My name is Wei-Yao Wang. I am a research scientist in the Creative AI Lab at Sony, working on Interactive omnimodal foundation models from LLM alignment to generation and LLM agents for content creation. I received my Ph.D. and BSc degrees from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan respectively, advised by Prof. Wen-Chih Peng. During my academic journey, I served as a visiting researcher at the ScAi lab advised by Prof. Wei Wang at the University of California, Los Angeles. I was a research intern at Document AI in Microsoft in Seattle and Microsoft AI R&D Center in Taipei advised by Paul Hsu, working on low-resource field extractions from multi-modal documents with LLMs.

My research intersts include Interactive Omnimodal Models; LLM Agents; LLM Alignment; Foundation Models; Natural Language Processing; Sport Science; and Representation Learning; which has been published more than 40+ papers in international journals and major peer-reviewed conference proceedings (e.g., ICLR, NeurPS, ICML, CVPR, KDD, AAAI, ACL, EMNLP), including multiple best paper awards. I serve on the program committees of international conferences including ICLR, ICCV, AAAI, ACL ARR, KDD, IJCAI, CIKM, and PAKDD and workshop organizers (GenProCC@NeurIPS-25, IT4PSS@IJCAI23-24, SocialNLP@NAACL-22&TheWebConf-22).

For more information, please visit my CV. I am also open to research collaboration. Please drop me an email if you are interested in.

Education

• [Sep. 2020 - Mar. 2024] Ph.D. at Institute of Computer Science and Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (advisor: Prof. Wen-Chih Peng)
• [Mar. 2023 - Mar. 2024] Visiting Researcher in Scalable Analytics Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (advisor: Prof. Wei Wang)
• [Sep. 2016 - Jun. 2020] B.S. in Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University

Research Experience

• [Sep. 2024 - Present] Research Scientist, Creative AI Lab, Sony Group Corporation
• [Jul. 2020 - Mar. 2024] Ph.D. Researcher, Advanced Database System Laboratory, NYCU
• [Mar. 2023 - Mar. 2024] Visiting Researcher, Scalable Analytics Institute, UCLA
• [Sep. 2023 - Dec. 2023] Research Intern, Microsoft (Document AI)
• [May 2022 - Nov. 2022] Research Intern, Microsoft AI R&D Center (Document AI)
• [Jun. 2018 - Jun. 2022] Project Lead & Research Scientist, Precision Sport Science - Coach AI in Badminton (project link)
• [Jul. 2018 - Jun. 2020] Database Administrator, NCTU CS Curriculum Assistant

