PIPages
Labs

Jun Zhuang

Boise State University, ID·Computer Science

Artificial intelligence models can fail in surprising ways. A small, deliberate change to an input can fool them, which is called an adversarial attack.

Fields

Computer Science

Physics

Topics

quantum neural networks

quantum machine learning

adversarial robustness

Grants
1 known grant, through May 2027

What they work on

  1. Improve the resistance of quantum neural networks to adversarial attacks, meaning small deliberate input changes meant to fool them, using Bayesian label transition to infer more reliable labels.
  2. Propose new quantum models that handle open-set problems, where inputs fall outside the training categories, under perturbed or noisy conditions, and evaluate them on public datasets.
  3. Improve the stability of quantum neural network training by addressing gradient problems from an optimization perspective.

More about the research

They can also be confused by inputs unlike anything they saw in training, a situation called the open-set problem, and they can stall during training when the signals used to adjust them become unreliable. These weaknesses make AI less trustworthy in settings where errors matter. This project asks how to make AI models more robust. It focuses on quantum neural networks (QNNs), AI models that use the properties of quantum circuits to process data.

Why it matters

Many applications now depend on AI, including uses tied to national and social security. Models that can be fooled by tampered inputs, or that behave unpredictably on unfamiliar data, are a real risk in these settings. More robust quantum and classical neural networks could make future quantum AI systems more dependable for the people and organizations that rely on them.

Known grants

From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.

CRII: RI: Improving The Robustness of Neural Networks via Bayesian Inference: from Classical to Quantum Models

NSF · Jun 2025 – May 2027

Closest labs

Xinyu Xing

Northwestern University, IL·Computer Science·Early-career

Train adversarial agents that act in a target agent's environment to provoke undesired behavior, using explainable AI methods to guide where the attacks focus.

Sanjay Purushotham

University of Maryland-Baltimore County, MD·Computer Science·Early-career

Develop multi-view federated learning algorithms that train shared models across hospitals holding different kinds of patient data, without moving the data between sites.

Feng Chen

University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Computer Science

Develop online fairness-aware deep learning models for changing data streams, using causal representation learning, differentiable architecture search and online meta-learning, and release open software.

The school

Boise State University: 10 labs on PI Pages, $58M a year on research, 64 research doctorates a year.

More about Boise State University

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