Yang Deng (邓扬)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
NExT++ Lab
National University of Singapore


[Email] [Google Scholar]


NEWS I will be joining the School of Computer and Information Systems, Singapore Management University (SMU) in Fall 2024 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. I am actively looking for highly motivated PhD students to join my group, starting from Spring 2025. My group also welcomes research interns and visiting scholars (e.g., CSC Joint PhD Project), starting from Fall 2024.

Yang Deng, 2023

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow in NExT++, School of Computing, National University of Singapore, working with Prof. Tat-Seng Chua and Prof. See-Kiong Ng. Before that, I received my Ph.D degree at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, supervised by Prof. Wai Lam.

My research mainly lies in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR) – with special focus on

Selected Papers

Please see my Google Scholar profiles for the full list. (# Correspondance, * Mentorship)

Preprints

  • Towards Goal-oriented Intelligent Tutoring Systems in Online Education
    Yang Deng, Zifeng Ren, An Zhang, Wenqiang Lei, Tat-Seng Chua

  • X-Mark: Towards Lossless Watermarking Through Lexical Redundancy
    Liang Chen, Yatao Bian, Yang Deng, Shuaiyi Li, Bingzhe Wu, Peilin Zhao, Kam-fai Wong

  • On Generative Agents in Recommendation
    An Zhang, Leheng Sheng, Yuxin Chen, Hao Li, Yang Deng, Xiang Wang, Tat-Seng Chua

  • Building Emotional Support Chatbots in the Era of LLMs
    Zhonghua Zheng, Lizi Liao, Yang Deng, Liqiang Nie

2024

  • Towards Human-centered Proactive Conversational Agents
    Yang Deng, Lizi Liao, Zhonghua Zheng, Grace Hui Yang, Tat-Seng Chua
    SIGIR 2024 (Perspectives Paper)

  • Broadening the View: Demonstration-augmented Prompt Learning for Conversational Recommendation
    Hui Dao, Yang Deng, Dung Le, Lizi Liao
    SIGIR 2024

  • Tutorial Large Language Model Powered Agents in the Web
    Yang Deng, An Zhang, Yankai Lin, Xu Chen, Ji-Rong Wen, Tat-Seng Chua
    WWW 2024 (Tutorial)
    [abstract]

  • Plug-and-Play Policy Planner for Large Language Model Powered Dialogue Agents
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam, See-Kiong Ng, Tat-Seng Chua
    ICLR 2024

2023

  • Prompting and Evaluating Large Language Models for Proactive Dialogues: Clarification, Target-guided, and Non-collaboration
    Yang Deng, Lizi Liao, Liang Chen, Hongru Wang, Wenqiang Lei, Tat-Seng Chua
    EMNLP 2023 (Findings)
    [paper] [repo]

  • Beyond Factuality: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Large Language Models as Knowledge Generators
    Liang Chen*, Yang Deng, Yatao Bian, Zeyu Qin, Bingzhe Wu, Tat-Seng Chua, Kam-Fai Wong
    EMNLP 2023

  • DepWiGNN: A Depth-wise Graph Neural Network for Multi-hop Spatial Reasoning in Text
    Shuaiyi Li*, Yang Deng#, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2023 (Findings)

  • Large Language Models as Source Planner for Personalized Knowledge-grounded Dialogues
    Hongru Wang*, Minda Hu, Yang Deng#, Rui Wang, Fei Mi, Weichao Wang, Yasheng Wang, Wai Chung Kwan, Irwin King, Kam-Fai Wong
    EMNLP 2023 (Findings)

  • Unifying Text, Tables, and Images for Multimodal Question Answering
    Haohao Luo*, Ying Shen, Yang Deng#
    EMNLP 2023 (Findings)

  • Tutorial Rethinking Conversational Agents in the Era of LLMs: Proactivity, Non-collaborativity, and Beyond
    Yang Deng, Wenqiang Lei, Minlie Huang, Tat-Seng Chua
    SIGIR-AP 2023 (Tutorial)
    [abstract][slides]

