Zitong Zhan is a Ph.D. student with Dean’s Fellowship at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), University at Buffalo (UB), advised by Prof. Chen Wang. His research focuses on GPU-accelerated optimization, 3D reconstruction, and learning-based visual geometry for SLAM and robotics. He received the SAIR STAR Award 2024, which is the highest honor in SAIR Lab.

Education

Ph.D., Computer Science, University at Buffalo (UB), NY, USA, Aug. 2023 - Present
M.S., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL, USA, Aug. 2021 - May. 2023
B.S., Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, WI, USA, Aug. 2018 - May 2021

Experience

Applied Scientist Intern, Amazon, Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Developed a feed-forward 3D reconstruction pipeline combining learned models with geometric priors for camera trajectory estimation and mapping.
Researched robust indoor visual-inertial odometry and developed loop closure and place recognition methods to reduce trajectory drift in challenging home environments.

Awards

IROS Best Paper Award on Cognitive Robotics, 2026
Dean’s Fellowship
SAIR STAR Award 2024

Publications

First-Author Publications

Bundle Adjustment in the Eager Mode.
Zitong Zhan, Huan Xu, Zihang Fang, Xinpeng Wei, Yaoyu Hu, Chen Wang.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2026.

A GPU implementation achieving 20x speedup
```
@article{zhan2026bundle,
  title = {Bundle Adjustment in the Eager Mode},
  author = {Zhan, Zitong and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Wei, Xinpeng and Hu, Yaoyu and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.12190},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/bae},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/bae/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2026-03-24-bae/bae.gif},
  video = {https://youtu.be/ONH7qYGRdFc},
  addendum = {A GPU implementation achieving 20x speedup}
}
```
```
Zhan, Zitong and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Wei, Xinpeng and Hu, Yaoyu and Wang, Chen, "Bundle Adjustment in the Eager Mode," IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2026.
```
iMatching: Imperative Correspondence Learning.
Zitong Zhan, Dasong Gao, Yun-Jou Lin, Youjie Xia, Chen Wang.
European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), pp. 183–200, 2024.

A self-supervised feature learning approach pushes SOTA by 30% accuracy gain
```
@inproceedings{zhan2024imatching,
  title = {{iMatching}: Imperative Correspondence Learning},
  author = {Zhan, Zitong and Gao, Dasong and Lin, Yun-Jou and Xia, Youjie and Wang, Chen},
  booktitle = {European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV)},
  year = {2024},
  pages = {183--200},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.02141},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/iMatching},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/iMatching},
  cover = {/img/posts/2024-07-03-imatching/imatching.gif},
  addendum = {A self-supervised feature learning approach pushes SOTA by 30\% accuracy gain}
}
```
```
Zhan, Zitong and Gao, Dasong and Lin, Yun-Jou and Xia, Youjie and Wang, Chen, "iMatching: Imperative Correspondence Learning," European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 2024.
```
PyPose v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics.
Zitong Zhan, Xiangfu Li, Qihang Li, Haonan He, Abhinav Pandey, Haitao Xiao, Yangmengfei Xu, Xiangyu Chen, Kuan Xu, Kun Cao, Zhipeng Zhao, Zihan Wang, Huan Xu, Zihang Fang, Yutian Chen, Wentao Wang, Xu Fang, Yi Du, Tianhao Wu, Xiao Lin, Yuheng Qiu, Fan Yang, Jingnan Shi, Shaoshu Su, Yiren Lu, Taimeng Fu, Karthik Dantu, Jiajun Wu, Lihua Xie, Marco Hutter, Luca Carlone, Sebastian Scherer, Daning Huang, Yaoyu Hu, Junyi Geng, Chen Wang.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop, 2023.
```
@inproceedings{zhan2023pypose,
  title = {{PyPose} v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics},
  author = {Zhan, Zitong and Li, Xiangfu and Li, Qihang and He, Haonan and Pandey, Abhinav and Xiao, Haitao and Xu, Yangmengfei and Chen, Xiangyu and Xu, Kuan and Cao, Kun and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Zihan and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Chen, Yutian and Wang, Wentao and Fang, Xu and Du, Yi and Wu, Tianhao and Lin, Xiao and Qiu, Yuheng and Yang, Fan and Shi, Jingnan and Su, Shaoshu and Lu, Yiren and Fu, Taimeng and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Hutter, Marco and Carlone, Luca and Scherer, Sebastian and Huang, Daning and Hu, Yaoyu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen},
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.13035},
  code = {https://github.com/pypose/pypose},
  video = {https://youtu.be/XDtUDIWuGng},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/pypose/},
  cover = {/img/pubs/pypose-v0.6.jpg}
}
```
```
Zhan, Zitong and Li, Xiangfu and Li, Qihang and He, Haonan and Pandey, Abhinav and Xiao, Haitao and Xu, Yangmengfei and Chen, Xiangyu and Xu, Kuan and Cao, Kun and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Zihan and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Chen, Yutian and Wang, Wentao and Fang, Xu and Du, Yi and Wu, Tianhao and Lin, Xiao and Qiu, Yuheng and Yang, Fan and Shi, Jingnan and Su, Shaoshu and Lu, Yiren and Fu, Taimeng and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Hutter, Marco and Carlone, Luca and Scherer, Sebastian and Huang, Daning and Hu, Yaoyu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen, "PyPose v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop, 2023.
```

