Xu Chen

Ph.D. student at UESTC working on machine learning for query optimization and autonomous database agents.

I am a third-year Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, advised by Prof. Kai Zheng and Han Su. My research connects machine learning, query optimization, and database agents, with a focus on building autonomous systems that are efficient, practical, and ready for real products.

Research Interests

I study how learning-based methods can improve database optimization and make agentic systems more useful in vertical domains.

Machine learning for query optimization: combining rule-based optimization with learned components to build efficient, autonomous, and practical database optimizers.
LLM and database agents: using reinforcement learning and test-time scaling to improve reasoning, tool use, and autonomous database operations.

Publications

Recent Work

Optimizing Block Skipping for High-Dimensional Data with Learned Adaptive Curve.

Xu Chen, Shuncheng Liu, Tong Yuan, Tao Ye, Kai Zeng, Han Su, Kai Zheng

SIGMOD, 2025.

DACE: A Database-Agnostic Cost Estimator.

Zibo Liang, Xu Chen, Yuyang Xia, Runfan Ye, Haitian Chen, Jiandong Xie, Kai Zheng

ICDE, 2024.

LEON: A New Framework for ML-Aided Query Optimization.

Xu Chen, Haitian Chen, Zibo Liang, Shuncheng Liu, Jinghong Wang, Kai Zeng, Han Su, Kai Zheng

VLDB, 2023.

BASE: Bridging the Gap between Cost and Latency for Query Optimization.

Xu Chen, Zhen Wang, Shuncheng Liu, Yaliang Li, Kai Zeng, Bolin Ding, Jingren Zhou, Han Su, Kai Zheng

VLDB, 2023.

Earlier Work

Efficient Learning with Pseudo Labels for Query Cost Estimation.

Shuncheng Liu, Xu Chen, Yan Zhao, Jin Chen, Rui Zhou, Kai Zheng

CIKM, 2022.

HeGA: Heterogeneous Graph Aggregation Network for Trajectory Prediction in High-Density Traffic.

Shuncheng Liu, Xu Chen, Ziniu Wu, Liwei Deng, Han Su, Kai Zheng

CIKM, 2022.

RISE: A Velocity Control Framework with Minimal Impacts based on Reinforcement Learning.

Yuyang Xia, Shuncheng Liu, Xu Chen, Zhi Xu, Kai Zheng, Han Su

CIKM, 2022.

Astral: An Autoencoder-Based Model for Pedestrian Trajectory Prediction of Variable-Length.

Yupeng Diao, Yiteng Su, Ximu Zeng, Xu Chen, Shuncheng Liu, Han Su

DASFAA (Workshops), 2022.

TSummary: A Traffic Summarization System Using Semantic Words.

Xu Chen, Ximu Zeng, Shuncheng Liu, Zhi Xu, Yuyang Xia, Ruyi Lai, Han Su

DASFAA (Workshops), 2022.

Efficient Join Order Selection Learning with Graph-based Representation.

Jin Chen, Guanyu Ye, Yan Zhao, Shuncheng Liu, Liwei Deng, Xu Chen, Rui Zhou, Kai Zheng

KDD, 2022.

PATROL: A Velocity Control Framework for Autonomous Vehicle via Spatial-Temporal Reinforcement Learning.

Zhi Xu, Shuncheng Liu, Ziniu Wu, Xu Chen, Kai Zeng, Kai Zheng, Han Su

CIKM, 2021.

SCSG Attention: A Self-centered Star Graph with Attention for Pedestrian Trajectory Prediction.

Xu Chen, Shuncheng Liu, Zhi Xu, Yupeng Diao, Shaozhi Wu, Kai Zheng, Han Su

DASFAA, 2021.