👤 About Me

I am Ji Guan, an Associate Professor at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2014, I received my bachelor’s degree in computational mathematics from Sichuan University, China, and then obtained my Ph.D. degree in quantum computing supervised by Prof. Mingsheng Ying and Prof. Yuan Feng from Centre for Quantum Software and Information of University of Technology Sydney, Australia in 2018.

I am leading the group of FM4QC, Formal Methods for Quantum Computing. My research focus on systematically addressing the security, privacy, and reliability of quantum algorithm, program, and hardware systems by developing formal method (verification) theories, algorithms, and tools. By extending formal methods — a branch of computer science celebrated with multiple Turing Awards — to the quantum domain, I ensure that quantum systems operate reliably, securely, and efficiently.

👉 Learn More About My Research

📰 Latest News

• [2025-11] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of QCNC 2026 and please submit your paper.
• [2025-10] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of CAV 2026 and please submit your paper.
• [2025-09] 🏆Awarded CCF–QuantumCTek Quantum Superconducting Quantum Computing Collaborative Research Project.
• [2025-09] 📄 Paper Accepted — Our paper “Approximation Methods for Simulation and Equivalence Checking of Noisy Quantum Circuits” has been accepted at IEEE TCAD. 📄 arXiv:2503.10340
• [2025-08] 📄 Paper Accepted — Our paper “Checking continuous stochastic logic against quantum continuous-time Markov chains” has been accepted at Logical Methods in Computer Science (LMCS). 📄 arXiv:2202.05412
• [2025-07] 📄 Paper Accepted — My solo author paper “Optimal Mechanisms for Quantum Local Differential Privacy” has been accepted at ACM CCS 2025. 📄 arXiv:2407.1351
• [2025-06] 📄 Talk Accepted — My talk “Certifying Adversarial Robustness in Quantum Machine Learning: From Theory to Physical Validation “ has been accepted at The First Workshop on Verification of Quantum Computing VQC 2025
• [2025-06] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of SETSS 2025.
• [2025-06] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of ChinaSoft 2025.
• [2025-05] 📄 New Paper — Experimental robustness benchmark of quantum neural network on a superconducting quantum processor 📄 arXiv:2505.16714

In collaboration with USTC, we experimentally evaluated the adversarial robustness of 20-qubit quantum neural networks on the Wukong superconducting quantum computer. The study includes training, adversarial attacks, adversarial learning, and robustness certification on both classical and quantum datasets. Results show that QNNs possess intrinsic robustness advantages, and adversarial training significantly enhances their resilience. Our experiments also validate the tightness of theoretical fidelity-based robustness bounds.

• [2025-03] 🏆 Award Received: I received the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program (中国科协青年人才托举工程), CAST (China Association for Science and Technology).
• [2024-12] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of CAV 2025.
• [2024-11] 📢 PC Member: I serve as a PC member of QCNC 2025.
• [2024-04] 📄 Paper Accepted: Our paper “Measurement-based Verification of Quantum Markov Chains” has been accepted at CAV 2024.
• [2023-11] 📄 New Publication: “Detecting Violations of Differential Privacy for Quantum Algorithms” is published in ACM CCS 2023.
• [2023-05] 🏆 Award Received: I received the Beijing High-Level Overseas Talent Program Award.

👉 See More News

🎓 Join Our Team

I am actively engaged in the interdisciplinary research of quantum computing and formal methods. We are recruiting Master’s and Ph.D. students, research interns, and postdoctoral researchers to explore areas such as:

• Quantum system model checking
• Quantum privacy protection mechanisms
• Trustworthy quantum machine learning algorithms

👉 Learn More about our research directions, benefits, and how to apply!

