Yew-Soon Ong is currently a President's Chair Professor of Computer Science at the College of Computing & Data Science and Professor (Cross Appointment) of the School of Physical and Mathematical Science at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. At the same time, he is Chief Artificial Intelligence (CAS) Scientist of the Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). He was Chair of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University between 2016-2019, Director of the Singtel-NTU Cognitive & Artificial Intelligence Joint Lab (SCALE@NTU) since 2017, Director of Data Science and AI Research Centre from 2017 -2020, Director of the Centre for Computational Intelligence/Computational Intelligence Laboratory from 2008-2015 and Programme Principal Investigator of the Data Analytics & Complex System Programme in the Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab from 2013-2017. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Nanyang Technological University and subsequently his PhD on Artificial Intelligence in Complex Engineering Design from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the Singapore national academy of engineering, founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, founding Technical Editor-In-Chief of Memetic Computing Journal (Springer), Senior Editor of IEEE Transactions on Neural Network & Learning Systems, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, and chief co-editor of Book Series on Studies in Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization. He has received five IEEE outstanding paper awards and was listed as a Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher and among the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. He has published over 200 referred papers at ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS, IJCAI, AAAI, CVPR, KDD, WWW, AAMAS and ACM/IEEE Transactions. He is an area chair of NeurIPS, KDD and others.
Yew-Soon Ong is currently President's Chair Professor of Computer Science at the School of
Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. At
the same time, he is Chief Artificial Intelligence (CAS) Scientist of the Singapore's Agency
for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). At NTU, he serves as co-Director of the
Singtel-NTU Cognitive & Artificial Intelligence Joint Lab (SCALE@NTU). He was Chair of the
School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCSE), Nanyang Technological University from
2016-2019, Director of the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center (DSAIR)
from 2016-2022, Director of the Centre for Computational Intelligence from 2008-2015 and
Programme Principal Investigator of the Data Analytics & Complex System Programme
Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab from 2013-2017.
Professor Ong received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering (Specializing in Computing) from Nanyang Technological University and
subsequently his PhD (Thesis Title: Artificial Intelligence in Complex Engineering Design)
from the School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, under
the British Aerospace Engineering-Rolls Royce University Technology Partnership from
1999-2002. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of The Academy of Engineering Singapore, Area
Chair of several top AI conferences, and founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions
on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, Senior Associate Editor or Associate
Editor of IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Neural Network
& Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, and chief co-editor of
Book Series on Studies in Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization. His current research
interests is in artificial and computational intelligence, learning and evolution, transfer
& multi-task optimization, surrogate modelling and machine learning. His research grants
comprise of external funding from both national and international partners that include
Boeing Research & Development (USA), Rolls-Royce (UK) and Honda Research Institute Europe
(Germany), the National Research Foundation of Singapore, National Grid Office, A*STAR,
Singapore Technologies Dynamics and MDA-GAMBIT. His research on Memetic Computation was
first featured by Thomson Scientific's Essential Science Indicators as one of the most cited
emerging area of research in August 2007.
Professor Ong has been listed among the Stanford Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists yearly
from 2020-2024 and also a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in 2015 and 2016, and
among the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. He has received 5 IEEE top publication
awards, including the 2025, 2023, 2019, 2013 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Outstanding Paper Awards and the 2019 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Outstanding Paper Awards for his works in Transfer and Multitask Optimization, and the 2015
IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine Outstanding Paper Award. He has been a Professorial
fellow of the University of New South Wales (Australia), Visiting Professor of Imperial
College London (UK), Visiting professor of MIT (US), Visiting professor of Honda Research
Institute Europe (GM) and a Yonsei Distinguished Scholar (Korea).
Several of his technologies in Artificial & Computational Intelligence research have been
commercialized and licensed to companies and institutions, where he received the Research
Commercialization award in 2015. An overview of his research & technological showcase is
available 'Here'. His crowd intelligence
research has led to the AI-enabled IOS 'Dark-Dots Game'. It was the top action game in 48 countries
including USA, China and Singapore; downloaded by well over 448,000 players worldwide when
launched, with 27% of its players from China and 17% from the USA. The success of the AI
research-enabled IOS DarkDot Game has led to the Inzen Studio Pte. Ltd. Startup which
subsequently gave rise to the newly commercialized DarkDots'. Other successful translations of technologies in AI
include the: "Algorithm Development Environment for Problem Solving", a Patented AI training
AI systems and the "Large-Scale Engineering Simulation for Complex Adaptive Systems
(LesCaS)", a decision support system designed for large scale modelling, simulation and
optimization of complex systems, which was also transferred through licensing to the
industry.
In teaching, he has also received a number of awards including the 2023 Global MOOC and
Online Education Alliance Awards (GMAA) co-organized by UNESCO, Prestigious Nanyang
Education Award (University) in 2016, Nanyang Education Award (College of Engineering) in
2015, Nanyang Excellence Award (School of Computer Science & Engineering) in 2008, Most
Popular Lecturer Award 2009. He was featured in the 2014 Nanyang Chronicle for introducing
new waves of pedagogical and innovative use of technology to improve teaching, while
featured in the Bright Minds Magazine as a qualified faculty that transforms students into
promising gems in 2009. He is as Fellow of Renaissance Engineering Programme and committee
member of the Teaching Council at Nanyang Technological University.
Some Awards & Honours
IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Fellow Evaluation Committee Chair (2023-2025)
IEEE Transactions Outstanding Paper Awards (2025, 2023, 2019, 2013, 2012)
IEEE Computational Intelligence
Magazine Outstanding Paper Award (2015)
Stanford Elsevier World's Top
2% Scientists (2020-2024)