Publications

Journals and Conferences

1. Kuang‑Da Wang, Zhao Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Yotaro Shimose, Jaechang Kim, Shingo Takamatsu, “Agentic Model Predictive Questioning Control in Visual Design”. [TBD].
2. Kuang-Da Wang, Zhao Wang, Yotaro Shimose, Wei-Yao Wang, Shingo Takamatsu, “WebGen-V Bench: Structured Representation for Enhancing Visual Design in LLM-based Web Generation and Evaluation”. [preprint].
3. Qiyu Wu, Shuyang Cui, Satoshi Hayakawa, Wei-Yao Wang, Hiromi Wakaki, Yuki Mitsufuji, “MCA: Modality Composition Awareness for Robust Composed Multimodal Retrieval”. [preprint].
4. Masakazu Yoshimura, Teruaki Hayashi, Yuki Hoshino, Wei-Yao Wang, Takeshi Ohashi, “SF-Mamba: Rethinking State Space Model for Vision”. [TBD].
5. Yen-Che Chien, Kuang-Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “NEWSAGENT: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents as Journalists with Real-World Newswriting Tasks”. [preprint].
6. Wei-Yao Wang, Zhao Wang, Helen Suzuki, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, “Seeing is Understanding: Unlocking Causal Attention into Modality-Mutual Attention for Multimodal LLMs”. [preprint]
7. Zhao Wang, Sota Moriyama, Wei-Yao Wang, Briti Gangopadhyay, Shingo Takamatsu, “Talk Structurally, Act Hierarchically: A Collaborative Framework for LLM Multi-Agent Systems”. [preprint]
8. Christian Simon, Masato Ishii, Wei-Yao Wang, Koichi Saito, Akio Hayakawa, Dongseok Shim, Zhi Zhong, Shuyang Cui, Takashi Shibuya, Shusuke Takahashi, Yuki Mitsufuji, “Echoes Over Time: Unlocking Length Generalization in Video-to-Audio Generation Models”, CVPR 2026 (acceptance rate: 25.4%). [TBD].
9. Wei-Yao Wang, Kazuya Tateishi, Qiyu Wu, Shusuke Takahashi, Yuki Mitsufuji, “VIRTUE: Visual-Interactive Text-Image Universal Embedder”, ICLR 2026 (acceptance rate: 28%). [preprint, website].
10. Yung‑Chien Wang, Kuang‑Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen‑Chih Peng, “Adapting to Evolving Data: Test‑Time Expert Aggregation for Imbalanced Tabular Regression”, WSDM 2026. [preprint].
11. Wei-Yao Wang, Takashi Shibuya, Vali Lalioti, Wei Wang, Shusuke Takahashi, Yuki Mitsufuji, “GenProCC: 1st Workshop on Generative and Protective AI for Content Creation”, NeurIPS 2025. [website]
12. Shang-Hsuan Chiang, Tsan-Tsung Yang, Kuang-Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, An-Zi Yen, Wen-Chih Peng, “Tree-of-Report: Table-to-Text Generation for Sports Game Reports with Tree-Structured Prompting”, ACL SRW 2025 (Oral, oral rate: 8%).
13. Ching Chang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Tien-Fu Chen, “LLM4TS: Aligning Pre-Trained LLMs as Data-Efficient Time-Series Forecasters”, ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST), 2025. [paper]
14. Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Wei Wang, Philip Yu, “ShuttleSHAP: A Turn-Based Feature Attribution Approach for Analyzing Forecasting Models in Badminton”, PAKDD 2025. [preprint]
15. Hong-Wei Wu, Wei-Yao Wang, Kuang-Da Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “APAR: Modeling Irregular Target Functions in Tabular Regression via Arithmetic-Aware Pre-Training and Adaptive-Regularized Fine-Tuning”, AAAI 2025 (acceptance rate: 23.4%). [paper]
16. Wei-Yao Wang, Wei-Wei Du, Derek Xu, Wei Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “A Survey on Self-Supervised Learning for Non-Sequential Tabular Data”, ACML 2024. [paper]
17. Wei-Yao Wang*, Xiusi Chen*, Ziniu Hu, David Reynoso, Kun Jin, Mingyan Liu, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Wei Wang, “Professional Basketball Player Behavior Synthesis via Planning with Diffusion”, CIKM 2024 (acceptance rate: 33.3%). [paper]
18. Kuang-Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Ping-Chun Hsieh, Wen-Chih Peng, “Offline Imitation of Badminton Player Behavior via Experiential Contexts and Brownian Motion”, ECML-PKDD 2024 (acceptance rate: 24.5%). [paper]
19. Wei-Yao Wang, Wei-Wei Du, Wen-Chih Peng, “Benchmarking Stroke Forecasting with Stroke-Level Badminton Dataset”, IJCAI Demo 2024. [paper]
20. Ching Chang, Chiao-Tung Chan, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Tien-Fu Chen, “TimeDRL: Disentangled Representation Learning for Multivariate Time-Series”, ICDE 2024. [paper]
21. Chih-Chia Li, Wei-Yao Wang, Wei-Wei Du, Wen-Chih Peng, “Look Around! A Neighbor Relation Graph Learning Framework for Real Estate Appraisal”, PAKDD 2024. [paper]
22. Wei-Yao Wang, Yu-Chieh Chang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Style-News: Incorporating Stylized News Generation and Adversarial Verification for Neural Fake News Detection”, EACL 2024 (acceptance rate: 20.3%). [paper]
23. Zheng-Ming Lin, Ching Chang, Wei-Yao Wang, Kuang-Da Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Root Cause Analysis In Microservice Using Neural Granger Causal Discovery”, AAAI 2024 (acceptance rate: 23.75%). [paper]
24. Ying-Ying Chang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “SeGA: Preference-Aware Self-Contrastive Learning with Prompts for Anomalous User Detection on Twitter”, AAAI 2024 (acceptance rate: 23.75%). [paper]
25. Kuang-Da Wang, Yu-Tse Chen, Yu-Heng Lin, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “The CoachAI Badminton Environment: Bridging the Gap Between a Reinforcement Learning Environment and Real-World Badminton Games”, AAAI Demo 2024. [paper]
26. Kuang-Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Yu-Tse Chen, Yu-Heng Lin, Wen-Chih Peng, “The CoachAI Badminton Environment: A Novel Reinforcement Learning Environment with Realistic Opponents (Student Abstract)”, AAAI 2024. [paper]
27. Yu-Chien Tang, Wei-Yao Wang, An-Zi Yen, Wen-Chih Peng, “RSVP: Customer Intent Detection via Agent Response Contrastive and Generative Pre-Training”, EMNLP Findings 2023. [paper]
28. Wei-Wei Du, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “DoRA: Domain-Based Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Low-Resource Real Estate Appraisal”, CIKM 2023 (acceptance rate: 32%). [paper]
29. Wei-Yao Wang, Yung Chang Huang, Tsi-Ui Ik, Wen-Chih Peng, “ShuttleSet: A Human-Annotated Stroke-Level Singles Dataset for Badminton Tactical Analysis”, KDD 2023 (acceptance rate: 25.4%). [paper]
30. Kai-Shiang Chang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Where Will Players Move Next? Dynamic Graphs and Hierarchical Fusion for Movement Forecasting in Badminton”, AAAI 2023 (acceptance rate: 19.6%). [paper]
31. Li-Chun Huang, Nai-Zen Hseuh, Yen-Che Chien, Wei-Yao Wang, Kuang-Da Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “A Reinforcement Learning Badminton Environment for Simulating Player Tactics (Student Abstract)”, AAAI 2023. [paper]
32. Wei-Yao Wang, “Modeling Turn-Based Sequences for Player Tactic Applications in Badminton Matches”, CIKM 2022. [paper]
33. Wei-Yao Wang, Teng-Fong Chan, Wen-Chih Peng, Hui-Kuo Yang, Chih-Chuan Wang, Yao-Chung Fan, “How Is the Stroke? Inferring Shot Influence in Badminton Matches via Long Short-Term Dependencies”, ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST), Vol. 14, No. 1, pp1-22, 2022. [paper]
34. Wei-Yao Wang, Hong-Han Shuai, Kai-Shiang Chang, Wen-Chih Peng, “ShuttleNet: Position-Aware Fusion of Rally Progress and Player Styles for Stroke Forecasting in Badminton”, AAAI 2022 (acceptance rate: 15%). [paper]
35. Wei-Yao Wang, Teng-Fong Chan, Hui-Kuo Yang, Chih-Chuan Wang, Yao-Chung Fan, Wen-Chih Peng, “Exploring the Long Short-Term Dependencies to Infer Shot Influence in Badminton Matches”, ICDM 2021 (acceptance rate: 20%). [paper]
36. Wei-Yao Wang, Kai-Shiang Chang, Teng-Fong Chen, Chih-Chuan Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Chih-Wei Yi, “Badminton Coach AI: A badminton match data analysis platform based on deep learning”, Physical Education Journal, vol.53, no.2, pp.201–213, 2020. [paper]