🏆 Awards and Honors

• 2024 🎖 Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program (中国科协青年人才托举工程), China Association for Science and Technology
  Recommended by China Computer Federation (CCF), only 5 scholars.
• 2023 🎓 Beijing High-Level Overseas Talent Program (Top 30 people)
  Recognized for outstanding contributions in the field of quantum computing and formal methods.
• 2023 🌟 ISCAS Outstanding Youth Award
  Awarded by the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
• 2022 🚀 Youth Innovation Promotion Association Membership (CAS)
  Acknowledging innovative achievements in quantum system verification and trustworthy quantum machine learning.
• 2014-2018 📚 UTS ARC Discovery Scholarship
  Awarded during Ph.D. study at the University of Technology Sydney.
• 2018 🎖 UTS FEIT PhD Post-Thesis Publication Scholarship
  Recognized for exceptional research contributions post-thesis submission of the University of Technology Sydney.

📚 Selected Publications

1. Guan, J., Feng, Y., Turrini, A., and Ying, M. (2024).
   Measurement-based Verification of Quantum Markov Chains.
   CAV 2024.
   🔗 Full Paper

2. Guan, J., Fang, W., and Ying, M. (2022).
   Verifying Fairness in Quantum Machine Learning.
   CAV 2022
   🔗 Full Paper

3. Guan, J., Fang, W., and Ying, M. (2021).
   Robustness Verification of Quantum Classifiers.
   CAV 2021
   🔗 Full Paper

4. Guan, J. (2025).
   Optimal Mechanisms for Quantum Local Differential Privacy.
   ACM CCS 2025.
   🔗 Full Paper

5. Guan, J., Fang, W., Huang, M., and Ying, M. (2023).
   Detecting Violations of Differential Privacy for Quantum Algorithms.
   ACM CCS 2023.
   🔗 Full Paper

6. Bei, X., Chen, S., Guan, J., Qiao, Y., and Sun, X. (2021).
   From Independent Sets and Vertex Colorings to Isotropic Spaces and Isotropic Decompositions.
   SIAM Journal on Computing
   🔗 Full Paper

7. Wang, Q., Zhang, Z., Chen, K., Guan, J., Fang, W., Liu, J., and Ying, M. (2022).
   Quantum Algorithm for Fidelity Estimation.
   IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.
   🔗 Full Paper

8. Wang, Q., Guan, J., Liu, J., Zhang, Z., and Ying, M. (2022).
   New Quantum Algorithms for Computing Quantum Entropies and Distances.
   IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.
   🔗 Full Paper

9. Lin, Y., Guan, J., Fang, W., Ying, M., and Su, Z. (2024).
   A Robustness Verification Tool for Quantum Machine Learning Models.
   FM 2024
   🔗 Full Paper
10. Huang, M., Guan, J.; Fang, W.; Ying, M. Approximation Methods for Simulation and Equivalence Checking of Noisy Quantum Circuits IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems 🔗 Full Paper

👉 View Full Publication List

🛠 Service

As part of my academic and professional responsibilities, I contribute to the scientific community through roles as a Program Committee (PC) Member and Reviewer for various prestigious conferences and journals.

📋 Program Committee Member

• CAV 2025 - International Conference on Computer Aided Verification
• QCNC 2025 - International Conference on Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing

📝 Reviewer

I have served as a reviewer for several top-tier journals and conferences, including:
ASPLOS 2025, CDC 2024, QIP2024, CSL 2024, AQIS 2023, CAV 2021, IEEE QCE 2022, 2023 and 2024, PLanQC 2021, QPL 2020, COCOON 2018 and 2019, ICFEM 2019, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, the Science Bulletin, Journal of Computer Science and Technology, Information Processing Letters, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence

👥 Our Team

🎓 Ph.D. Students

• Mingyu Huang
• Zihao Li

📚 Master’s Students

• Zhengyang Zhou
• Yecheng Qin
• Yi Zhan

🌍 Visiting Scholars

• Peng Yan
• Jingyi Mei

🧑‍💻 Interns

• Yanling Lin

💰 Funding Support

As a Principal Investigator, I have secured 8 competitive research grants from the following departments:

• 🏅 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• 🏛 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
• 🏙 Beijing City Government
• 🎓 Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences