Welcome!

I am currently a Machine Learning Researcher at Apple (MLR) and an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Fall 2025 in the CIS department. Prior to joining Apple, I was a Research Scientist at Meta AI (FAIR Labs). I am based in New York City.

I obtained my Ph.D. degree at the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Hong Kong in 2018 and I was supervised by Prof. Victor O.K. Li. My doctoral work explored efficient neural machine translation systems. I also spent a wonderful time visiting the CILVR Lab, New York University working with Prof. Kyunghyun Cho. Before that, I obtained my Bachelor’s degree at the Electronic Engineering Department, Tsinghua University in 2014.

Prospective Students

I will be recruiting PhD students and visiting students for this graduate application cycle and next year. For 2025 PhD applicants, if you’re interested, please apply directly through our application system and list my name as your preferred advisor (Deadline: December 16, 2024). I encourage to use this form or send me at jgu32@cis.upenn.edu.

I am also looking for PhD research interns at Apple MLR late 2024 or early 2025 on generative modeling or multimodal learning. Location can be either NYC or Bay area. Please apply through our website or send me at jgu32@apple.com. We will start the interview process as soon as possible.

Research Interests

My research goal is to advance the capabilities of AI agents to interact with the physical world, with a special emphasis on leveraging generative machine learning approaches for world modeling, iterative reasoning, and effective decision-making. I am particularly interested in developing multi-modal generative models that span natural language, images, videos, and 3D, ensuring these models are Efficient, Flexible, Scalable, and Knowledgeable. By bridging foundational machine learning research with real-world applications, my research seeks to create robust AI systems capable of operating seamlessly in complex and dynamic environments.