Workshops

1. Ching Chang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Tien-Fu Chen, Sagar Samtani, “Align and Fine-Tune: Enhancing LLMs for Time-Series Forecasting”, NeurIPS 2024 on Time Series in the Age of Large Models.
2. Ching Chang, Chan Chiao-Tung, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, Tien-Fu Chen, “Self-Supervised Learning of Disentangled Representations for Multivariate Time-Series”, NeurIPS 2024 on Self-Supervised Learning - Theory and Practice.
3. Kuang-Da Wang, Yu-Tse Chen, Yu-Heng Lin, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “The CoachAI Badminton Environment: Improving Badminton Player Tactics with A Novel Reinforcement Learning Environment”, ACM SIGKDD Workshop on on Data Science and AI for Sports, 2023.
4. Kuang-Da Wang, Wei-Yao Wang, Ping-Chun Hsieh, Wen-Chih Peng, “Generating Turn-Based Player Behavior via Experience from Demonstrations”, ICML 2023 Workshop on Structured Probabilistic Inference & Generative Modeling, 2023. [paper]
5. Chih-Chia Li, Wei-Yao Wang, Wei-Wei Du, Wen-Chih Peng, “Look Around! A Neighbor Relation Graph Learning Framework for Real Estate Appraisal”, AAAI Workshop on Modelling Uncertainty in the Financial World, 2023 (Best paper award). [paper]
6. Wei-Wei Du, Hong-Wei Wu, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Team Triple-Check at Factify 2: Parameter-Efficient Large Foundation Models with Feature Representations for Multi-Modal Fact Verification”, AAAI Workshop on Multimodal Fact Checking and Hate Speech Detection, 2023. [paper]
7. Wei-Wei Du, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Track2Vec: Fairness Music Recommendation with a GPU-Free Customizable-Driven Framework”, CIKM Workshop on A Rounded Evaluation of Recommender Systems, 2022. [paper]
8. Wei-Yao Wang, Wei-Wei Du, Wen-Chih Peng, “RecFormer: Personalized Temporal-Aware Transformer for Fair Music Recommendation”, CIKM Workshop on A Rounded Evaluation of Recommender Systems, 2022. [paper]
9. Lun-Wei Ku, Cheng-Te Li, Yu-Che Tsai, Wei-Yao Wang, “Proceedings of the Tenth International Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media (SocialNLP 2022)”, NAACL Workshop on International Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media, 2022. [paper]
10. Wei-Yao Wang*, Yu-Chien Tang*, Wei-Wei Du*, Wen-Chih Peng, “NYCU_TWD@LT-EDI-ACL2022: Ensemble Models with VADER and Contrastive Learning for Detecting Signs of Depression from Social Media”, ACL Workshop on Language Technology for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, 2022. [paper]
11. Lun-Wei Ku, Cheng-Te Li, Yu-Che Tsai, Wei-Yao Wang, “SocialNLP’22: 10th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media”, WWW Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media, 2022. [paper]
12. Yu-Wun Tseng, Hui-Kuo Yang, Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “KAHAN: Knowledge-Aware Hierarchical Attention Network for Fake News Detection on Social Media”, WWW Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media, 2022. [paper]
13. Wei-Yao Wang, Wen-Chih Peng, “Team Yao at Factify 2022: Utilizing Pre-trained Models and Co-attention Networks for Multi-Modal Fact Verification”, AAAI Workshop on Multimodal Fact Checking and Hate Speech Detection, 2022 (Best Paper Award). [paper]

