Zheng Yu, an outstanding alumnus of the University, was elected as an IEEE Fellow 2021 for his prominent contribution in spatio-temporal data mining and urban computing on November 25, 2020. Among the 282 new elects from the world, 75 are Chinese scholars, accounting for 26.6% of the total.

About Zheng Yu

Zheng Yu studied at the Programme of Mechanical Engineering and Automation of the University from 1997 to 2001 and earned his Bachelor of Engineering. From 2003 to 2006, he pursued his Ph. D degree in Communication and Information System at the University. Dr. Zheng currently acts as Vice President of JD Group, President of JD Cities and Chief Data Scientist of JD Digits. He also serves as Director (Adjunct) of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at the University, chair professor, guest professor and doctoral advisor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University and other prestigious universities. In addition, he is Chief Editor of ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (ACM TIST) and Secretary General of SIGKDD China Chapter of Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD China).

As a pioneer and founder of urban computing, Zheng edited the book, Urban Computing (published by MIT Press) which is the first textbook in this field. In 2013, he was named one of the Top Innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review (TR35). In 2014, as a leading figure, he was nominated as one of the Top 40 Business Elites under 40 in China by Fortune for the promising business outlook and the potential of urban computing to change the industry. In 2016, he was recognized as Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 2019, he served as Chief Scientist and Director General of the National Key R & D Program.

IEEE, short for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is not only the world's largest non-profit professional technology society but also an association designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization in the United States. Election to the grade of IEEE Fellow is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon members by the Institute. Every year, the Fellows are selected among those with grade of Senior or Life Member by peer experts of IEEE. The elected are the members who make significant contributions to the progress or application of science, engineering and technology, being of great value to the society. Since the number of elected members makes up less than 1 ‰ of the total number of IEEE members in that year, the Fellows are basically distinguished scientists who have made significant achievements in the field of science, engineering and technology.