Publications

CCF A Workshop · ^# equal contribution · ^* corresponding author

🧭 Graph-based LLM Systems

Designing cost-efficient, high-performance graph-based LLM systems spanning Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), structured agent memory, and large-scale social simulation.

HAMMER: An Automatic RAG Tuning System via Hierarchical Memory-Guided Monte Carlo Tree Search Yingli Zhou, Zixuan Wang, Yixiang Fang. SIGMOD'26 Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data.
ArchRAG: Attributed Community-based Hierarchical Retrieval-Augmented Generation Shu Wang, Yixiang Fang, Yingli Zhou, Xilin Liu, Yuchi Ma. AAAI'26 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 🎤 Oral
Clue-RAG: Towards Accurate and Cost-Efficient Graph-based RAG via Multi-Partite Graph-based Index Yaodong Su, Yixiang Fang, Yingli Zhou, Chuanhui Yang. ICDE'26 IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering.
In-depth Analysis of Graph-based RAG in a Unified Framework Yingli Zhou, Yaodong Su, Youran Sun, Shu Wang, Taotao Wang, Runyuan He, Yongwei Zhang, Sicong Liang, Xilin Liu, Yuchi Ma, Yixiang Fang. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 18(13): 5623–5637. ⭐ High-Star Project [arXiv] [Code]
Towards the Next Generation of Agent Systems: From RAG to Agentic AI Yingli Zhou, Shu Wang. VLDB-W'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, Graph+LLM Workshop.
Scalable Graph-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation via Locality-Sensitive Hashing Fangyuan Zhang, Zhengjun Huang, Yingli Zhou^*, Qingtian Guo, Wensheng Luo, Xiaofang Zhou. VLDB-W'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, Graph+LLM Workshop.

🔨 Large (Language) Models for Data

Advancing database system optimizations and data management through the application of pre-trained models and LLMs, covering pivotal tasks such as dataset search, cardinality estimation, latency prediction, and automated testing.

Lamba: A Pretrained Model for Latency Prediction over Distributed Databases Yingli Zhou^#, Tianjing Zeng^#, Rong Zhu, Yingze Li, Junwei Lan, Zhewei Wei, Yixiang Fang, Bolin Ding, Jingren Zhou. VLDBJ'26 The VLDB Journal.
LLM-Based Test Case Generation in DBMS through Monte Carlo Tree Search Yujia Chen, Yingli Zhou, Fangyuan Zhang, Cuiyun Gao. ICSE'26 International Conference on Software Engineering, Industry Challenge Track. 🏆 Best Paper Award
PRICE: A Pretrained Model for Cross-Database Cardinality Estimation Tianjing Zeng, Junwei Lan, Jiahong Ma, Wenqing Wei, Rong Zhu, Yingli Zhou, Pengfei Li, Bolin Ding, Defu Lian, Zhewei Wei, Jingren Zhou. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 18(3): 637–650.

⚡️ Graph Mining & Algorithms

Developing highly efficient and scalable algorithms for graph mining and graph data management, including densest subgraph discovery, community search, and clique counting/listing.

Efficient Anchored Densest Subgraph Discovery: Improved Time Complexity and Practical Performance Yingli Zhou, Youran Sun, Yixiang Fang. SIGMOD'26 Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data.
A Semantics-aware Approach for Graph Edit Distance Estimation over Knowledge Graphs Yingli Zhou, HuiZhong Wang, Chenhao Ma, Yixiang Fang. VLDB'26 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 19(6): 1226–1239.
Scalable Approximate Biclique Counting over Large Bipartite Graphs Jingbang Chen^#, Weinuo Li^#, Yingli Zhou^#, Hangrui Zhou, Qiuyang Mang, Can Wang, Yixiang Fang, Chenhao Ma. VLDB'26 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment.
Accelerated Coordinate Descent for Directed Densest Subgraph Discovery Luocheng Liang, Yingli Zhou, Yixiang Fang. KDD'26 ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.
Efficient Influential Community Search over Dynamic Graphs Youran Sun, Yingli Zhou, Yixiang Fang, Cheng Chen, Yongmin Hu, Yingqian Hu. SIGMOD'26 Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data.
Effective Durable Community Search in Large Temporal Graph Yingli Zhou^#, Yige Jiang^#, Yixiang Fang, Wensheng Luo, Yongmin Hu, Yingqian Hu, Cheng Chen. VLDB'26 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment.
Efficient and Scalable Directed Densest Subgraph Discovery Yingli Zhou, Luocheng Liang, Yixiang Fang. SIGMOD'26 Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data.
Efficient 𝑘-Clique Densest Subgraph Discovery: Towards Bridging Practice and Theory Yingli Zhou^#, Qingshuo Guo^#, Yixiang Fang. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 18(10): 3490–3503.
UTCS: Effective Unsupervised Temporal Community Search with Pre-training of Temporal Dynamics and Subgraph Knowledge Yue Zhang, Yankai Chen, Yingli Zhou, Yucan Guo, Xiaolin Han, Chenhao Ma. SIGIR'25 International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval.
Efficient Historical Butterfly Counting in Large Temporal Bipartite Networks via Graph Structure-aware Index Qiuyang Mang, Jingbang Chen, Hangrui Zhou, Yu Gao, Yingli Zhou, Qingyu Shi, Richard Peng, Yixiang Fang, Chenhao Ma. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 18(6): 1607–1620.
In-depth Analysis of Densest Subgraph Discovery in a Unified Framework Yingli Zhou, Qingshuo Guo, Yi Yang, Yixiang Fang, Chenhao Ma, Laks V.S. Lakshmanan. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 18(4): 1131–1144.
Efficient Maximal Motif-Clique Enumeration over Large Heterogeneous Information Networks Yingli Zhou, Yixiang Fang, Chenhao Ma, Tianci Hou, Xin Huang. VLDB'24 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 17(11): 2946–2959.
Efficient Parallel D-core Decomposition at Scale Wensheng Luo, Yixiang Fang, Chunxu Lin, Yingli Zhou. VLDB'24 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 17(10): 2654–2667.
A Counting-based Approach for Efficient 𝑘-Clique Densest Subgraph Discovery Yingli Zhou, Qingshuo Guo, Yixiang Fang, Chenhao Ma. SIGMOD'24 Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data, 2(3): 156:2–156:27.
Influential Community Search over Large Heterogeneous Information Networks Yingli Zhou, Yixiang Fang, Wensheng Luo, Yunming Ye. VLDB'23 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 16(8): 2047–2059. [Paper] [Code]

⚙️ Database Systems & Industry Applications

Bridging theoretical research with industrial practice by building scalable, real-time data processing engines and robust database architectures for modern data warehouses.

Streaming View: An Efficient Data Processing Engine for Modern Real-time Data Warehouse of Alibaba Cloud Fangyuan Zhang, Mengqi Wu, Chunlei Xu, Yunong Bao, Jiyu Qiao, Yingli Zhou, Hua Fan, Caihua Yin, Wenchao Zhou, Feifei Li. VLDB'25 Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment.