Jixian Liu

If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

— F.D.R.

I’m a third-year Ph.D. candidate at the Data Science and AI Institute (DSAI), Johns Hopkins University, advised by Prof. Enrique Mallada. I have broad research interests in robotics, control, and verifiable autonomous systems. I am currently developing data-driven, learning-based, and generative methods for safety verification, particularly for complex systems where exact computation is intractable and guarantees must be obtained from limited data drawn from complex distributions. My research is generously supported in part by the Amazon AI PhD Fellowship the 2026 JHU MINDS Fellowship. I received my B.Sc. degree from the School of Physics at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

I deeply value the philosophy of Slow Science, though I find it increasingly difficult to embrace in practice at this stage. :)

More information can be found in my CV.

News

Sept. 2026: Awarded the Amazon AI PhD Fellowship. Thank you, Amazon!
Sept. 2026: 1 paper is accepted by CoRL.
Sept. 2026: My academic page is online!

Selected Publications

CoRL

On the Limits of Sampling-Based Reachability: Geometry, Dynamics, and Sample Complexity

Jixian Liu, Ihab Tabbara, Hussein Sibai, and 1 more author

In 10th Annual Conference on Robot Learning, 2026

Bib

@inproceedings{liu2026limits,
  title = {On the Limits of Sampling-Based Reachability: Geometry, Dynamics, and Sample Complexity},
  author = {Liu, Jixian and Tabbara, Ihab and Sibai, Hussein and Mallada, Enrique},
  booktitle = {10th Annual Conference on Robot Learning},
  year = {2026},
}

CDC

Symplectic Inductive Bias for Data-Driven Target Reachability in Hamiltonian Systems

Zhuo Ouyang, Jixian Liu, and Enrique Mallada

In 65th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2026

Bib

@inproceedings{ouyang2026symplectic,
  title = {Symplectic Inductive Bias for Data-Driven Target Reachability in Hamiltonian Systems},
  author = {Ouyang, Zhuo and Liu, Jixian and Mallada, Enrique},
  booktitle = {65th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control},
  year = {2026},
}

ACC

Safety-Critical Control via Recurrent Tracking Functions

Jixian Liu and Enrique Mallada

In 2026 American Control Conference, 2026

Bib

@inproceedings{liu2026tracking,
  title = {Safety-Critical Control via Recurrent Tracking Functions},
  author = {Liu, Jixian and Mallada, Enrique},
  booktitle = {2026 American Control Conference},
  year = {2026},
}

CDC

Recurrent Control Barrier Functions: A Path Towards Nonparametric Safety Verification

Jixian Liu and Enrique Mallada

In 64th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2025

Bib

@inproceedings{liu2025recurrent,
  title = {Recurrent Control Barrier Functions: A Path Towards Nonparametric Safety Verification},
  author = {Liu, Jixian and Mallada, Enrique},
  booktitle = {64th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control},
  year = {2025},
}

Misc

Outside of research, I enjoy coding, long-distance running, and basketball. My personal bests are 37 min 45 s for 10 km and 18 min 15 s for 5 km. I’m also a fan of Linus B. Torvalds, Suguru Osako (大迫傑), and Stephen Curry.