About Me

Feng Yu is an Assistant Professor in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. He previously held postdoc positions at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (advisor: Gilad Lerman), Old Dominion University (advisor: Guohui Song), and the University at Albany, SUNY (advisor: Yiming Ying). He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in mathematics from the University of Central Florida under Teng Zhang, and dual bachelor's degrees in mathematics and economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China.

Research Interests

High dimensional statistics Robust statistics Nonconvex optimization Machine learning

Publications

Journal Papers

Miao Lin, Feng Yu, Rui Ning, Lusi Li, Jiawei Chen, Qian Lou, Mengxin Zheng, Chunsheng Xin, Hongyi Wu, "RPP: A Certified Poisoned-Sample Detection Framework for Backdoor Attacks under Dataset Imbalance," Transactions on Machine Learning Research (to appear), 2026.

Hsin-Hsiung Huang, Feng Yu, Kang Li, Teng Zhang, "Fréchet Sufficient Dimension Reduction for Metric Space-Valued Data via Distance Covariance," Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics (2025): 1–14.

Feng Yu, Yi Yang and Teng Zhang, "A graph decomposition-based approach for the graph-fused lasso," Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 235 (2025): 106221.

Feng Yu, Lixin Shen and Guohui Song, "Hyperparameter Estimation for Sparse Bayesian Learning Models," SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification 12.3 (2024): 759–787.

Hsin-Hsiung Huang, Feng Yu, Teng Zhang, "Robust Sufficient Dimension Reduction via α-Distance Covariance," Journal of Nonparametric Statistics, 37(4) (2025): 796–811.

Hsin-Hsiung Huang, Feng Yu, Xing Fan, Teng Zhang, "A framework of regularized low-rank matrix models for regression and classification," Statistics and Computing 34.1 (2024): 10.

Teng Zhang, Feng Yu, Marianna Pensky, Xing Fan, "ALMA: Alternating Minimization Algorithm for Clustering Mixture Multilayer Network," Journal of Machine Learning Research, 23(330):1–46, 2022.

Feng Yu, Teng Zhang, "Phase retrieval of complex-valued objects via a randomized Kaczmarz method," Information and Inference: A Journal of the IMA, 11(3) (2022): 823–843.

Raj Gautam Dutta, Yaodan Hu, Yier Jin, Feng Yu, and Teng Zhang, "Design and Analysis of Secure Distributed Estimator for Vehicular Platooning in Adversarial Environment," IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 23(4) (2020): 3418–3429.

Qi Wang, Jingyue Yang, and Feng Yu, "Global well-posedness of advective Lotka–Volterra competition system with nonlinear diffusion," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Section A Mathematics, 150(5), 2322–2348.

Qi Wang, Jingyue Yang, and Feng Yu, "Boundedness in logistic Keller–Segel models with nonlinear diffusion and sensitivity functions," Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2017, 37(9): 5021–5036.

Ke Wang, Qi Wang, and Feng Yu, "Stationary and time periodic patterns of two-predator and one-prey systems with prey-taxis," Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2017, 37(1): 505–543.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers

Feng Yu, MD Saifur R. Mazumder, Oscar Contreras Velasco, Ying Su, "Unsupervised Feature Selection via Robust Autoencoder and Adaptive Graph Learning," IEEE International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies (ICECET), Rome, Italy, 2026.

Miao Lin, Junrui Zhang, Jian Li, Feng Yu, Lusi Li, Chunsheng Xin, Hongyi Wu and Rui Ning, "ACS-Boot: Efficient Randomized Smoothing for Robustness Certification on Resource-Constrained Edge Devices," IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), 2026.

Feng Yu, Gilad Lerman, Teng Zhang, "A Subspace-Constrained Tyler’s Estimator and its Applications to Structure from Motion," Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2024 (Acceptance rate: 23.6%, Oral Presentation: 3.3%).Oral

Feng Yu, Yaodan Hu, Teng Zhang, Yier Jin, "Special Issue: Resilient Distributed Estimator with Information Consensus for CPS Security," The 38th IEEE International Conference on Computer Design, 2020, 41–44.

