Human-Machine Collaborative Visual Synthesis

Ziqi Huang

PhD University: Nanyang Technological University

Graduation Date: August 2026

PhD Advisor: Ziwei Liu

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y3h_pzMAAAAJ&hl=en

Poster Title: Human-Machine Collaborative Visual Synthesis

First Author Papers: 3+

Requested Mentors Instructions: I understand — my preferred mentors are listed below.

Requested Mentor 1: Fei-Fei Li, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 2: Noah Snavely, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 3: Jitendra Malik, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 4: Joshua B. Tenenbaum, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 5: Alexei A. Efros, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 6: Kaiming He, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 7: William T. Freeman, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 8: Trevor Darrell, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 9: Geoffrey Hinton, [e-mail]

Requested Mentor 10: Yann LeCun, [e-mail]

Academia Or Industry: Academia

Mentor Questions:

Question 1: The Future of Academic Research in Compute-Intensive Eras

In the current era of compute-intensive AI (e.g., large-scale video generation), the resource gap between academia and industry is widening. From your perspective, should academic researchers pivot away from scaling and "leave it to industry," or is there a unique "academic niche" we must defend? How can a new faculty member build a sustainable research program without the GPU clusters of a tech giant?

Question 2: Navigating Research "Waves" and Career Longevity

The computer vision landscape undergoes rapid paradigm shifts every few years. As a mentor who has successfully navigated multiple "waves" in AI, what is your philosophy on balancing long-term research vision with the need to stay relevant in a fast-moving field? How do you distinguish between a transient hype and a foundational shift when choosing your next research direction?

Question 3: Mentorship and Finding the Right "Academic Fit"

As I prepare for the faculty job market, what are the most critical factors often overlooked when evaluating "departmental fit" beyond institutional ranking? Additionally, reflecting on your own experience, what is the single most important piece of advice for a new PI on fostering a creative and resilient lab culture for the next generation of PhD students?

Special Circumstances: potential lack of availability of travel funding from your institution

CVPR Participation: I will be presenting a paper at the main conference, I will be presenting my work at a workshop or tutorial

Previous DC Certification: I certify that I have not previously attended a Doctoral Consortium at ICCV, ECCV or CVPR.

In Person Confirmation: I confirm that I plan to attend CVPR 2026 in person.

Data Release: We authorize the release of our submission and author names to the public in the event of acceptance.

Submission Number: 116