PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Yingli Tian

Also known as Ying-li Tian, YingLi Tian

Yingli Tian is a distinguished professor at the City College of New York, and her computer-vision work covers facial expression analysis, human activity understanding and assistive technology. She received her PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1996. At IBM Research from 2001, she led a video analytics team and received IBM invention awards from 2002 to 2007. Her facial expression research with Takeo Kanade and Jeff Cohn won the 2019 Test of Time Award at the IEEE face and gesture conference. She became an IEEE Fellow in 2018 and a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition in 2020.

Timeline

  1. 1996

    A doctorate in Hong Kong

    In 1996, she receives her PhD from the Department of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

  2. 2001–2008

    Video analytics at IBM

    Her IBM Research years begin in 2001 at the T. J. Watson Research Center, where she leads the video analytics team.

  3. 2002–2007

    IBM invention awards

    Two IBM awards arrive: Invention Achievement Awards from 2002 to 2007, and the Outstanding Innovation Achievement Award in 2007.

  4. 2008

    Joining City College

    In 2008, she joins the City College of New York and focuses her work on assistive technology that applies computer vision.

  5. 2018

    Named an IEEE Fellow

    The IEEE makes her a Fellow in 2018 for her work in automatic facial expression analysis and human activity understanding.

  6. 2019

    A Test of Time Award

    Her work with Takeo Kanade and Jeff Cohn on facial expression analysis wins the 2019 Test of Time Award at the IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition.

  7. 2020

    An IAPR fellowship

    In 2020, the International Association for Pattern Recognition elects her a Fellow for contributions to automatic facial expression analysis and human activity understanding.

  8. As of October 2026

    Distinguished professor at City College

    Her current post is Distinguished Professor in electrical engineering at City College of New York and in computer science at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Sources and credits

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  1. Prof Tian Yingli 50.ee.cuhk.edu.hk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Yingli Tian - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Welcome to Dr. YingLi Tian's Homepage media-lab.ccny.cuny.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Welcome to Dr. YingLi Tian's Homepage | Awards media-lab.ccny.cuny.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Yingli Tian - The 20th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition fg2026.ieee-biometrics.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.