Zhiwu Huang

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) affiliated with the Vision, Learning, and Control (VLC) group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton.

I specialize in computer vision and machine learning in the context of artificial general intelligence. My research focuses on improving machine learning by understanding human learning processes and exploring how AI can support and enhance both human life and the physical world. Central to our research team’s mission is the development of happy and green AI—artificial intelligence that is emotionally aligned, human-centered, and environmentally sustainable. Our work advances artificial machine intelligence with generative capabilities in perception, emotion, and action across computers, devices, and robots, with applications spanning healthcare, the arts, and education.

Research Projects

GenAI: Detection

OpenSDI Dataset | CDDB Dataset

OpenSDI: Spotting Diffusion-Generated Images in the Open World. Yabin Wang, Zhiwu Huang*, Xiaopeng Hong. (*indicates corresponding author) . In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) , 2025. Preprint | Project Page | Data & Code

S-Prompts Learning with Pre-trained Transformers: An Occam's Razor for Domain Incremental Learning. Yabin Wang, Zhiwu Huang*, Xiaopeng Hong*. (*indicates corresponding author) . In Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) , 2022. Paper | OpenReview | Presentation@ContinualAI | Code

A Continual Deepfake Detection Benchmark: Dataset, Methods, and Essentials. Chuqiao Li, Zhiwu Huang*, Danda Pani Paudel , Yabin Wang, Mohamad Shahbazi, Xiaopeng Hong, Luc Van Gool . (*indicates corresponding author) . In Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2023. Preprint

GenAI: Generation

Source Code | TrailerFaces Dataset

Freestyle Layout-to-Image Synthesis. Han Xue, Zhiwu Huang, Qianru Sun, Li Song, Wenjun Zhang. Accepted as a highlight (10% of accepted papers, 2.5% of submissions). In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) , 2023. Preprint | Project Page | Code | Oral Presentation

Sliced Wasserstein Generative Models. Jiqing Wu* , Zhiwu Huang*, Dinesh Acharya, Wen Li , Janine Thoma , Danda Pani Paudel , Luc Van Gool . (*indicates equal contributions). In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2019 . Paper
Extension: Towards High Resolution Video Generation with Progressive Growing of Sliced Wasserstein GANs. Dinesh Acharya, Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Luc Van Gool . arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.02419, 2018. Paper | Code

Wasserstein Divergence for GANs. Jiqing Wu , Zhiwu Huang, Janine Thoma , Dinesh Acharya, Luc Van Gool . In European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 2018 . Paper | Code

Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning for Efficient and Effective GAN Architecture Search. Yuan Tian*, Qin Wang*, Zhiwu Huang, Wen Li, Dengxin Dai , Minghao Yang , Jun Wang , Olga Fink. (*indicates equal contributions) . In European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 2020 . Paper | Code

Efficient Conditional GAN Transfer with Knowledge Propagation across Classes. Mohamad Shahbazi , Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Ajad Chhatkuli , Luc Van Gool . In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2021. Preprint | Code

Video Quality Mapping Challenge | Video Super-Resolution Challenge

The Vid3oC and IntVID Datasets for Video Super Resolution and Quality Mapping. Sohyeong Kim, Guanju Li, Dario Fuoli , Martin Danelljan , Zhiwu Huang, Shuhang Gu , Radu Timofte . In International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) workshop, 2019 . Paper

Divide-and-Conquer Adversarial Learning for High-Resolution Image and Video Enhancement. Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Dario Fuoli , Guanju Li , Jiqing Wu , Radu Timofte , Luc Van Gool . arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.10455, 2019 . Paper

NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Video Quality Mapping: Methods and Results. Dario Fuoli , Zhiwu Huang, Martin Danelljan, Radu Timofte and et al. In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) workshop, 2020 . Paper

AIM 2020 Challenge on Video Extreme Super-Resolution: Methods and Results. Dario Fuoli , Zhiwu Huang, Radu Timofte and et al. In European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) workshop, 2020 . Paper

Dario Fuoli , Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Luc Van Gool , Radu Timofte . An Efficient Recurrent Adversarial Framework for Unsupervised Real-Time Video Enhancement. arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.13033, 2020 . Paper

GenAI: Emotion

Source Code | AFEW SPDData | TrailerAffect Dataset

A Riemannian Network for SPD Matrix Learning. Zhiwu Huang, Luc Van Gool . In Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2017. Paper | Code
Extension: Covariance Pooling for Facial Expression Recognition. Dinesh Acharya, Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Luc Van Gool . In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) workshop, 2018 . Paper | Code

Building Deep Networks on Grassmann Manifolds. Zhiwu Huang, Jiqing Wu , Luc Van Gool . In Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2018. Paper | Code

Neural Architecture Search of SPD Manifold Networks. Rhea Sanjay Sukthanker, Zhiwu Huang, Suryansh Kumar , Erik Goron Endsjo, Yan Wu, Luc Van Gool . In International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2021. Paper

Facial Emotion Recognition with Noisy Multi-task Annotations. Siwei Zhang, Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel , Luc Van Gool . In Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2021 . Paper | Code

GANmut: Learning Interpretable Conditional Space for Gamut of Emotions. Stefano D'Apolito, Danda Pani Paudel , Zhiwu Huang*, Andres Romero Vergara , Luc Van Gool . (*indicates corresponding author ) . In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2021. Preprint | Code

GenAI: Action

Source Code | G3D LieGroupData

Deep Learning on Lie Groups for Skeleton-based Action Recognition. Zhiwu Huang, Chengde Wan , Thomas Probst , Luc Van Gool . In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2017 . Paper | Code | Spotlight
Extension: Studying Multiple Cues for Human Action Recognition on RGB+D Data. Jonathan Gan, Zhiwu Huang, Danda Pani Paudel Tech. Report (Semester Thesis), 2017. Paper

Building Deep Networks on Grassmann Manifolds. Zhiwu Huang, Jiqing Wu , Luc Van Gool . In Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2018. Paper | Code

Neural Architecture Search of SPD Manifold Networks. Rhea Sanjay Sukthanker, Zhiwu Huang, Suryansh Kumar , Erik Goron Endsjo, Yan Wu, Luc Van Gool . In International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2021. Paper Extension: Neural Architecture Search on Lie Groups for Skeleton-based Action Recognition. Samuele Serafino, Zhiwu Huang, Suryansh Kumar , Luc Van Gool . Tech. Report (Semester Thesis), 2020. Paper