CDSAI Director receives the 2024 Australasian Artificial Intelligence Distinguished Research Contribution Award
Professor Mengjie Zhang, Director of the Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CDSAI), has been honoured with the 2024 Australasian Artificial Intelligence Distinguished Research Contribution Award.
The award recognises individuals or groups making influential and ground-breaking research contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Professor Zhang is the first AI researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand to receive this award since its inception, marking a historic milestone. Professor Zhang accepted the award at the AJCAI conference in Melbourne last week.
"This award is a profound acknowledgment of my life's work in artificial intelligence. At the Centre, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of AI research to solve real-world challenges and create meaningful impact," says Professor Zhang.
Mengjie Zhang is a Professor of Computer Science (AI) at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, where he led the establishment of Te Whiri Kawe—Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The Centre was launched in June 2023 by the Minister of Research, Science, and Innovation and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computational Intelligence Society President. Mengjie also heads the Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning Research Group.
Professor Zhang has been a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi since 2017, a Fellow of IEEE since 2018, and a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand since 2022—making him the first in the fields of ICT, computer science, and AI in New Zealand to receive this distinction.