PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ran Cheng

Ran Cheng is a computer scientist whose work in evolutionary computation aims to build efficient, scalable and evolvable AI systems. After a BSc at Northeastern University in 2010 and a PhD at the University of Surrey in 2016, he published a reference vector guided evolutionary algorithm for many-objective optimization with Yaochu Jin, Markus Olhofer and Bernhard Sendhoff, then worked at the University of Birmingham and the Southern University of Science and Technology. His 2019 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award was followed by EvoX, a distributed GPU-accelerated framework for evolutionary computation that he initiated as an open-source project and that appeared on arXiv in 2023. A Best Paper Award at ACM GECCO 2024 and the 2025 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding Early Career Award came next, along with a place on Clarivate's 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list. Since December 2024, he is an Associate Professor and Presidential Young Scholar in the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he is also Associate Head (Outreach and Partnership).

Timeline

  1. 2010–2016

    Northeastern and Surrey degrees

    A BSc from Northeastern University in China comes in 2010, and a PhD from the University of Surrey in the U.K. follows in 2016.

  2. October 2016

    Reference vector guided algorithm

    IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation publishes his paper with Yaochu Jin, Markus Olhofer and Bernhard Sendhoff on a reference vector guided evolutionary algorithm for many-objective optimization in October 2016. The reference vectors split the problem into single-objective subproblems and let users target a preferred part of the Pareto front.

  3. 2016–2018

    Research fellow at Birmingham

    From 2016 to 2018, he is a Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham in the U.K.

  4. 2018–2024

    Faculty post at SUSTech

    In September 2018, he joins the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China. Before moving to Hong Kong in 2024, he is an Associate Professor there.

  5. 2019

    An IEEE dissertation award

    He receives the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award in 2019.

  6. 2023–2024

    EvoX and a GECCO award

    EvoX, a distributed GPU-accelerated framework for evolutionary computation that he initiates as an open-source project, appears on arXiv in January 2023 in a paper he coauthors with Beichen Huang, Zhuozhao Li, Yaochu Jin and Kay Chen Tan. The 2024 version describes a library of 50+ algorithms. He also receives the Best Paper Award at ACM GECCO 2024.

  7. 2025

    IEEE early career award

    In 2025, he receives the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding Early Career Award, presented at the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation in Hangzhou, China. Clarivate's 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list also names him in Computer Science.

  8. Since December 2024

    Associate Professor at PolyU

    He joins the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in December 2024 as an Associate Professor and Presidential Young Scholar. He is also its Associate Head (Outreach and Partnership), and his research covers evolutionary computation, AI systems and physical AI.

Career

  1. Since 2024Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityAssociate Professor; Presidential Young Scholar; Associate Head (Outreach and Partnership)
  2. 2018–2024Southern University of Science and TechnologyAssociate Professor
  3. 2016–2018University of BirminghamResearch Fellow

Education

  1. 2016University of SurreyPhD
  2. 2010Northeastern UniversityBSc

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 Ran Cheng. 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. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Hong Kong Polytechnic 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 Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 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 Hong Kong Polytechnic 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.

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 Ran Cheng yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Welcome On Board - Associate Professor and Presidential Young Scholar Dr CHENG Ran | Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. A Reference Vector Guided Evolutionary Algorithm for Many-Objective Optimization - PolyU Scholars Hub research.polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. PeerJ - Profile - Ran Cheng peerj.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. EvoX: A Distributed GPU-accelerated Framework for Scalable Evolutionary Computation arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Prof. CHENG Ran | Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Prof. CHENG Ran Receives the 2025 IEEE CIS Outstanding Early Career Award polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. DSAI Scholars Named Highly Cited Researchers 2025 by Clarivate Analytics polyu.edu.hk. Checked 22 October 2026.