PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Huiyu Zhou

Also known as Huiyu (Joe) Zhou

Huiyu Zhou is a Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Leicester, where his computer vision and machine learning work reaches from object tracking to medical image analysis. He holds a BEng from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, an MSc from the University of Dundee and a computer vision PhD from Heriot-Watt University, and in 2009 he published a SIFT and mean-shift object tracker in Computer Vision and Image Understanding. After lecturing at Queen's University Belfast from 2012 to 2017, he was a Reader at Leicester from 2018 to 2020 and held the title of Professor of Machine Learning by 2022. Paper awards came from CVIU in 2012, ICPRAM in 2016 and MIUA in 2020, and in 2025 the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence gave him its Distinguished Artificial Intelligence Scholar Award. He heads Leicester's AI and Machine Learning Group, leads its Biomedical Image Processing Lab and sits on the Royal Society's International Exchanges Committee.

Timeline

  1. 2009

    SIFT and mean-shift tracking

    In 2009, his paper 'Object tracking using SIFT features and mean shift', written with Yuan Yuan and Chunmei Shi, appears in Computer Vision and Image Understanding. It combines SIFT feature matching with a color-histogram mean shift search in an expectation-maximization scheme to track objects in real scenes.

  2. 2012–2017

    Lecturer at Queen's Belfast

    He earns a BEng in radio technology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, an MSc in biomedical engineering at the University of Dundee, and a PhD in computer vision at Heriot-Watt University, supervised by Patrick Green and Andrew Wallace. From 2012 to 2017, he is a lecturer in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen's University Belfast.

  3. 2012–2020

    Paper awards from CVIU to MIUA

    He wins the CVIU 2012 Most Cited Paper Award, the ICPRAM 2016 Best Paper Award and the MIUA 2020 Best Paper Award.

  4. 2018–2020

    Reader at Leicester

    From 2018 to 2020, he is a Reader in the Department of Informatics at the University of Leicester. By 2018, he has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers.

  5. By 2022

    Professor of Machine Learning

    By 2022, he is Professor of Machine Learning in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Leicester. He leads the Biomedical Image Processing Lab as its principal investigator.

  6. June 2025

    A Distinguished AI Scholar Award

    In June 2025, the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence names him recipient of its 2025 Distinguished Artificial Intelligence Scholar Award, for presentation at its annual conference in Bangkok.

  7. July 2025

    Histopathology AI and journal editing

    In July 2025, he gives a talk titled 'When histopathology meets artificial intelligence', which covers an efficient multi-scale approach to colorectal tumour segmentation. He is Editor-in-Chief of Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and Pattern Recognition, and an area chair of ICRA, IJCAI and BMVC.

  8. As of October 2026

    Heading Leicester's AI group

    He heads the AI and Machine Learning Group at the University of Leicester and is Deputy Director of its Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Modelling. He serves on the Royal Society's International Exchanges Committee from January 2025 to December 2027.

Career

  1. Since 2018University of LeicesterReader
  2. 2012–2017Queen's University BelfastLecturer

Education

  1. Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyBEng
  2. University of DundeeMSc
  3. Heriot-Watt UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Huiyu Zhou. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Leicester. 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.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Leicester. 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.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Object tracking using SIFT features and mean shift - Aston Research Explorer research.aston.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Professor Huiyu Zhou | Royal Society royalsociety.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. 一周学术活动【7月22日-7月28日】 (Zhejiang Normal University) kjc.zjnu.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Writing papers for IEEE Transactions and Journals (Shanghai University) auto.shu.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Professor Huiyu Zhou, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences – Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies leicias.le.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. BIPL - Team bipl-uol.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Leicester AI Professor Wins Prestigious International Award - Leicester Times leicestertimes.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. 学术报告20250716：When histopathology meets artificial intelligence (Inner Mongolia University) math.imu.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.