Qiang Yang

WeBank AI
Professor Emeritus at Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

   

    Email: qyang at cse ust hk

   

Biography: Professor Qiang Yang received his BSc. degree from Peking University in Astrophysics and his PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, in 1989.  He had been a faculty member and Chair Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology between 2001 and 2023, a Professor at Simon Fraser University and Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada between 1989 and 2001.  He is a fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and a fellow of IEEE, ACM, AAAI, AAAS, IAPR and CAAI.  He was the President of IJCAI between 2019 and 2021 and the President of Hong Kong Society of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics(HKSAIR).  He is the Founding Editor in Chief of the ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (ACM TIST) and the Founding Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Big Data (IEEE TBD). He is also active in industrial practice: he has been the founding director of Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab, co-founder of 4th Paradigm Technology Ltd. (HKex 06682) and Chief AI Officer at WeBank.  He received the ACM SIGKDD Distinguished Service Award and the University of Maryland, Department of Computer Science Alumni Hall of Fame in 2017 and IJCAI Distinguished Service Award In 2023. His research interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, federated learning, transfer learning, case-based reasoning and planning.

Research Interests:  Artificial Intelligence: Federated Learning, Transfer Learning, Machine Learning, Planning, Data Mining

   DBLP Publication List | Google Scholar | HKUST Library | Orcid

 Positions and Education:

 Professional Society Fellowship:

  • Fellow of Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Engineering 2021 - present
  • AAAI Fellow (2013 - ) Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
    • for significant contributions to AI Planning, Data Mining and Case-based Reasoning
    • Link to AAAI page.
  • AAAS Fellow (2012 - ) American Association for the Advancement of Science
    • for significant contributions to Data Mining, Learning and Planning: theory, applications, and services
    • Link to AAAS, Oriental Daily
  • IAPR Fellow (2012 -) International Association of Pattern Recognition
  • IEEE Fellow (2009 - ) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    • for Significant Contributions to the Understanding and Application of Intelligent Planning, Learning and Data Mining
    • Link to HKUST News Release
  • ACM Fellow (2017 - ) Association of Computing Machinery, for contributions to Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining.  Link to ACM Page
  • CAAI Fellow (2019 - )  Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence.

 Founder of:

Selected Students, Postdocs and Interns:

  • Dou Shen, PhD at HKUST, Executive Vice President of Baidu
  • Wenyuan Dai, PhD at HKUST, Founder and CEO of 4th Paradigm Technology Ltd.
  • Weizhu Chen, PhD at HKUST, Vice President of Microsoft in LLM, Co-inventor of LORA
  • Steven Woods, PhD at Waterloo, Vice President of Google Canada (Waterloo)
  • Tianqi Chen, Intern at HKUST and Noah’s Ark Lab, Faculty Member at Carnegie Mellon University, Inventor of XGBoost Algorithm
  • Chunyan Miao, Postdoc at SFU, Associate Vice President Senior Deputy Dean, College of Computing & Data Science, President’s Chair in Computer Science, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

Awards:

  Patents Awarded:  China domestic patents: 201.  International PCT patents: 21.

  Conference and Society Activities:

  • Chairman of the TSC Committee, Federated Learning Open Source Community FATE
  • AAAI Executive Council Member (2016 - 2020). General Chair, AAAI 2021, Vancouver, Canada.
  • President of IJCAI (2017 - 2019), Member of IJCAI Trustee: 2011-2021.
  • President, Hong Kong AI and Robotics Society (HKSAIR), 2018 - present
  • Chair, ACM SIGKDD China Chapter (2016 - 2022)
  • Program Chair, IJCAI 2015, Buenos Aires, Argentina from July 25th to August 1st, 2015. 
  • Best Paper Award Committee Chair, ACM WSDM 2015.
  • Chinese AI Society, 中 国 人工智能学会,  副理事长2014 -
  • General co-chair: ACM RecSys 2013, Hong Kong, China, Oct 2013.
  • Program co-chair: IEEE Big Data Conference, 2013.  CA USA Oct 2013.
  • General Chair, ACM KDD 2012, Beijing, China, Aug 12-16, 2012. Interviewing Chinese KDD Scholars for KDD 2012: A Conversation with the Chinese KDD Leaders (link).
  • IJCAI Trustee (2011 - 2017), IJCAI 2013 Publicity Chair and Area Chair.
  • Vice Chair of ACM SIGART (ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence). July 2010.
  • More Conference Activities

  Advisory Committee Membership:

  Editorship:

·       ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, Founding Editor in Chief, 2009 – 2015. Advisory Committee Chair 2015 – present.

