PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Gang Wang

Also known as Michael Wang, 王刚

Computer vision researcher Gang Wang connects 3D action recognition with Alibaba's AI products and cleaning robots. He studied engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, completed a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and worked at Singapore's Advanced Digital Science Center from 2010 to 2014. His 2016 work includes NTU RGB+D and a trust-gated LSTM, and he coauthored a survey of convolutional neural networks in 2018. At Nanyang Technological University, he led a research team of about 20; in 2017 he joined Alibaba's AI lab, helped develop Tmall Genie, and earned a place on MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list; from 2018 to 2021, he led Alibaba's autonomous-driving lab under DAMO Academy. As of October 2026, he is founder and CEO of CenoBots, a company that manufactures intelligent cleaning robots.

Now at
Cenozoic Robotics
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2010–2014

    Research scientist in Singapore

    He studies engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology and earns a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 2010 to 2014, he works as a research scientist at the Advanced Digital Science Center in Singapore.

  2. 2016

    NTU RGB+D and trust gates

    In 2016, he coauthors NTU RGB+D, a dataset with more than 56,000 video samples in 60 action classes for 3D human activity analysis. He also coauthors Spatio-Temporal LSTM with Trust Gates, which uses a gating mechanism to learn how reliable sequential input data is.

  3. By 2017

    Tenured associate professor at NTU

    By 2017, he is a tenured associate professor in Nanyang Technological University's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and leads a research team of approximately 20 people.

  4. 2017

    Alibaba AI Lab and Tmall Genie

    In March 2017, he joins Alibaba's AI lab as chief scientist, responsible for machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. He is one of the scientists behind Tmall Genie, Alibaba's first AI-based product, released in July 2017, and MIT Technology Review names him among its 2017 Innovators Under 35.

  5. 2018

    A survey of convolutional networks

    In 2018, he coauthors Recent Advances in Convolutional Neural Networks, a Pattern Recognition survey that reviews CNN research in computer vision, speech, and natural language processing.

  6. 2018–2021

    Autonomous driving at DAMO

    Alibaba establishes an autonomous driving lab under its DAMO Academy in 2018, and he heads it as a vice president for three years. The lab launches a low-speed delivery robot in 2020, and he resigns from Alibaba in December 2021.

  7. 2022

    Planning a robot vacuum startup

    In January 2022, he plans to found a startup developing robot vacuum cleaners. CenoBots (Cenozoic Robotics), which he founds, develops intelligent cleaning robots.

  8. As of October 2026

    Founder and CEO of CenoBots

    He is the founder and CEO of CenoBots, a company that manufactures intelligent cleaning robots.

Career

  1. NowCenozoic RoboticsFounder and CEO
  2. 2017–2021AlibabaChief Scientist, Head and Vice President
  3. 2010–2014Advanced Digital Science CenterResearch Scientist
  4. Nanyang Technological UniversityAssociate Professor

Education

  1. Harbin Institute of Technology
  2. University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignPhD

From the biography.

  1. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Alibaba. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  2. Universities (31%) and startups and other companies (25%) employ the largest shares of 2020–2026 entrantsIncludes Alibaba. Among 819 people whose first recorded role started in 2020–2026 and who have a known current organization, 60% work in commercial sectors (25% at startups and other companies, 23% at frontier labs and 13% at big tech, with 9 in two), and 31% work at universities, compared with 66% for earlier entrants.
  3. The top 10 organizations employed 22% of people shaping AI in 2025: 51% of company researchers and 21% of university researchersIncludes Alibaba. We estimate the share of people shaping AI who worked at the top 10 organizations each year from 1955 to 2025, comparing concentration across companies, universities, and institutes and labs.
  4. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Alibaba. We estimate that 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a company; 29% of moves starting at a university went to a company, and 76% ended the university role.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Wang Gang (computer scientist) - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. NTU RGB+D: A Large Scale Dataset for 3D Human Activity Analysis arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Spatio-Temporal LSTM with Trust Gates for 3D Human Action Recognition arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Six Chinese Make MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 2017 yicaiglobal.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Gang Wang | Innovators Under 35 innovatorsunder35.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Recent Advances in Convolutional Neural Networks arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Alibaba's self-driving team to be absorbed by logistics arm in major setback technode.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Head of Alibaba's autonomous driving lab leaves the company technode.com. Checked 22 October 2026.