Guo Yike

Guo Yike is a Chinese computer scientist who currently serves as provost of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) since 1 December 2022. He is concurrently a chair professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of HKUST. Prior to joining HKUST he has been a full professor in the Department of Computing of Imperial College London (Imperial College). During his time there, he founded the Data Science Institute in April 2014.

Guo focuses on the fields of data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Early life and education

Guo was born in 1962 in Shanghai. Three generations of his family are affiliated with Tsinghua University.

In 1978 when Guo graduated from middle school, Deng Xiaoping resumed university education system that was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution which gave Guo the chance to attend university. Deng has special significance to Guo.

Guo attended Tsinghua University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1985. As one of first PhD students at Tsinghua University following the Cultural Revolution, Guo initially signed up for a one-year AI training programme at Imperial College London since at the time the research environment in China was primitive. Eventually he enrolled in a full PhD programme and in 1994 received his PhD degree in computational logic under the supervision of John Darlington.

Academic career

In 1997, Guo was employed as a lecturer in the Department of Computing of Imperial College London and became a professor in 2002. He held the position until 2022.

From 2014 to 2020, Guo served as Non-Executive Dean of the School of Computer Engineering and Science at Shanghai University.

In late 2022, Guo left Imperial College to become provost of HKUST.

Other ventures

In 1998, Guo founded InforSense, an Imperial College Spin-out company. The company developed and rolled out core technology for big data processing in the pharmaceutical industry. It was sold in 2009.

Controversies In late 2023, a BBC Channel 4 documentary, "Secrets and Power: China in the UK" investigated Chinese state interference with UK institutions and repression of dissidents on UK soil.

It reported Guo wrote eight papers with collaborators from Shanghai University on developing ways to use AI to control fleets of drone ships. In 2019, Imperial College signed a £3m research deal with JARI (Jiangsu Automation Research Institute), a Chinese research institute with links to the Chinese military. The goals were to advance maritime forecasting, computer vision and intelligent manufacturing "for civilian applications" although military end-uses were also in consideration. The research deal was terminated in 2021 and Imperial College said that it returned the funding associated with the partnership. Guo said his papers were "basic" and "written to help expand our existing base of scientific or technological knowledge rather than immediately solve specific real-world problems". He added: “The papers include viewpoints that can benefit societies worldwide.”

Affiliations Per:

Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow of British Computer Society Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences Fellow of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence Member of Academia Europaea

Honours and awards Per: 2017 Regius Professor in Computer Science (offered) 2017 ACM SIGMM: Best Open Source Software Award 2016 China Internet Network Information Center: Top 10 Data Scientists in China 2014 Bio-IT World: Best Practice Award 2005 Bio-IT World: Best of the Show Award 2002 ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference: Most Innovative Award 1998 ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference: Terabyte Challenge Award