PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alan William Dougherty

Also known as Alan Dougherty

Alan William Dougherty is a researcher whose work connects machine learning with graphdiyne catalyst discovery, video pose estimation and immersive online learning. Born in London, he earned an MEng in electronic engineering from King’s College London in 2013 and a PhD in pattern recognition and machine intelligence from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2019. He coauthored MixSynthFormer, which estimates human poses in video from sparsely sampled frames, and SAILS, an accessible immersive online learning system for young learners. As of October 2026, he is a lecturer and Master Programme Assistant Director at HKU’s School of Computing and Data Science.

Timeline

  1. 2013–2019

    Degrees in London and Hong Kong

    Born in London, he earns an MEng in electronic engineering from King’s College London in 2013. He completes a PhD in pattern recognition and machine intelligence at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2019.

  2. 2019

    Mapping catalysts on graphdiyne

    In 2019, he coauthors a study that maps transition metals anchored on graphdiyne and quantifies the electron transfer and zero-valence stability of atomic catalysts.

  3. 2020

    Machine learning for catalysts

    In 2020, he coauthors a study that combines density functional theory with a bag-tree machine-learning approach to screen graphdiyne-based atomic catalysts for hydrogen evolution.

  4. 2021

    Dual atomic catalysts

    In 2021, he coauthors a study of graphdiyne-based dual atomic catalysts that uses machine learning to examine their stability and electroactivity.

  5. 2023

    MixSynthFormer estimates video poses

    In 2023, he coauthors MixSynthFormer, a transformer encoder-like model that mixes synthetic spatial and temporal attention to estimate human poses in video from sparsely sampled frames.

  6. 2025

    SAILS for immersive online learning

    In 2025, he coauthors SAILS, a synchronous accessible immersive online learning system for young learners, presented at the 16th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference.

  7. As of October 2026

    Lecturer and Master Programme Assistant Director

    As of October 2026, he is a lecturer and Master Programme Assistant Director at HKU’s School of Computing and Data Science. In January 2026, HKU names him an instructor for a free AI Literacy mini-course for computer science alumni.

Career

  1. Since 2026University of Hong KongLecturer

Education

  1. 2019Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityPhD
  2. 2013King's College LondonMEng

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Hong Kong. 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.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Hong Kong. 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.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Hong Kong. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. 5 of the 25 people with the most-cited recent papers also lead on career citationsIncludes University of Hong Kong. We compare citations to 2023–2025 papers with career citations and h-index, after correcting reviewed publication-date errors: who leads, when they started and where they work.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. GroupMembers coreatshell.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Mapping of atomic catalyst on graphdiyne - PolyU Scholars Hub research.polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Accelerating Atomic Catalyst Discovery by Theoretical Calculations-Machine Learning Strategy - PolyU Scholars Hub research.polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Self-Validated Machine Learning Study of Graphdiyne-Based Dual Atomic Catalyst - PolyU Scholars Hub research.polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. MixSynthFormer: A Transformer Encoder-like Structure with Mixed Synthetic Self-attention for Efficient Human Pose Estimation openaccess.thecvf.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. ACM MMSys'25 - Detailed Programme 2025.acmmmsys.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Academic Staff - HKU School of Computing and Data Science (HKUCDS) cds.hku.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. CDS Launches AI Literacy Free Mini-Course for HKU Alumni - HKU School of Computing and Data Science (HKUCDS) cds.hku.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.