PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Angela Yao

Also known as Yao Angela

Angela Yao is a computer vision researcher whose AI work helps machines interpret human actions in images and video. She studied Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, completed a PhD at ETH Zurich, led Bonn’s Visual Computing group, and co-founded the smart-parking company Parquery. At NUS, her work spans hand-pose estimation and video understanding; she received the German Pattern Recognition Award, the NRF Fellowship for AI, and a 2026 NRF Investigatorship for proactive AI assistance. As of October 2026, she is a Dean’s Chair Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research at NUS’s School of Computing.

Now at
National University of Singapore and School of Computing
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2014

    Co-founding Parquery

    She co-founds Parquery with Andrea Fossati in 2014. The smart-parking company uses camera-based AI to detect shapes in images and video.

  2. 2015–2018

    Junior Professor at Bonn

    She leads the Visual Computing group at the University of Bonn as a Junior Professor from 2015 to 2018.

  3. 2018

    An award and NUS appointment

    She receives the German Pattern Recognition Award in 2018 for work on hand-pose estimation and action recognition. In October 2018, she joins NUS Computing’s Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor.

  4. 2019

    The NRF Fellowship for AI

    In 2019, she receives the National Research Foundation Fellowship for Artificial Intelligence for a study of efficient video-analysis algorithms and methods for learning from large-scale video data. Her work on self-supervised 3D hand-pose estimation becomes a finalist for the 2019 CVPR Best Paper Award.

  5. 2025

    Understanding human hand movement

    Her training includes Engineering Science at the University of Toronto and a PhD at ETH Zurich. Her thesis focuses on human action recognition and AI algorithms for interpreting human activities in images and videos. In 2025, she and her team use weakly supervised and self-supervised learning to build AI models that predict hand movement and interaction from videos of everyday tasks.

  6. 2026

    An NRF Investigatorship

    She receives the 2026 National Research Foundation Investigatorship for “From Perception to Understanding: Contextual AI for Anticipatory and Proactive Assistance.” The award supports a five-year programme of high-risk research.

  7. As of October 2026

    Computer vision at NUS

    In 2026, she is a Dean’s Chair Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research at NUS’s School of Computing. She leads the Computer Vision and Machine Learning group’s work on human-centric vision and video understanding, and holds Program Chair appointments for CVPR 2027 and ICCV 2029.

Career

  1. Since 2018National University of SingaporeAssistant Professor
  2. NowSchool of ComputingGroup Lead
  3. 2015–2018University of BonnJunior Professor
  4. From 2014ParqueryCo-founder

Education

  1. University of TorontoEngineering Science
  2. ETH ZurichPhD

From the biography.

  1. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes National University of Singapore. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Angela Yao yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Angela Yao — Biography comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Parquery AG - a Parking Company on Parking Network parking.net. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. GCPR VMV (Awards) gcpr-vmv.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Three NUS Computing faculty members awarded the 2019 NRF Fellowship for Artificial Intelligence - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Inspiring women in STEM: Innovators, scientists, and role models shaping the future news.nus.edu.sg. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Three NUS Computing Faculty Awarded NRF Investigatorship Class of 2026 - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 20 October 2026.