About Me
I am a first-year Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Northwestern Polytechnical University, co-advised by Prof. Yunji Liang and Prof. Bin Guo, and mentored by Zhenfei Yin. My research focuses on building autonomous AI agents that collaborate, negotiate, and conduct scientific discovery — from multi-agent market simulations to automated research workflows.
Prior to my doctoral studies, I received my B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Harbin Engineering University in 2025, where I achieved national-level awards in algorithm competitions organized by Huawei, Baidu, and Tencent.
Research Interests
- Agent Society: Understanding and modeling complex interactions in multi-agent environments
- AI Scientists: Developing autonomous systems capable of conducting scientific research and discovery
- GUI Agents: Building intelligent agents that can interact with and operate graphical user interfaces
News
- [May 2026] Our paper “Strategic Exploitation in LLM Agent Markets: A Simulation Framework for E-Commerce Trust” is on arXiv
- [May 2026] Our paper “Truth or Tribe: How In-group Favoritism Prioritize Facts in Persona Agents” is on arXiv
- [Aug 2025] Started Ph.D. program at Northwestern Polytechnical University
- [Aug 2025] Won 1st Prize in Tencent Kaiwu AI Competition (Northeast Regional)
- [Jul 2025] Graduated from Harbin Engineering University with B.S. in Mathematics
- [Apr 2025] Joined CETC Cyberspace Research Institute as a research intern
Selected Publications
* Equal contribution, † Corresponding author
-
Strategic Exploitation in LLM Agent Markets: A Simulation Framework for E-Commerce Trust
Shijun Lei*, Quang Nguyen*, Swapneel S Mehta*, Zeping Li, Huichuan Fu, Xiaolong Zheng, Siki Chen, Yunji Liang†, Philip Torr, Zhenfei Yin†
arXiv, 2026.
[Paper] [GitHub] -
Truth or Tribe: How In-group Favoritism Prioritize Facts in Persona Agents
Shijun Lei, Hongyu Wang, Yunji Liang†, Haowen Zheng, Bin Guo, Zhiwen Yu
arXiv, 2025.
[Paper] [GitHub]
Experience
- Research Intern
CETC Cyberspace Research Institute, Beijing, China
Institute of Social Computing, Frontier Technology Lab
April 2025 - August 2025
Honors & Awards
- Tencent Kaiwu AI Competition, 1st Prize, Northeast Regional Competition (2025)
- Huawei Software Elite Challenge, 2nd Prize (Top 32), Beijing-Tianjin-Northeast Region (2024, 2025)
- Baidu National University Student Intelligent Vehicle Competition, National 2nd Prize (2024)
- National University Student Mathematical Modeling Competition, Provincial 2nd Prize (2023, 2024)
Contact & Collaboration
If you would like to have a random (virtual) coffee chat with me, please visit my calendly page. I am happy to talk if you want to share your stress or just want to chat about life in general (when I have time), but be sure to check out the Calendly.