·        IEEE Transactions on Big Data, Founding Editor in Chief, January 1, 2015 – 2020.  Advisory Committee Chair: 2015 – present.

·       Associate Editor of AI Magazine, 2012 – 2020.

·       Associate Editor of IEEE Intelligent Systems, 2005 – 2020.

·       Series Editor for Morgan&Claypool Synthesis Series: On Research Methodology

·       Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE), 2005 - 2009

Research Projects

  Datasets:

  Books:

·       Intelligent Planning -- A Decomposition and Abstraction Based Approach . Qiang Yang, Springer Verlag, 1997.
- See a book review by Fausto Giunchiglia and Luca Spalazzi in the Artificial Intelligence Journal.

·       Constraint-based Design Recovery for Software Reengineering: Theory and Experiments. Steven Woods, Alex Quilici and Qiang Yang. Kluwer  Publishers, Dec. 1997.

·       Crafting Your Research Future: A Guide to Successful Master's and Ph.D. Degrees in Science & Engineering.  By Charles X. Ling and Qiang Yang, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, PDF  here.. Chinese Version: 学术研究，你的成功之道。 Tsinghua University Press, November 2012

·       Transfer Learning, Qiang Yang et al. Cambridge University Press. 2020.. Chinese: 迁移学习. 华章出版社，机械工业出版社， 2020)

·       Federated Learning, Qiang Yang et al. Morgan Claypool Publishers 2020.

·       联邦学习 (Chinese version of the Federated Learning Book) 杨强， 刘洋，等。 电子工业出版社 2020.

·       联邦学习实战，(Practicing Federated Learning) 杨强， 黄安埠，等。电子工业出版社Publishing House of Electronics Industry. 2021.

·       隐私计算， Privacy Preserving Computing, Kai Chen and Qiang Yang, Publishing House of Electronics Industry. 电子工业出版社2022.

·       可解释人工智能导论Introduction to Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Qiang Yang, Lixin Fan et al. 电子工业出版社Publishing House of Electronics Industry. 2022.

·       Federated Learning: Privacy and Incentive.  Edited by Qiang Yang, Lixin Fan, Han Yu. Springer 2020.

·       Federated and Transfer Learning. Editors: Roozbeh Razavi-Far, Boyu Wang, Matthew E. Taylor, Qiang Yang.  Springer, 2023.

·       Privacy-preserving Computing for Big Data Analytics and AI. Kai Chen and Qiang Yang. Cambridge University Press. 2024.

Teaching:

 Hong Kong Services:

Students: Photos: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 ...

 

Students at HKUST

·       Dr. Di Chai, Thesis Title: Secure and Practical Federated Matrix Factorization.  2025.

·       Dr. Ji, Liya, (Co-supervised with Chen, Qifeng).  Thesis: Accurate probability estimates from large-scale data in the applications of display advertising

·       Dr. Han Tian (Co-supervised with Kai Chen),  Assistant Professor at USTC, Thesis:  Network congestion control with deep reinforcement learning

·       Dr. Xueyang Wu, Thesis Title: Federated transfer learning under heterogeneous data

·       Dr. Guangneng Hu, Xidian University. Xi An.  Thesis title: Deep and adversarial knowledge transfer in recommendation

·       Dr. Zheng Li, Amazon.com， USA.  Thesis title: Neural knowledge transfer for low-source sentiment analysis : cross-domain, cross-task & cross-lingual

·       Dr. Yexin Li, JD.com, Beijing, Thesis Title: Deep reinforcement learning in urban computing

·       Dr. Yinghua Zhang, Meituan Inc. Shanghai. Thesis Title: Deep transfer learning : generalization on clean and adversarial data

·       Dr. Lili Zhao, Tencent, Shenzhen, Thesis Title: Active transfer learning for recommendation system

·       Dr. Wenyuan Dai, 4th Paradigm Inc. Thesis Title: Lower the barrier of machine learning : meta learning for transfer learning and autoML

