Ruizhi Cheng
Ph.D. Candidate
George Mason University
Currently working as a Researcher at Meta
Menlo Park, CA, USA
Email: rcheng4 [at] gmu [dot] edu
[Google
Scholar]
[LinkedIn]
[Github]
[Google Scholar] [LinkedIn] [Github]
Introduction
I am a final-year Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, where I am fortunate to be advised by Dr. Bo Han. I am also currently a researcher at Meta, working on building next-generation network infrastructure for human–GenAI interaction. Prior to joining Mason, I got a B.S. degree in computer science in 2021. My name in Cantonese (HKGCR) is Yui-Chi Shing.
My current research focuses on building large-scale, learning-based, real-time intelligent networked systems for emerging communication paradigms such as immersive telepresence and human–GenAI interaction. In the past, I also have extensive experience in security & privacy and human-computer interaction (HCI).
I have been the first author of several papers on a wide range of topics published in top-tier conferences, including bandwidth-conserving immersive telepresence (ACM SenSys 2024), privacy-preserving user authentication in VR with federated learning (ACM SenSys 2024), network measurement study on commercial social VR (ACM IMC 2022) and immersive telepresence (ACM IMC 2024) platforms, and the deployment of a real-world VR-based online education system (IEEE VR 2024). I received the Best Paper Award from IEEE MetaBuild 2022 and the Best Paper Runner-up Award from ACM SenSys 2024.
Selected Publications
For a complete list of my publications, please visit my Google Scholar and DBLP profiles.
Ruizhi Cheng, Nan Wu, Vu Le, Eugene Chai, Matteo Varvello, Bo Han. "MagicStream: Bandwidth-conserving Immersive Telepresence via Semantic Communication" [Best Paper Runner-up]
Ruizhi Cheng, Yuetong Wu, Ashish Kundu, Hugo Latapie, Myungjin Lee, Songqing Chen, Bo Han. "MetaFL: Privacy-preserving User Authentication in Virtual Reality with Federated Learning"
Ruizhi Cheng*, Nan Wu*, Matteo Varvello, Eugene Chai, Songqing Chen, Bo Han. "A First Look at Immersive Telepresence on Apple Vision Pro" *: Equal contribution.
Ruizhi Cheng, Erdem Murat, Lap-Fei Yu, Songqing Chen, Bo Han. "Understanding Online Education in Metaverse: Systems and User Experience Perspectives"
Ruizhi Cheng, Nan Wu, Matteo Varvello, Songqing Chen, Bo Han. "Are We Ready for Metaverse? A Measurement Study of Social Virtual Reality Platforms"
Nan Wu, Bo Chen, Ruizhi Cheng, Klara Nahrstedt, Bo Han. "NeVo: Advancing Volumetric Video Streaming with Neural Content Representation"
Nan Wu, Ruizhi Cheng, Songqing Chen, Bo Han. "PIPE: Privacy-preserving 6DoF Pose Estimation for Immersive Applications"
Ruizhe Shi, Ruizhi Cheng, Yuqi Fu, Bo Han, Yue Cheng, Songqing Chen. "Centralization in Decentralized Web: Challenges and Opportunities in IPFS’s Data Management"
Nan Wu, Kaiyan Liu, Ruizhi Cheng, Bo Han, Puqi Zhou. "Theia: Gaze-driven and Perception-aware Volumetric Content Delivery for Mixed Reality Headsets"
Ruizhe Shi, Ruizhi Cheng, Bo Han, Yue Cheng, Songqing Chen. "A Closer Look into IPFS: Accessibility, Content, and Performance"
Industrial Experience
- Meta - Researcher. July 2025 - Current
- Bell Labs - Networking Research Intern. June - Aug 2024
Professional Services
Technical Program Committee
ACM ImmerCom 2024
Review
IEEE VR 2023, ACM UbiComp 2023/2024, IEEE ISMAR 2024/2025, IEEE MetaCom 2024
ACM Transactions on Graphics, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology,
IEEE Network, IEEE MultiMedia, SAGE Open, Virtual Reality, ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications,
IEEE Internet of Things Journal, ACM SIGCOMM CCR, IEEE Communication, IEEE Communication Letters
Miscellaneous
I can fluently speak and type English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Feel free to use any of these languages during our discussion.
Icebreaker topics for me: Hins Cheung (張敬軒),
The Big Bang Theory, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and workout.