University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Bachelor’s in Computer Science
GPA: 4.0/4.0
Zelin Li
Computer Science student at the University of Minnesota, focused on efficient LLM systems and zeroth-order optimization.
Education
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Artificial Intelligence
GPA: 3.85/4.0 · Rank: 1/180
Research Experience
Research Assistant
University of Minnesota · Prof. Caiwen Ding
- Developing inference-native execution methods for zeroth-order optimization in LLM systems.
- Studying structured search spaces, mini-batch noise, and efficient candidate-state evaluation.
Research Assistant
University of Minnesota · Prof. Zirui Liu, with Wenya Xie
- Implemented and evaluated long-horizon memory systems including HippoRAG and SimpleMem.
- Contributed to benchmark construction, data auditing, experimental analysis, and manuscript preparation.
Publications & Preprints
Inference-Native Zeroth-Order Optimization
Zelin Li, Caiwen Ding
arXiv:2605.28760, 2026
Sample-Stable Subspaces and Mini-Batch Noise in Zeroth-Order Fine-Tuning
Zelin Li, Caiwen Ding
Preprint, 2026
DynamicMem: A Long-Horizon Memory Benchmark in Real-World Settings
Wenya Xie, Shengming Zhou, Zelin Li, et al.
arXiv:2606.22877, 2026
Selected Projects
zo-vLLM
An inference-native system for zeroth-order optimization of large language models.
Python · PyTorch · vLLMEasyLocomo
A unified interface and reproducible benchmark framework for long-horizon LLM memory systems.
Python · PyTorch · LLM evaluationAuto-Chronicle Gaokao
A 120-week state-machine narrative engine with a multi-agent classroom simulation.
Python · LLM APIs · AgentsHonors & Awards
- National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China (5/470), 2024
- ICPC Asia Shenyang Regional Silver Medal (84/399), 2024
- CCPC Harbin Bronze Medal, 2024
- CCPC Beijing Bronze Medal, 2024
- NOIP Shanxi First Prize, 2021
Technical Skills
- Programming
- Python, C++
- Frameworks
- PyTorch, vLLM, Hugging Face Transformers
- Tools
- Linux, Git