·       Dr. Kaixiang Mo, SHEIN, Singapore. Thesis Title: Transfer reinforcement learning for task-oriented dialogue systems

·       Dr. Ben Tan, Tencent, Shenzhen. Thesis Title: Distant domain transfer learning

·       Dr. Bin Wu (Co-supervised with Andrew Horner), Tencent. Thesis Title: Machine recognition of music emotion and the correlation with musical timbre

·       Dr. Zhongqi Lu, China University of Petroleum, China. Thesis Title: Selective transfer learning for cross domain recommendation

·       Dr. Ying Wei, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Thesis Title: Heterogeneous transfer learning

·       Dr. Bo Liu, Bytedance, Shenzhen. Thesis Title: Transferable bandit

·       Dr. George (Georgios) Trimponias, graduated in Feb 2015. Thesis: Game-Theoretic Design for Assignment and Ranking in Online Advertising and Human Computation, Now: Huawei Noah's Ark Lab.

·       Ruiming Xie, MPhil.  Thesis: Transfer learning for one-class recommendation based on matrix factorization

·       Dr. Yin Zhu, graduated in August 2014. Thesis: Activity Recognition via Social Knowledge Transfer. July 21, 2014.

·       Dr. Erheng Zhong, graduated in Feb 2014. Thesis: Composite Social Network Analysis (PDF).  Now:  Yahoo! Labs., USA.

·       Dr. Derek Hao Hu, graduated in Dec 2012.  Thesis: Learning based Activity Recognition (PDF). Now: Microsoft (Bing) at Redmond, Washington, USA.

·       Dr. Weizhu Chen, graduated in Aug 2012.  Thesis: An Associative Characterization of Click Models in Web Search (PDF). Now: Microsoft (Bing) at Redmond, Washington, USA.

·       Dr. Simone Marini, graduated in Aug 2012.  Thesis: Qualitative and Quantitative Protein Interaction Prediction with Machine Learning.  Now: Postdoc in Italy.

·       Dr. Evan Wei Xiang, graduated in June 2012. Thesis: Transfer Learning with Open Web Data (PDF). Now: Baidu.com

·       Dr. Weike Pan, graduated in June, 2012.  Thesis: Transfer Learning in Collaborative Filtering (PDF). Now: Assistant Professor at Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.

·       Jinliang Deng, Mphil, Thesis: Order Dispatching for Electric Vehicles by Deep Multi-Objective

·       Reinforcement Learning

·       Xiang Zhang, Mphil. Title: Transfer hierarchical attention network for generative dialog system

·       Wenya Zhu, MPhil. Title: Generative dialogue system with knowledge base

·       Caigao Jiang, MPhil, Title: Large scale WiFi indoor localization

·       Si Shen, MPhil., Thesis Title: New perspectives on search click modeling

·       Dr. Nathan Nan Liu, graduated in December, 2011. Thesis: Ranking Oriented Approach to Context Aware Recommendation (PDF). Current:  Yahoo! Labs.

·       Dr. Bin Cao, graduated in August, 2011.  Thesis: Collaborative and Transfer Learning in Recommendations (PDF). Current: Microsoft Research Asia.

·       Dr. Vincent Wenchen Zheng, graduated in August, 2011.  Thesis: Learning with Limited Data in Sensor-based Human Behavior Recognition (PDF). Current: Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore.  Webank.

·       Dr. Qian Xu, graduated in Nov 2010.  Co-supervised with Hong Xue. Thesis: Knowledge Transfer for Solving the Data Scarcity Problem for Machine Learning in Boinformatics (PDF).Baidu.com; WeBank.

·       Dr. Can Yang, graduated in May, 2011.  Co-supervised with Weichuan Yu.  Thesis: SNP data analysis in genome-wide association studies (PDF).  Now: Professor at Math Department, HKUST

·       Dr. Sinno Jialin Pan.  Graduated in September 2010.  Thesis: Feature-based Transfer Learning with Real-world Applications (PDF). 2010- 2014: Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore. 2014 -: Nanyang  Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.  Now: Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

·       Dr. Jeffrey Junfeng Pan. Graduated in December 2007. Thesis: Learning-based Localization in Wireless and Sensor Networks (PDF). Current: Facebook

·       Dr. Dou Shen. Graduated in June 2007. Thesis: Learning Based Web Query Understanding (PDF). co-founder: BuzzLabs, and 2011-2012: Senior Director, CityGrid Media.  2012-2014: Director of Advertisement Union, Baidu Inc.  2014- : Director of Search and Personalization, Baidu Inc. Beijing, China.

