Leading AI scientist Alex Kot moves to a Sino-Russian university in China

Alex Kot, a top AI and computer expert who has been with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore for more than 30 years, has joined a university in China that was jointly built with Russia.

Kot will serve as a distinguished professor and chief scientist at Shenzhen MSU-BIT University (SMBU), a Chinese-foreign cooperative university.

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The university held a formal appointment ceremony for Kot on September 3, attended by rector Li Hezhang and first vice-rector Sergei Ivanchenko, who presented Kot with the appointment letter. It said on its website that Kot was appointed as a consulting professor in October last year.

Kot, a fellow of the Academy of Engineering, Singapore and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, said he would “devote himself fully to the construction and development of the school, contributing his efforts to breakthroughs in engineering disciplines and the establishment of research platforms”, according to an SMBU statement.

He has published more than 300 technical papers in the areas of signal processing for communication, biometric recognition, authentication, image forensics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Kot graduated with a bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Rochester in the United States before obtaining a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Rhode Island in 1984 and 1989, respectively.

South China Morning Post