InstantSfM: Towards GPU-Native SfM for the Deep Learning Era.
Jiankun Zhong, Zitong Zhan, Quankai Gao, Ziyu Chen, Haozhe Lou, Jiageng Mao, Ulrich Neumann, Chen Wang, Yue Wang.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2026.

Corresponding author: Zitong Zhan
```
@inproceedings{zhong2026instantsfm,
  title = {{InstantSfM}: Towards GPU-Native SfM for the Deep Learning Era},
  author = {Zhong, Jiankun and Zhan, Zitong and Gao, Quankai and Chen, Ziyu and Lou, Haozhe and Mao, Jiageng and Neumann, Ulrich and Wang, Chen and Wang, Yue},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.13310},
  code = {https://github.com/cre185/InstantSfM},
  cover = {/img/pubs/instantsfm.mp4}
}
```
```
Zhong, Jiankun and Zhan, Zitong and Gao, Quankai and Chen, Ziyu and Lou, Haozhe and Mao, Jiageng and Neumann, Ulrich and Wang, Chen and Wang, Yue, "InstantSfM: Towards GPU-Native SfM for the Deep Learning Era," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2026.
```

Collaborative Publications

AnyNav: Visual Neuro-Symbolic Friction Learning for Off-road Navigation.
Taimeng Fu, Zitong Zhan, Zhipeng Zhao, Shaoshu Su, Xiao Lin, Ehsan Tarkesh Esfahani, Karthik Dantu, Souma Chowdhury, Chen Wang.
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2026.

A self-supervised friction estimation framework
```
@article{fu2026anynav,
  title = {{AnyNav}: Visual Neuro-Symbolic Friction Learning for Off-road Navigation},
  author = {Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Lin, Xiao and Esfahani, Ehsan Tarkesh and Dantu, Karthik and Chowdhury, Souma and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12654},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/anynav/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2024-12-01-anynav/AnyNav.mp4},
  addendum = {A self-supervised friction estimation framework}
}
```
```
Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Lin, Xiao and Esfahani, Ehsan Tarkesh and Dantu, Karthik and Chowdhury, Souma and Wang, Chen, "AnyNav: Visual Neuro-Symbolic Friction Learning for Off-road Navigation," International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2026.
```
VL-Nav: Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation.
Yi Du, Taimeng Fu, Zhipeng Zhao, Shaoshu Su, Zitong Zhan, Qiwei Du, Zhuoqun Chen, Bowen Li, Chen Wang.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2026.

IROS Best Paper Award on Cognitive Robotics
```
@inproceedings{du2026vlnav,
  title = {{VL-Nav}: Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation},
  author = {Du, Yi and Fu, Taimeng and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Chen, Zhuoqun and Li, Bowen and Wang, Chen},
  year = {2026},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00931},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/vlnav/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2025-02-01-vlnav/vlnav_cover.mp4},
  addendum = {IROS Best Paper Award on Cognitive Robotics}
}
```
```
Du, Yi and Fu, Taimeng and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Chen, Zhuoqun and Li, Bowen and Wang, Chen, "VL-Nav: Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2026.
```
Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation.
Qiwei Du, Bowen Li, Yi Du, Shaoshu Su, Taimeng Fu, Zitong Zhan, Zhipeng Zhao, Chen Wang.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 3684–3691, 2026.