·       Hui Wang. HKUST MPhil.  Title: Web-log Mining for Quantitative Temporal-Event Prediction.  Now: WeChat.

·       Dr. Jie Yin. Graduated in June 2006. Thesis: Probabilistic Activity Recognition from Low-Level Sensors (PDF). Research Scientist, CSIRO, Australia.

·       Hong Cheng.  HKUST MPhil. Title: Mining Case Bases for Action Recommendation. Now: Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

 

Students at SFU

·       Henry Zhang.  MSc. Title: Mining web logs for prediction models in WWW caching and prefetching.

·       Ian T.Y. Lee.  MSc. Title: Classification Pruning for Web-request Prediction. Now: Microsoft.

·       Jing Wu, SFU MSc. Title A Case-Base Maintenance Policy Based on Clustering and Information Theory. Now: Amdocs.

·       Sheng Li, SFU MSc. Title: Activating Case-Based Reasoning with Active Databases. Now: Seagate Software.

·       Hai-jing Fang MSc. at SFU.  Querying the Web through XML-HTML conversion in Restricted Domains, August 2001.

·       Hui Zhang, MSc. Acquiring Typical Problem-solving Knowledge: From Databases using Data Mining. Now: Professor at University of Manitoba, Canada

·       Zhong Zhang, MSc. Title: Dynamic Refinement of Feature Weights Using Quantitative Introspective Learning, July 1999. Now: Professor in University of Lethbridge, Canada

·       Zhen Michael Zhang. MSc. Title: Model Based Predictive Prefetching.

·       Sandra Hayden. Msc. Agent Architecture.  Now:  NASA Ames, USA

·       Gunter Mussbac, MSc., Software Reuse using Case Based Reasoning and Commonality Analysis, 1998

·       Jun Zhu, SFU MSc. Title Remembering to Add: Competence-preserving Case-Addition Policies for Case Base Maintenance

·       Kirsti Racine, MSc. Title: Maintaining Case Bases. Now: IBM Canada

 

Students at Waterloo

·       Philip Fong, Topic: Machine Learning Theory.  1994 - 1996.Now: Professor at University of Calgary, Canada.

·       Stephanie Ellis, Waterloo, MSc., Topic: Class Table Scheduling with AI. 1994-1996.

·       Cheryl Murray, Waterloo MSc. Title: An Evaluation of the Temporal Coherence Heuristic in Partial-Order Planning.

·       Dr. Steven Woods, Waterloo PhD. Senior Engineering Director, Google Canada (Wiki).  University of Waterloo Thesis (1996): A Method of Program Understanding using Constraint Satisfaction for Software Reverse Engineering.  University of Waterloo, Canada. Now: Engineering Director of Google Canada.

·       Eugene Fink, University of Waterloo MSc. Thesis title: Characterizing and Learning Primary Effects in Planning.  At CMU (Last PhD student of Herb Simon)

·       Alex Chan.  University of Waterloo MSc.  Title: Partial Order Planning. Now: Microsoft

 

Postdocs at HKUST

·       Chunxu Zhang

·       Xiaojin Zhang

·       Hao Liu

·       Zelei Liu

·       Leye Wang

·       Wei Hui

·       Qian Xu

·       Yiqiang Chen

·       Huayan Wang

·       Rong Pan

·       Shuangyin Li

·       Qi Liu

·       Hankz Zhuo

 

Postdocs at SFU

  • Yidong Shen, Visiting Professor at SFU, March 2001 - August 2002
  • Chunyan Miao, Postdoc Fellow, April 2001 -- March 2002
  • Yong Wang. Postdoc Fellow, Sept 1998 -- Sept 1999
  • Geof Glass, May 1997--August 1999
  • Peter Leung, May 1997 -- Aug 1998
  • Leslia Chow, Sept 1997 -- Aug 1998
  • Christina Carrick, Sept 1998 -- Sept 1999
  • Dr. Wei-Dong Yu, Postdoc Fellow, 1996 – 1997
  • Michael Boeur, 1995, 1996
  • Eddie Kim, 1995 – 1998