AI expert Guo-Jun Qi leaves US for China
After a decade in America, a leading computer scientist has returned to China to head a top artificial intelligence lab

The 43-year-old Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellow and distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery is now a full-time faculty member at Westlake’s School of Engineering, where he leads the Machine Perception and Learning (MAPLE) Lab, according to a university social media post.
“I was drawn to the free-spirited atmosphere at Westlake University and wanted to come back and pursue something I truly wanted to do,” the Chinese-born expert said in an interview with the university.
Qi earned a bachelor’s degree in automation from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2005. He later obtained two PhDs – one from USTC in 2009 and another from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2012.