Additionally, I was also very fortunate to be advised by Prof. Meng Xu at the University of Waterloo and Prof. Yinqian Zhang at SUSTech during my research visits.


Besides, I am very interested in and good at algorithm design. I was an OIer when I was studying at Yali. I am also a CTF player; I used to play CTF with Nu1L and StrawHat.


Outside of research, I enjoy traveling and painting, including watercolor and sketching. Here is a gallery that is still under construction.

News

  • [2025.09] PortGPT is accepted to S&P 2026!

  • [2025.08] Our team, 42-b3yond-6ug, won rank 6 at AIxCC Finals!

  • [2025.06] Awarded Student Grant from USENIX Security 2025!

  • [2025.01] PatchAgent is accepted to USENIX Security 2025!

  • [2024.12] I got the Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University!

  • [2024.10] I passed the PhD qualifying exam at Northwestern University! Here is my presentation.

  • [2024.09] Awarded Student Grant from CCS 2024!

  • [2024.08] Our team, 42-b3yond-6ug, won the AIxCC Semi-Finals and was awarded $2 million. I had the honor of designing the program repair system for the competition.

  • [2024.07] Awarded Student Grant from USENIX Security 2024!

  • [2024.06] LLM-Fuzzer is accepted to USENIX Security 2024!

  • [2024.05] ShadowBound is accepted to USENIX Security 2024!

  • [2024.02] Our team, 42-b3yond-6ug, received funding of $1 million from AIxCC.

  • [2023.09] CAMP is accepted to USENIX Security 2024!

Publications

* indicates equal contribution.

Talks

Media Coverage

Work & Teaching Experience

  • Visiting Researcher June. 2025 – Sept. 2025


    Advisor: Meng Xu University of Waterloo

  • Teaching Assistant Sep. 2024 – Dec. 2024


    Introduction to Computer Security (COMP_SCI 350) Northwestern University

  • GSOC Project Mentor Apr. 2022 – Oct. 2022


    Bridging Qiling and Static Analysis Google Summer of Code 2022

  • Security Engineer Jun. 2021 – Jun. 2022


    Firmware Emulation JD.COM.

  • Website Operation June. 2019 – Sept. 2019


    Development and Maintenance of ACM SJTU Website & SJTU Online Judge Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  • Teaching Assistant June. 2019 – Sept. 2019


    Programming Design Course (CS151) Shanghai Jiao Tong University