PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Longbing Cao

Also known as 操龙兵

Longbing Cao is an AI and data science researcher whose work spans data mining, analytics, and complex data systems. He joined UTS in 2005 after editorial, marketing, and technology work in Beijing, then built UTS research groups in data science and analytics. He founded IEEE data science task forces in 2013, established the IEEE DSAA conference and an ACM SIGKDD chapter in 2014, and published a 2018 book on data science thinking. He won the 2019 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science, and his 2020 paper described data science problems as complex systems. By 2025, he directs Macquarie University's Frontier AI Research Centre; as of October 2026, he is its Distinguished Chair in Artificial Intelligence and an ARC Future Fellow.

Born
1969

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2009

    From Beijing to UTS

    He joins UTS in 2005 after work as an editor, marketing strategist, deputy director, and chief technology officer in Beijing. He becomes a full professor there in 2009 and serves as Research Leader of the Data Mining Program at the Australian Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre. He holds a PhD in Computing Science from UTS, a PhD in Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an MSc in Data Communication Systems from China University of Mining Technology (Beijing), and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Fuxin Mining Institute.

  2. 2007–2011

    Building analytics research

    In 2007, he establishes UTS's Data Science and Knowledge Discovery lab. In 2011, he founds the Advanced Analytics Institute and establishes analytics research degrees at UTS; the university announces a Master of Analytics (Research) and a PhD major in Analytics as Australia's first research degrees in the field.

  3. 2013

    IEEE data science task forces

    In 2013, he founds IEEE task forces for data science and advanced analytics, behavior, economic and socio-cultural computing, and educational data mining.

  4. 2014

    IEEE DSAA and ACM SIGKDD

    In 2014, he establishes IEEE's Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics and the ACM SIGKDD Australia and New Zealand Chapter, alongside an international conference on behavior, economic and socio-cultural computing.

  5. 2018

    Data Science Thinking

    In 2018, he publishes Data Science Thinking: The Next Scientific, Technological and Economic Revolution, a book that frames data science thinking around methods, processes, and ways to handle data problems and systems.

  6. 2019

    A Eureka Prize for data science

    He wins the 2019 UTS Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science for theories and systems that analyze real-life data and support more efficient debt recovery and payment collection.

  7. 2020

    A paper on complex data systems

    In 2020, an arXiv version of his paper Data Science: Challenges and Directions frames data-science problems as complex systems and examines methods to handle them.

  8. As of October 2026

    Directing Macquarie's Frontier AI Centre

    By 2025, he directs Macquarie University's Frontier AI Research Centre. As of October 2026, he is the university's Distinguished Chair in Artificial Intelligence and an ARC Future Fellow (Level 3). An ARC project for 2026–2028 lists him and James Kwok on variational decentralized learning.

Career

  1. NowMacquarie UniversityDirector
  2. From 2007University of Technology SydneyFull professor, Founder
  3. 2005–2009Australian Capital Markets Cooperative Research CentreResearch Leader of the Data Mining Program

Education

  1. University of Technology SydneyPhD in Computing Science
  2. Chinese Academy of SciencesPhD in Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems
  3. China University of Mining and Technology - BeijingMSc in Data Communication Systems
  4. Fuxin Mining InstituteBachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Macquarie University. 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.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Macquarie University. 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.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Technology Sydney. 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 median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Technology Sydney. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

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 Longbing Cao yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Data Science Lab datasciences.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. UTS takes lead in launching research degrees in analytics uts.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Data science thinking datasciences.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. 2019 Eureka Prize winners australian.museum. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Data Science: Challenges and Directions arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Longbing Cao researchers.mq.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. ARC DP26: Convergence and Divergence Theories for Variational Decentralized Learning datasciences.org. Checked 20 October 2026.