Thesis: Thompson sampling-based online decision making in network routing
B.Eng. in Communication Engineering
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, China
Research Interests
Online and game-theoretic learning for sequential decision-making under limited feedback, with applications to networking and distributed systems.
Publications
Conference Publications
Z. Huang, B. Hu and J. Pan, Bridging the Regret Gap in Combinatorial Thompson Sampling: Worst-Case Guarantees and Algorithmic Refinement, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), May 2026.
Q. Zhang, Z. Huang, J. Zhao, A. Ahangarpour and J. Pan, Faster Exploration and Exploitation for Communication Environment Awareness in Starlink, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), May 2026.
Z. Huang and J. Pan, Faster Convergence for Unknown-game Bandits, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), May 2025.
Z. Huang and J. Pan, Adversarial Semi-Bandits with Moving Arms, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), May 2025.
B. Hu, Z. Huang, T. Zhang, M. Lécuyer and N. Hegde, Connecting Thompson Sampling and UCB: Towards More Efficient Trade-offs Between Privacy and Regret, International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), May 2025.
Q. Zhang, Z. Huang, J. Zhao, and J. Pan, A Congestion Control Test Suite for Real-Time Communication, ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys), Apr 2025.
Z. Huang, B. Hu, and J. Pan, Gaussian Randomized Exploration for Semi-bandits with Sleeping Arms, NeurIPS 2024 Workshop on Bayesian Decision-making and Uncertainty, Dec 2024.
F. Amri, Z. Huang, K. Liu, and J. Pan, Energy-aware Inter-data Center VM Migration over Elastic Optical Networks, IEEE International Conference on Communication (Globecom), Dec 2023.
Z. Huang and J. Pan, A Near-optimal High-probability Swap-Regret Upper Bound for Multi-agent Bandits in Unknown General-sum Games, Uncertainty of Artificial Intelligence (UAI), Aug 2023.
Z. Huang, K. Liu and J. Pan, End-to-end Congestion Control as Learning for Unknown Games, IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Jul 2023.
Z. Huang, B. Hu, and J. Pan, Poster: Multi-agent Combinatorial Bandits with Moving Arms, IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Jul 2021.
B. Hu, Y. Chen, Z. Huang, N. Mehta, and J. Pan, Intelligent Caching Algorithms in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks with Uncertainty, IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Jul 2019.
R. Liu, J. Song, Z. Huang, and J. Pan, EQRC: An Enhanced QR Code-based Secure E-coupon Transaction Framework, IEEE International Conference on Communication (ICC), May 2019.
Publications
Journal Publications
W. Yang, L. Cai, S. Shu, A. Sepahi, Z. Huang and J. Pan, QoS-driven Contextual MAB for MPQUIC Supporting Video Streaming in Mobile Networks, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), Nov 2024.
Z. Huang and J. Pan, Game-theoretic Bandits for Network Optimization with High-probability Swap-regret Upper Bounds, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON), Jul 2024.
B. Hu, Z. Huang, N. Mehta, and N. Hegde, Near-Optimal Algorithms for Differentially Private Online Learning in a Stochastic Environment, arXiv, Jul 2024.
K. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Huang, and J. Pan, Sampling-based Job Placement and Load Balancing for Heterogeneous Deep Learning Clusters, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), Apr 2024.
Z. Huang and J. Pan, Distributed Learning of Unknown Games for HetNet Selection, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering (TNSE), Jan 2024.
Z. Huang, Y. Xu, and J. Pan, TSOR: Thompson Sampling-based Opportunistic Routing, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (TWC), vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 7272-7285, May 2021.
Z. Huang, B. Hu, and J. Pan, Caching by User Preference with Delayed Feedback for Heterogeneous Cellular Networks, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (TWC), vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 1655-1667, Mar 2021.
R. Liu, J. Song, Z. Huang, and J. Pan, EQRC: A Secure QR Code-based E-coupon Framework Supporting Online and Offline Transactions, Journal of Computer Security (JCS), vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 577-605, Sep 2020.
Z. Huang, R. Zhang, J. Pan, Y. Jiang, and D. Zhai, A Framework of Multipath Clustering based on Space Transformed Fuzzy c-Means and Data Fusion for Radio Channel Modeling, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (TVT), vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 4-15, Jan 2019.
Teaching Experience
Instructor
CSC111: Fundamentals of Programming with Engineering Applications
Teaching Assistant
Lab and Tutorial Instructor for CSC361: Computer Communication and Networks
Tutorial Instructor for CSC360: Introduction to Operating Systems
Professional Activities
Program Committee
Shadow TPC member for ACM CoNEXT 2025
Reviewer
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Awards & Scholarships
Canada NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship
2025
IEEE INFOCOM 2025 Travel Award
2025
British Columbia Graduate Scholarship
2024
UVic President's Fellowship in Research-enriched Teaching