  • Tutorial Goal Awareness for Conversational AI: Proactivity, Non-collaborativity, and Beyond
    Yang Deng, Wenqiang Lei, Minlie Huang, Tat-Seng Chua
    ACL 2023 (Tutorial)
    [abstract][slides]

  • Knowledge-enhanced Mixed-initiative Dialogue System for Emotional Support Conversations
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Yifei Yuan, Wai Lam
    ACL 2023
    [paper] [repo]

  • Survey Product Question Answering in E-Commerce: A Survey
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Qian Yu, Wai Lam
    ACL 2023
    [paper]

  • PeerDA: Data Augmentation via Modeling Peer Relation for Span Identification Tasks
    Weiwen Xu, Xin Li, Yang Deng, Lidong Bing, Wai Lam
    ACL 2023

  • Towards Robust Personalized Dialogue Generation via Order-Insensitive Representation Regularization
    Liang Chen*, Hongru Wang, Yang Deng, Wai-Chung Kwan, Zezhong Wang, Kam-Fai Wong
    ACL 2023 (Findings)

  • Survey A Survey on Proactive Dialogue Systems: Problems, Methods, and Prospects
    Yang Deng, Wenqiang Lei, Wai Lam, Tat-Seng Chua
    IJCAI 2023 (Survey)
    [paper] [repo]

  • Learning to Ask Clarification Questions with Spatial Reasoning
    Yang Deng, Shuaiyi Li, Wai Lam
    SIGIR 2023 (Short)
    [paper] [repo]

  • A Unified Framework for Contextual and Factoid Question Generation
    Chenhe Dong*, Ying Shen, Shiyang Lin, Zhenzhou Lin, Yang Deng#
    IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. (TKDE)

2022

  • A Unified Multi-task Learning Framework for Multi-goal Conversational Recommender Systems
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Weiwen Xu, Wenqiang Lei, Tat-Seng Chua, Wai Lam
    ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. (TOIS)
    [paper] [repo]

  • User Satisfaction Estimation with Sequential Dialogue Act Modeling in Goal-oriented Conversational Systems
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam, Hong Cheng, Helen Meng
    WWW 2022
    [paper] [repo]

  • PACIFIC: Towards Proactive Conversational Question Answering over Tabular and Textual Data in Finance
    Yang Deng, Wenqiang Lei, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam, Tat-Seng Chua
    EMNLP 2022
    [paper] [repo]

  • ConReader: Exploring Implicit Relations in Contracts for Contract Clause Extraction
    Weiwen Xu, Yang Deng, Wenqiang Lei, Wenlong Zhao, Tat-Seng Chua, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2022

  • Leveraging Long Short-Term User Preference in Conversational Recommendation Via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
    Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Wai Lam
    IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. (TKDE)

  • Survey A Survey on Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis: Tasks, Methods, and Challenges
    Wenxuan Zhang, Xin Li, Yang Deng, Lidong Bing, Wai Lam
    IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. (TKDE)

2021

  • Unified Conversational Recommendation Policy Learning via Graph-enhanced Reinforcement Learning
    Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Fei Sun, Bolin Ding, Wai Lam
    SIGIR 2021
    [paper] [repo]

  • Towards Personalized Answer Generation in E-Commerce via Multi-Perspective Preference Modeling
    Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Wenxuan Zhang, Bolin Ding, Wai Lam
    ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. (TOIS)
    [paper] [repo]

  • Contextualized Knowledge-aware Attentive Neural Network: Enhancing Answer Selection with Knowledge
    Yang Deng, Yuexiang Xie, Yaliang Li, Min Yang, Wai Lam, Ying Shen
    ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. (TOIS)

  • Towards Generative Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis
    Wenxuan Zhang, Xin Li, Yang Deng, Lidong Bing, Wai Lam
    ACL 2021 (Short)

  • Aspect Sentiment Quad Prediction as Paraphrase Generation
    Wenxuan Zhang, Yang Deng, Xin Li, Yifei Yuan, Lidong Bing, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2021