Raj Gautam Dutta, Yaodan Hu, Yier Jin, Feng Yu, and Teng Zhang, "Fast Attack-Resilient Distributed State Estimator for Cyber-Physical Systems," International Conference on Embedded Software, 2020.

Raj Gautam Dutta, Yaodan Hu, Yier Jin, Feng Yu, and Teng Zhang, "Security for Safety: A Path Toward Building Trusted Autonomous Vehicles," International Conference On Computer Aided Design, 2018.

Manuscripts

MD Saifur Rahman Mazumder, Feng Yu, "DICS: Data-Informed Centroid Splitting for Decision Tree Classifiers," arXiv:2608.20258.

Miao Lin, MD Saifur Rahman Mazumder, Feng Yu, Daniel Takabi, Rui Ning, "Laplace-Bridged Randomized Smoothing for Fast Certified Robustness," arXiv:2604.24993.

Feng Yu, Mingao Yuan, "On the number of small edge-weighted subgraphs," arXiv:2511.14058.

Mingao Yuan, Feng Yu, "Hypothesis testing for the dimension of random geometric graph," arXiv:2510.11844.

Feng Yu, Gilad Lerman, Teng Zhang, "DualEss: A Two-Stage Framework for Robust and Accurate Essential Matrix Estimation."

News

2026
Jun.

Joined the Computational Science (CPS) faculty at UTEP.

Jun.

Received an NSF Travel Award for the ICSA 2026 Applied Statistics Symposium.

Mar.

Served as an Official Nominator for the VinFuture Prize.

Mar.

Along with student MD Saifur Rahman Mazumder, received funding through the Sustainable Research Pathways program: $20,950 (faculty) and $11,770 (student).

Mar.

My student MD Saifur Rahman Mazumder received the Graduate Student Research Grant (GSRG), Spring 2026, from UTEP for $1,000.

Jan.

Awarded the University Research Institute (URI) Grant (2025–2026) for $5,000.

2025
Oct.

Served as a Program Committee Member for AAAI 2026.

2024
Nov.

Served as a Reviewer for CVPR 2025.

Sept.

Served as a Program Committee Member for AAAI 2025.

Apr.

A paper was selected as a CVPR 2024 Highlight Paper (324 out of 2,719 submissions) and an Oral Presentation (90 out of 2,719).

Students

Current Students

MD Saifur Rahman Mazumder

Ph.D. student · September 2024–present

Mathematical Sciences, UTEP

King Solomon Otoo

Master's student · June 2026–present

Mathematical Sciences, UTEP

Prospective Students

I am currently looking for new MS and PhD students, with partial financial support provided. Interested candidates are encouraged to reach out via email at fyu@utep.edu.

Professional Services

Reviewer for Journals & Conferences

Book Reviewer

Teaching

University of Texas at El Paso

CourseTerm
STAT 5380 (DS 6380): Mathematical Statistics I / Mathematical Foundations of Data Science IFall 2026
STAT 5474/4474: Statistical Machine LearningSpring 2026
STAT 6370: Special Topics — Trustworthy MLFall 2025
STAT 3325: Probability and Applied StatisticsFall 2025
MATH 1508: PrecalculusFall 2025
STAT 5388/6388: Multivariate Data AnalysisSpring 2025
STAT 5195/6195: Graduate SeminarFall 2026, Spring 2026, Fall 2024

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

CourseTerm
MATH 5486: Numerical Analysis IISpring 2024
MATH 2264: Multivariable Calculus III (two sections)Fall 2023

University of Central Florida

CourseTerm
MHF 3302: Instructor, Logic and Proof in MathematicsSpring 2020
MAC 2313: Instructor, Calculus with Analytic Geometry IIIFall 2019
MAP 2302: Teaching Assistant, ODE ISummer 2017, Fall 2018
MAC 2311: Teaching Assistant, Calculus IFall 2017, Spring 2018

Contact

Email: fyu@utep.edu

Office: Bell Hall 303, 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX 79968

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics University of Central Florida University at Albany, SUNY Old Dominion University University of Minnesota University of Texas at El Paso
© 2026 Feng Yu · Department of Mathematical Sciences, UTEP · Last updated