An elegant real-world demonstration of interactive navigation
```
@article{du2026fast,
  title = {Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation},
  author = {Du, Qiwei and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Su, Shaoshu and Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {11},
  number = {3},
  pages = {3684-3691},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15975},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/flax/},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/flax},
  video = {https://youtu.be/_4DYcqwycnQ},
  cover = {/img/posts/2025-07-21-flax/Flax.mp4},
  addendum = {An elegant real-world demonstration of interactive navigation}
}
```
```
Du, Qiwei and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Su, Shaoshu and Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Chen, "Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2026.
```
Neuro-Symbolic Learning for Long-Horizon Task Planning Under Complex Logical Constraints.
Qiwei Du, Zitong Zhan, Shaoshu Su, Bowen Li, Yi Du, Zhipeng Zhao, Taimeng Fu, Sebastian Scherer, Jiaoyang Li, Chen Wang.
arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.06877, 2026.

Best Paper Award at IROS Workshop on Embodied Neuro-Symbolic AI for Reliable and Safe Robotics
```
@article{du2026iflax,
  title = {Neuro-Symbolic Learning for Long-Horizon Task Planning Under Complex Logical Constraints},
  author = {Du, Qiwei and Zhan, Zitong and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Zhao, Zhipeng and Fu, Taimeng and Scherer, Sebastian and Li, Jiaoyang and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.06877},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06877},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/iflax/},
  video = {https://youtu.be/aRkq4TXYEhM},
  cover = {/img/posts/2026-06-08-iflax/iflax_cover_video.mp4},
  addendum = {Best Paper Award at IROS Workshop on Embodied Neuro-Symbolic AI for Reliable and Safe Robotics}
}
```
```
Du, Qiwei and Zhan, Zitong and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Zhao, Zhipeng and Fu, Taimeng and Scherer, Sebastian and Li, Jiaoyang and Wang, Chen, "Neuro-Symbolic Learning for Long-Horizon Task Planning Under Complex Logical Constraints," arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.06877, 2026.
```
Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy.
Chen Wang, Kaiyi Ji, Junyi Geng, Zhongqiang Ren, Taimeng Fu, Fan Yang, Yifan Guo, Haonan He, Xiangyu Chen, Zitong Zhan, Qiwei Du, Shaoshu Su, Bowen Li, Yuheng Qiu, Yi Du, Qihang Li, Yifan Yang, Xiao Lin, Zhipeng Zhao.
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2025.

Unifying robot autonomy via neuro-symbolic learning
```
@article{wang2025imperative,
  title = {Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Ji, Kaiyi and Geng, Junyi and Ren, Zhongqiang and Fu, Taimeng and Yang, Fan and Guo, Yifan and He, Haonan and Chen, Xiangyu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Qiu, Yuheng and Du, Yi and Li, Qihang and Yang, Yifan and Lin, Xiao and Zhao, Zhipeng},
  journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.16087},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/iSeries},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/iseries},
  cover = {/img/posts/2024-07-02-iSeries/il-cover.jpg},
  addendum = {Unifying robot autonomy via neuro-symbolic learning}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Ji, Kaiyi and Geng, Junyi and Ren, Zhongqiang and Fu, Taimeng and Yang, Fan and Guo, Yifan and He, Haonan and Chen, Xiangyu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Su, Shaoshu and Li, Bowen and Qiu, Yuheng and Du, Yi and Li, Qihang and Yang, Yifan and Lin, Xiao and Zhao, Zhipeng, "Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy," International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2025.
```

Open Source Contributions

PyTorch

PR #129856: Added a CUDA sparse linear system solver to PyTorch’s linalg library, achieving a 20–30% speedup over previous implementations.

PyPose

PR #378: Added support for Bundle Adjustment in the Eager Mode.
PR #184: Implemented batched EPnP (Efficient Perspective-n-Point) as a torch.nn.Module.
PR #216: Added batched ICP (Iterative Closest Point).
PR #284 and PR #309: Enabled LieTensor operations under func.vmap while preserving the LieTensor type.
PR #312: Added a Conjugate Gradient solver for sparse linear systems.
PR #317: Implemented sparse matrix multiplication between BSR and BSC formats.
PR #320: Fixed Inv() and other LieTensor operations when used with pp.func.jacrev.