Note from the Dean · New Year Message 2024

Dear Colleagues,
In 2023, the school emerged stronger from the COVID pandemic and ended its 3rd anniversary on a high note. The close of a year is a time of reflection, and I am delighted to share the highlights of the school’s journey.
The School’s international stature continues to grow. In 2023, the full-time faculty has reached 67, which doubles the size of 2020, while the number of undergraduate students, Master's students, and Ph.D. students has reached 1550, 361, and 130 respectively, marking a 10% growth over the previous year. 6 faculty members were added to China’s national talent programs, 1 was added to Guangdong’s provincial talent program, and 22 were honored as Top 2% Scientists Worldwide 2023 by Stanford University.
Our M.Sc. in Data Science was ranked No. 1 in China, its Graduate Employability was ranked No. 7 in the world by 2024 Master’s in Business Analytics Ranking, QS World University Rankings. Our Computer Science discipline remained at the 11th position in China and moved up to No. 92 in the world according to CSRankings.
Beyond the numbers, the School has been pursuing its mission with success. In 2023, the School was committed to strengthening the faculty bonding by building a people-centric culture. With a shared value and streamlined operating practices, we are ready ever than before for the next phase of growth towards a global leading institution. I would like to thank you for your contributions to the school building, and your participation in faculty meetings, faculty retreats, Dean’s lunches, New Year Gala, and many different gathering occasions.
Our efforts in the previous years have borne fruits. We launched the M.Sc. in AI and Robotics programme with the first batch of 55 students, and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mathematical Foundation of AI. The inter-campus collaboration has grown ever stronger, as highlighted by the launch of the X + Interdisciplinary Data Analytics Double Major programme, i.e. 2+2 Programme, jointly with CUHK, and two joint faculty retreats.
Our commitment to advancing scientific research is bolstered by a plentiful of new research grants. In particular, our faculty secured over RMB 23.8 million of research grants from government agencies and industry in 2023. We made inroads into Natural Science Foundation of China Major Project, and landed Longgang District Key Laboratory in the School. This is a strong endorsement of our quality research that is relevant to the national priority and to the industry. I would also like to congratulate Professors Zizhuo Wang and Arnulf Jentzen for winning the university’s Young Researcher Awards 2022. You have done us proud!
As a continuous effort to improve teaching and learning, we started a SDS Teaching Academy to help faculty improve classroom lecture delivery in 2023. Our Probability and Statistics (I) course was recognized as a Provincial First-Class Undergraduate Course. Congratulations to Professor Andre Milzarek for winning Presidential Exemplary Teaching Award 2022. You set us an example! As an affirmation of our quality educational programs, the school received a donation of RMB 16 million to establish Yongping Duan Data Science Scholarship. The school would like to express its gratitude to Mr. Yongping Duan for his generous donation.
Our faculty and students flew the School flag high internationally. Many received prestigious scientific awards and recognitions, our students won major international competitions. I would like to mention a few,
- Junfeng Wu was appointed Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems
- Zhizheng Wu was appointed Associate Editor of IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing
- Jianfeng Yao was elected as Scientific Secretary and Member of the Executive Committee of the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability,
- Haizhou Li, was elected as Vice President, IEEE Signal Processing Society,
- Shuang Li was named Outstanding Young Chinese Women Scholars in AI by Baidu
- Wenye Li was honored with "Outstanding Teacher of Shenzhen" Award
- The undergraduate school team (led by Professors Yixiang Fang and Chenhao Ma) soared through the regional games, and entered the Final of International Collegiate Programming Contest
- The release of Amphion open-source platform by Professor Zhizheng Wu and team made wave in Silicon Valley – ‘A+++ my first one ever, Well done! This is the future’ by Jason Calacanis
- The second release of HuatuoGPT by a joint team of SDS and SRIBD passed the national pharmacist vocational exam of China
- 26 papers by our students and faculty were accepted by NeurIPS 2023
2023 has been a year of remarkable progress and renewal, and I thank everyone for your contributions. 2024 presents us with many opportunities. I am proud that the school family is striving together towards our vision. We will usher in the Chinese New Year of the Dragon in January. The Dragon is a supernatural being with no parallel for talent and excellence, that is our pursuit. May the Year of the Dragon bring you success and good luck in all your endeavors.
Thank you for your continued contributions!
Best regards,
Haizhou Li,
Executive Dean
Jim Dai,
Dean