Department of Computer Science
Brunel University London
Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1895 265850
Fax: +44 1895 251686
Email: Yongmin.Li AT brunel.ac.uk


Prof. Yongmin Li received his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, MEng and BEng from Tsinghua University, China. Before joining Brunel University, he worked as a research scientist in the British Telecom Laboratories. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He was ranked in the world's top 2% scientists by the Standardized Citation Indicators (Elsevier) every year since 2020.

His research interest covers the areas of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, image processing, computer vision, video analysis, medical imaging, bio-imaging, biomedical engineering, healthcare technologies, automatic control and nonlinear filtering.

Together with his colleagues, their work has won the following awards:

1. First Place, the Retinal OCT Fluid Challenge (RETOUCH, Online), MICCAI 2023 (with Mark Ndipenoch, Alina Miron and Zidong Wang).
2. Second Place, the Fetal Tissue Annotation and Segmentation Challenge (FeTA), MICCAI 2022 (with Niccolo McConnell, Mark Ndipenoch and Alina Miron).
3. Most Influential Paper over the Decade Award, MVA, 2019 (with Andrzej Ruta, Fatih Porikli, Shintaro Watanabe, Hiroshi Kage and Kazuhiko Sumi).
4. Best Paper Award, Bioimaging, 2018 (with Bashir Dodo, Khalid Eltayef and Xiaohui Liu).
5. VC Prize, Brunel University, 2015 (with Djibril Kaba and Xiaohui Liu).
6. Best Paper Award, HIS, 2012 (with Ana Salazar-Gonzalez and Djibril Kaba).
7. Best Poster Prize, BMVC, 2007 (with Andrzej Ruta and Xiaohui Liu).
8. Best Scientific Paper Award, BMVC, 2001 (with Shaogang Gong and Heather Liddell).
9. Best Paper Prize, RATFG, 2001 (with Shaogang Gong and Heather Liddell).

Prospective PhD Students: We invite talented and hard-working students to join us for their PhD study. Currently we have several projects on-going, but any other topics within the area of artificial intelligence and data science would also be welcome.

1. Deep Learning for Medical Imaging
2. Generative AI for Digital Marketing
3. Natural Language Processing for Business Intelligence

From time to time, we may have studentships available, which include an annual bursary plus payment of tuition fees for three years. Most studentships are available to UK students only. While some are advertised as open to "international" students (the vast majority of applications we receive unfortunately), the competition is extremely high. To be considered for these studentships, you need to (1) have an excellent academic record and (2) demonstrate great research potential, such as publications, awards etc. Other opportunities of paid jobs such as teaching assistants are also available, e.g. up to 180 hours per academic year (about £5000 at the current rates). If your decision is largely dependent on financial support, please contact me first before applying.

For Chinese students only: Twenty (20) China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarships are available for PhD studies at Brunel University of London. Brunel University of London will provide full tuition fees (up to 48 months) for each successful candidate. The CSC will provide each scholarship recipient with a stipend for living costs (including medical insurance), one international round trip economy class airfare between China and the UK, and reimbursement for one-off visa application fees. Follow this link to apply.
Deadline : 3 January 2025 at 12am
Expected start date: September 2025


Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence 2024/25: Building on our strong international research profile (consistently ranked in the top 200 in the world over the past decade by various ranking systems, and particularly strong in publication performance, e.g. 7th in the UK by NTU World University Rankings 2023: Computer Science), we offer the MSc Artificial Intelligence course with great flexibility (1 year full-time, 2 year part-time or 3 year staged study). If you are interested, apply here.

Fifteen (15) scholarships available for applicants from under-represented groups, £10,000 of each. Unlimited number of the new Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Awards of £5000 fee reduction for self-funded international students.


Research & Development Collaboration: Developing downstream applications of large AI models is a focused area of my group in the upcoming years. We can assist you in obtaining funding from sources like UKRI, EU, or Innovate UK, potentially cutting your costs in the project significantly (e.g. by 1/3 or more), plus the university's input. We have a strong record of securing funding for industrial partners. Contact me if you have a collaboration project.