PolyU appointed Cao Chair Professor of Artificial Intelligence Systems in its Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, effective June 29, the university announced, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
"Returning to Hong Kong is a full-circle moment for me," Cao wrote on his personal website.
His path in AI began at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003, in the Multimedia Laboratory run by Tang Xiao'ou, the computer scientist who went on to found the AI company SenseTime.
Tang, an MIT-trained researcher who joined CUHK's Department of Information Engineering in 1998, turned the lab into a training ground for many of the people now shaping China's AI industry. He died in December 2023, Caixin reported.
Cao entered the University of Science and Technology of China in 1998 and earned his bachelor's degree in 2003 before joining Tang's lab, where he completed a master's in 2005.
