Yunan Zhang - 张宇楠

Ph.D. Student @ Purdue University

Hi! This is Yunan, a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Purdue University, advised by Professor Jianguo Wang. I came to Purdue University in 2021 as an M.S. student in Computer Science and transferred to the Ph.D. program in 2023. Previously, I received an M.S. in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Shenzhen University.

I have worked as a Research Intern at Microsoft Research in the DiskANN team.

Please feel free to reach out if you're interested in discussing any research ideas, academic collaborations, or industry opportunities!

🔎 Vector Search • 🗂️ Vector Indexing • Vector Databases

Research

My research focuses on building efficient, high-performance vector search indexes and systems across diverse storage devices and real-world workloads. My research covers the following main areas:

Vector Search on Databases: Building and optimizing vector search integrated with databases, with a focus on implementation and performance analysis in PostgreSQL and other DBMSs across real-world workloads. ICDE'24, VLDB'24, CIDR'26.
Disk-Based Vector Search: Designing and optimizing disk-based vector indexes for commodity storage (HDDs, SSDs, and cloud block storage), including segment-aware optimizations for LSM-style multi-segment systems.
Filtered Vector Search: Developing adaptive search strategies for graph-based vector indexes under diverse filtering conditions and query patterns (e.g., single vs. multiple filters and mixed filter types).
Related Vector Search Algorithms: Exploring related techniques for vector search, including merge strategies for graph-based indexes and applications in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for LLMs. SIGMOD'26

News + Updates

Nov. 2025

The paper "Efficient Vector Index Merging in Vector Databases" has been accepted in SIGMOD 2026.

publication
Oct. 2025

The paper "Fast Vector Search in PostgreSQL: A Decoupled Approach" has been accepted in CIDR 2026.

publication
June 2025

Excited to be joining Microsoft Research as a Research Scientist Intern on the Azure DiskANN team. I'll be working with Harsha Vardhan Simhadri on filtered vector search algorithms. Grateful for the opportunity!

internship
June 2024

The paper "SingleStore-V: An Integrated Vector Database System in SingleStore" has been accepted in VLDB 2024 industrial track.

publication
April 2024

The paper "Are There Fundamental Limitations in Supporting Vector Data Management in Relational Databases? A Case Study of PostgreSQL" has been accepted in ICDE 2024.

publication milestone
May 2023

Started to work with Professor Jianguo Wang in vector search. Big thanks to this opportunity!

milestone

Publications

See all research

DiskV: Disk-based Vector Search Optimized for Low-Cost Storage

Yunan Zhang, Yinghao He, Jiayi Liu, Jianguo Wang

Submitted to VLDB 2026

A disk-based vector index designed to achieve high search performance on commodity storage including HDDs and cloud block storages.
Efficient Vector Index Merging in Vector Databases

Chenzhe Jin, Yunan Zhang, Jiayi Liu, Jianguo Wang

In SIGMOD 2026

A methods for efficient graph vector index merging.
Fast Vector Search in PostgreSQL: A Decoupled Approach

Jiayi Liu, Yunan Zhang, Chenzhe Jin, Aditya Gupta, Shige Liu, Jianguo Wang

In CIDR 2026 • Paper

A decoupled approach for efficient vector search in PostgreSQL with comparable performance to specialized vector databases.
SingleStore-V: An Integrated Vector Database System in SingleStore

Cheng Chen, Chenzhe Jin, Yunan Zhang, Sasha Podolsky, Chun Wu, Szu-Po Wang, Eric Hanson, Zhou Sun, Robert Walzer, Jianguo Wang

In VLDB 2024 • Paper

Implemented SingleStore-V, a full-fledged, general-purpose vector database integrated into SingleStore.
Are There Fundamental Limitations in Supporting Vector Data Management in Relational Databases? A Case Study of PostgreSQL

Yunan Zhang, Shige Liu, Jianguo Wang

In ICDE 2024 • Paper

A case study of limits and practical solutions for implementing high-performance vector search in relational databases (PostgreSQL).

Teaching

CS 44000 Large Scale Data Analytics: Fall 2026, Fall 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2024

CS 24000 Programming In C: Spring 2024

CS 25000 Computer Architecture: Fall 2023

Professional Service

Journal Reviewer: TKDE 2025