Chinese-born AI specialist Ma Yi to swap California for Hong Kong to lead data research institute

[Nan Yang]

Chinese-born AI specialist Ma Yi to swap California for Hong Kong to lead data research institute​

• Scientist is expected to take a year-long sabbatical from University of California, Berkeley to lead the new Institute of Data Science at Hong Kong University
• Ma, who says he likes to challenge himself ‘every 5 years’, will head the body which is looking to become a global leader in the field

Ling Xin in Beijing
Published: 7:00pm, 15 Nov, 2022

Professor Yi Ma will be heading to Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Chinese-born artificial intelligence expert Ma Yi has said he will take unpaid leave from the University of California, Berkeley next year to lead a data research institute in Hong Kong.
Ma, who celebrated his 50th birthday with students and colleagues last week at Berkeley where he had worked for the past five years, tweeted: “I always challenge myself every 5 years. Starting Jan 1, I will serve as the director of a new Institute of Data Science of Hong Kong University.”

Ma, who specialises in computer vision, signal processing and control, intelligent systems and robotics, did not respond to inquiries about how long he would spend in the new role and what he hoped to achieve there.

However, unlike structural biologist Nieng Yan – who announced earlier this month that she would resign from Princeton University to join the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation – Ma is expected to take a one-year sabbatical, a common practice in US academia, to lead the institute.

“The institute is very well funded and plans to recruit up to 30 new faculty in the general areas of data science and intelligence,” Ma wrote on Twitter.

“Of course, many related positions will also be available in the coming years, including researchers, engineers, postdocs, and graduate students. Young researchers and scientists in related areas probably should pay more attention to this great place.”

The Institute of Data Science, funded by a HK$150 million (US$19 million) donation from the Musketeers foundation, opened in January with the stated goal of becoming a world-class data science hub that can attract the best talent from across the globe.

The institute focuses on three research areas: fundamental data science, smart cities and explainable AI and human-machine interplays according to its website.
It is also the first of 10 research institutes in the university’s technological development blueprint for the next decade.

Ma received his bachelor’s degree in automation and applied mathematics from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1995. He went on to earn his PhD in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC Berkeley in 2000.

Since then he has jumped between academic and industrial positions in China and the United States, including the University of Illinois’s department of electrical and computer engineering, the visual computing group at Microsoft Research Asia and a founding role at ShanghaiTech University’s school of information science and technology.

In 2018, Ma returned to Berkeley as a professor in residence at the department of electrical engineering and computer sciences.

He will give a seminar at Hong Kong University on November 25 to discuss his latest work, according to the university’s website.

“As if destined, I always run into new opportunities and challenges every five years in my life,” he wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“Confucius said: at age fifty, you know your destiny,” he wrote. “Somehow I got the feeling that I just started to realise what my life is all about. I shall dedicate the rest of my life to promoting the scientific spirit and free thinking, which is both my passion and mission.”