Academic Services

Conference (Senior) Program Committee: ICML’26, CVPR’26, ICCV’25, ICLR (25-now), KDD (25-now), AAAI (22-now), IJCAI (23-now), ACL ARR (22-now), ISACE’23, LT-EDI-ACL 2022 @ ACL’22

Organizer: GenProCC @ NeurIPS’25, ITPSS @ IJCAI’23-24, CoachAI Challenge @ IJCAI’23, SocialNLP @ TheWebConf’22 and NAACL’22

Student Volunteer: IJCAI’23, KDD’23

Honors and Awards

1. [Apr. 2025] Honorary Membership, The Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society
2. [Mar. 2025] Best Dissertation Award, Institute of Information & Computing Machinery
3. [Dec. 2024] Top-10% Outstanding Reviewer, KDD 2025
4. [Dec. 2024] Best Dissertation Award, Taiwanese Association for Artificial Intelligence
5. [Sep. 2023] Sports Science Research Award, Sport Administration, Ministry of Education
6. [Aug. 2023] KDD Student Scholarship, ACM
7. [Aug. 2023] Top Research of AI and Information Technology Scholarship, Appier
8. [May 2023] 21st Y.Z. Hsu Science Paper Award, Far Eastern Y.Z. Hsu Foundation
9. [Feb. 2023] AAAI Student Scholarship, AAAI
10. [Jan. 2023] Google Conference Scholarships, Google
11. [Jan. 2023] AAAI Student Scholarships, AAAI
12. [Mar. 2022] Google Conference Scholarships, Google
13. [Feb. 2022] Best Paper Award, AAAI DeFactify Workshop
14. [Feb. 2022] AAAI Student Scholarships, AAAI
15. [Jan. 2022] Top Research of AI and Information Technology Scholarship, Appier
16. [Aug. 2019] The Yin Zhi Tong Memorial Scholarship, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
17. [Jul. 2019] College Student Research Scholarship, Ministry of Science and Technology

Competition Awards

1. [Dec. 2022] 1st Place in Factify 2.0 Challenge, De-Factify @ AAAI 2023 Workshop [code]
2. [Oct. 2022] 4th Place in Rounded Evaluation of Recommender Systems, EvalRS @ CIKM’22 Workshop
3. [Feb. 2022] 2nd Place in Detecting Signs of Depression from Social Media Text, LT-EDI @ ACL 2022 Workshop [code]
4. [Nov. 2021] 5th Place and Best Paper Award in Factify Challenge, De-Factify @ AAAI 2022 Workshop [code]
5. [Sep. 2021] 3rd Place and National Judges Award, Legal-Tech Hackathon 2021. [code]
6. [Jun. 2021] 1st Place in Fake-EmoReact Challenge, SocialNLP @ NAACL 2021 Workshop [code]
7. [Jan. 2021] Bronze Medal in Riiid Answer Correctness Prediction Challenge, AAAI 2021 Workshop [code]
8. [Jun. 2020] 3rd Place in EmotionGIF Challenge, SocialNLP @ ACL 2020 Workshop [report, code]
9. [Dec. 2019] Excellent Award on Research Project Competition, National Chiao Tung University