  • Exploiting Reasoning Chains for Multi-hop Science Question Answering
    Weiwen Xu, Yang Deng, Huihui Zhang, Deng Cai, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2021 (Findings)

  • Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis in Question Answering Forums
    Wenxuan Zhang, Yang Deng, Xin Li, Lidong Bing, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2021 (Findings)

  • Factual Consistency Evaluation for Text Summarization via Counterfactual Estimation
    Yuexiang Xie, Fei Sun, Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding
    EMNLP 2021 (Findings)

2020

  • Multi-hop Inference for Question-driven Summarization
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2020
    [paper] [repo]

  • AnswerFact: Fact Checking in Product Question Answering
    Wenxuan Zhang, Yang Deng, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2020

  • Opinion-aware Answer Generation for Review-driven Question Answering in E-Commerce
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam
    EMNLP 2020
    [paper] [repo]

  • Joint Learning of Answer Selection and Answer Summary Generation in Community Question Answering
    Yang Deng, Wai Lam, Yuexiang Xie, Daoyuan Chen Yaliang Li, Min Yang, Ying Shen
    AAAI 2020
    [paper] [repo]

  • Bridging Hierarchical and Sequential Context Modeling for Question-driven Extractive Answer Summarization
    Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Yaliang Li, Min Yang, Wai Lam and Ying Shen
    SIGIR 2020 (Short)
    [paper] [repo]

  • Answer Ranking for Product-Related Questions via Multiple Semantic Relations Modeling
    Wenxuan Zhang, Yang Deng, Wai Lam
    SIGIR 2020

  • Review-guided Helpful Answer Identification in E-commerce
    Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam, Yang Deng, Jing Ma
    WWW 2020 (Short)

- 2019

  • Multi-Task Learning with Multi-View Attention for Answer Selection and Knowledge Base Question Answering
    Yang Deng, Yuexiang Xie, Yaliang Li, Nan Du, Min Yang, Wei Fan, Kai Lei, Ying Shen
    AAAI 2019

  • MedTruth: A Semi-supervised Approach to Discovering Knowledge Condition Information from Multi-Source Medical Data
    Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Ying Shen, Nan Du, Wei Fan, Min Yang, Kai Lei
    CIKM 2019

  • Knowledge as A Bridge: Improving Cross-domain Answer Selection with External Knowledge
    Yang Deng, Ying Shen, Min Yang, Yaliang Li, Nan Du, Wei Fan, Kai Lei
    COLING 2018

  • Knowledge-aware Attention based Neural Network for Ranking Question Answering Pairs
    Ying Shen, Yang Deng, Min Yang, Yaliang Li, Nan Du, Wei Fan, Kai Lei
    SIGIR 2018 (Short)

Qualifications

Education

    • Aug. 2019 - Mar. 2023, Ph.D., The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    • Sept. 2016 - Jun. 2019, M.S., Peking University
    • Sept. 2012 - Jun. 2016, B.E., Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Experiences

    • Feb. 2022 - Aug. 2022, Visiting Research Scholar, NExT++ Lab, National University of Singapore
    • Aug. 2020 - Feb. 2022, Research Intern, DAMO Academy, Alibaba Group
    • Mar. 2018 - Jun. 2018, Research Intern, Tencent Medical AI Lab
    • Oct. 2016 - Aug. 2017, Research Assistant, Multimedia Software Engineering Research Center, City University of Hong Kong

Professional Activities

    • Area Chair: ACL 2024
    • Regular Reviewer (or PC Member): WWW, SIGIR, WSDM, ACL Rolling Review, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, AAAI, IJCAI, KDD, TOIS, TKDE, TASLP, TNNLS, TWEB, TALLIP, Neurocomputing, Knowledge-Based Systems, Computer Science Review
    • Guest Editor: Language Models for Conversational Information Processing and Retrieval (Electronics)
    • Organizing Committee: SSNLP 2023