Professor Yukun Lai

Biography

Education and Qualifications

• 2008: PhD (Computer Science and Technology), Tsinghua University, China
• 2006: MSc (Computer Science and Technology), Tsinghua University, China
• 2003: BSc (Computer Science and Technology), Tsinghua University, China

Career overview

• 2009 - present: School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University

Honours and awards

• Computers & Graphics Valuable Reviewer Award 2013-2014.
• Best paper award at Computational Visual Media (CVM) 2012.
• National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China Award, 2010.
• Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship, 2007.

Professional memberships

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy.
• Member of ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE, Eurographics and Asia Graphics.
• Member of EPSRC Peer Review College

Academic positions

• 8/2020 - : Professor, Cardiff University
• 8/2018 - 7/2020: Reader, Cardiff University
• 8/2016 - 7/2018: Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University
• 4/2009 - 7/2016: Lecturer, Cardiff University

Committees and reviewing

• 2019-present: Director of Research
• 2017-2019: Deputy Director of Research
• 2017-2018: Deputy Director of PGR Studies
• 2017-2018: Member of School Seminar Team
• 2009 - 2017: Year 2 Tutor, School of Computer Science and Informatics

Publications

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

Teaching

In the 2022/23 academic year, I am involved in the teaching of the following modules:

• CM1208 Maths for Computer Science
• CMT307 Applied Machine Learning (shared with Dr. Yuhua Li and Dr Yipeng Qin)
• CMT316 Applications of Machine Learning: Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision (CV) (shared with Dr. Yuhua Li and Dr Yipeng Qin)

My research interests include computer graphics, geometric modelling and processing, computer vision, image processing and computer aided geometric design. Specific topics of my recent research include Shape Analysis and Matching, Data Driven Visual Computing, Image Stylisation and Abstraction, etc.

Current research projects:

• Deep Representations for Analysis and Reconstruction of 3D Shapes with Complex Structure and Rich Details, Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship, 12/2019-5/2023, UK lead (with Dr Lin Gao from Chinese Academy of Sciences)
• Structural analysis of Stereoscopic 360-degree video for mixed reality. Royal Society, 9/2018-8/2023, PI.

Recently finished research projects:

• Perceptual shape optimisation for 3D printing. Royal Society, 3/2018-3/2022, PI.
• Intrinsic Voronoi/Delaunay structure on manifold mesh and its applications in visual computing. Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship, 3/2016-2/2020, UK lead (with Dr Yongjin Liu from Tsinghua University, China)
• Data-driven realistic human motion reconstruction. Royal Society Newton Mobility Grant, 4/2016-3/2018, UK lead (with Dr Lin Gao from Institute of Computing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China).

Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

• 3D geometry analysis and content generation
• Learning-based image enhancement
• Visual content recognition
• Human factors in visual computing
• Visual computing applications, e.g. medical imaging, healthcare, cultural heritage, etc.

Current supervision

Past projects

I have supervised the following projects

• Co-supervisor for Fatahiyah Anuar: Trade Mark Similarity Assessment Support System (awarded 2015)
• Supervisor for Ashwan Abdulmunem: Human Behaviour Recognition in Video Sequences (awarded 2016)
• Supervisor for Roberto Dyke: Registration of non-rigidly deforming objects (awarded 2021)