About

I make large language models cheaper to train, to serve, and to run as agents.

I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), advised by Prof. Zheng Zhang. Before that I received my B.Eng. in Microelectronics from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), advised by Prof. Hao Yu.

My research is on efficient large language models: the Muon optimizer family and its low-bit states for pre-training, quantization and sparsity for inference, and the context that long-horizon agents carry. I also enjoy bridging machine learning and hardware, from GPU/FPGA kernels to compiler co-design for edge AI.

I am actively looking for 2027 research internships on efficient LLM training, inference and agents (summer or during the semester). Feel free to reach out at yupengsu@ucsb.edu.

News

  1. 2026.08 🎉 Our paper Muon² is accepted by EMNLP 2026 as an Oral presentation.
  2. 2026.07 🎉 Our papers MuonQ and RankGuide are accepted by COLM 2026.
  3. 2025.07 🎉 Our paper LLM-Barber is accepted by IEEE/ACM ICCAD 2025.
  4. 2025.05 🎉 Our paper EdgeLLM is accepted by IEEE TCAS-I: Regular Papers.
  5. 2025.02 🎓 I have been admitted to the PhD program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)!
  6. 2024.09 🤝 Joined the HKU Next Gen AI (NGai) Lab as a Student RA, collaborating with PolyU Prof. Hongxia Yang’s Lab.
  7. 2024.02 🎉 Our paper APTQ is accepted by IEEE/ACM DAC 2024.

Publications

citations245

★ first author·* equal contribution

Education & Experience

🎓 Education

2025.09 – Present Ph.D. in Computer Science University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Advised by Prof. Zheng Zhang.
2021.09 – 2025.07 B.Eng. in Microelectronics Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Advised by Prof. Hao Yu.
2018.09 – 2021.06 High School The First High School of Changsha, Hunan

💻 Experience

2024.11 – 2025.05 Student Research Assistant Prof. Hongxia Yang's Lab, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
2024.08 – 2025.02 Student Research Assistant Next Gen AI (NGai) Lab, The University of Hong Kong (HKU)
2024.06 – 2024.09 Summer Intern High Performance Integrated Circuit Design Lab, SUSTech

Earlier projects

Honors & Awards

  • 2025.07Nominee of Top Ten Graduates, Southern University of Science and Technology.
  • 2025.07Guo Xie Birong Scholarship for Academic Excellence, SUSTech.
  • 2025.06Top Ten Graduates of the College of Engineering, SUSTech.
  • 2022–2024First-Class Merit Student Scholarship (three consecutive years), SUSTech.
  • 2023.12Future Star, Ministry of Education – Huawei Smart Base Project.