Zheng Yu (于ε³₯)

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

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About Me (CV)

My name is Zheng Yu. I am currently a Security Research Engineer at DepthFirst. I am working on building AI systems to enhance the security of software and system. My goal is to enhance the security of programs with minimal human intervention.


I completed my PhD in the Computer Science department at Northwestern University, advised by Prof. Xinyu Xing. 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 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

Publications

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Talks

Work & Teaching Experience

  • DepthFirst Mar. 2026 – Present

    Security Research Engineer San Francisco, CA, USA

    AI Security Team

  • CertiK Jan. 2026 – Mar. 2026

    Security Researcher New York, NY, USA

    Smart Contract Security Team

  • Northwestern University Sep. 2025 – Dec. 2025

    Teaching Assistant Evanston, IL, USA

    Operating Systems (COMP_SCI 343), Instructor: Dr. Branden Ghena

  • University of Waterloo Jun. 2025 – Sep. 2025

    Visiting Graduate Researcher Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    CrySP Lab, Advisor: Prof. Meng Xu

  • Northwestern University Sep. 2024 – Dec. 2024

    Teaching Assistant Evanston, IL, USA

    Introduction to Computer Security (COMP_SCI 350), Instructor: Prof. Xinyu Xing

  • Google Summer of Code Apr. 2022 – Oct. 2022

    GSOC Project Mentor Remote

    Bridging Qiling and Static Analysis

  • JD.COM, Inc. Jun. 2021 – May 2022

    Security Engineer Beijing, China

    Application Security Team - Firmware Emulation

  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University Sep. 2019 – May 2021

    Infrastructure Engineer Shanghai, China

    Information and Network Center

  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University Jun. 2019 – Sep. 2019

    Teaching Assistant Shanghai, China

    Programming Design and Data Structures (CS151), Instructor: Prof. Huiyu Weng

Honors & Awards

  • CSAW Applied Research Competition Finalist & Technical Impact Award Runner-up 2025

    NYU Tandon School of Engineering - PatchAgent Project

  • USENIX Security Student Grant Recipient 2024, 2025

    USENIX Association

  • DARPA AIxCC Advanced Finals 2024

    Top Finalist - Team 42-b3yond-6ug

  • ACM CCS Student Grant Recipient 2024

    ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

  • DEFCON CTF Finals - 5th Place 2023

    Team StrawHat (7th Place in 2022)

  • Outstanding Graduate Award 2022

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  • Zhiyuan Honor Scholarship 2018-2021

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Top 2% annually)

  • China National Olympiad in Informatics - Silver Medal 2017

    China Computer Federation (CCF) - Top 100 Nationally

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