Prof. Yi Mei

Prof. Yi Mei

Fellow, Engineering NZ IEEE Senior Member

Professor researching evolutionary computation, machine learning and optimisation

  • Location Wellington, New Zealand
  • Positions Professor
    Programme Director (Computer Science and Computer Graphics)
    School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS)
    Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CDSAI)
    Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)
  • Research groups Evolutionary Computation for Combinatorial Optimisation Group (ECCO)
    Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning Research Group (ECRG)
    IEEE CIS Taskforce on Evolutionary Scheduling and Combinatorial Optimisation (TESCO)
  • Connect
  • yi.mei@ecs.vuw.ac.nz
  • Google Scholar
  • ORCID
  • ResearchGate
  • LinkedIn
  • University profile

Honours & Awards

8best / outstanding paper awards
2VUW research excellence awards
FEngNZFellow of Engineering New Zealand
Top 2%Stanford/Elsevier scientists, since 2021

Honours

  • 2024–2026
    Outstanding Associate Editor IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, three consecutive years [ 2024 | 2025 | 2026 ]
  • 2026
    Gold Reviewer International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)
  • 2022
    Fellow of Engineering New Zealand Engineering New Zealand [ certificate ]
  • 2021–
    World's Top 2% Scientists Stanford University / Elsevier list, every year since 2021
  • 2021, 2022
    Outstanding Member Retention IEEE New Zealand Central Section (as Section Chair) [ 2021 | 2022 ]
  • 2018
    IEEE Senior Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [ certificate ]
  • 2018
    Outstanding Reviewer IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
  • 2015, 2017
    Outstanding Reviewer Applied Soft Computing

Paper Awards

  • 2026
    Best Student Paper Award EvoStar – The Leading European Event on Bio-Inspired AI [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2026
    Outstanding Paper Award IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine [ paper ]
  • 2026
    Best Paper Nomination IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)
  • 2025
    Best Student Paper Award IEEE International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ITNAC) [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2024
    Best Paper Award ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), GP Track [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2023
    HUMIES Silver Award Human-Competitive Results, ACM GECCO 2023 [ certificate ]
  • 2023
    Best Paper Award ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), GP Track [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2023
    Best Student Paper Award Runner-Up Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AJCAI) [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2023
    Best Poster Award Runner-Up Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AJCAI) [ paper ]
  • 2022
    Best Paper Award ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), ECOM Track [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2022
    Best Paper Award European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP) [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2018
    Best Paper Award Runner-Up Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AJCAI) [ paper ]
  • 2018
    Best Paper Award Runner-Up IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS, CORE Rank A) [ paper ]
  • 2017
    Outstanding Paper Award IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (top journal in evolutionary computation) [ paper | certificate ]
  • 2016
    Best Paper Nomination European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization (EvoCOP) [ paper ]
  • 2014
    2nd Prize Competition on Optimisation of Problems with Multiple Interdependent Components, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (sole algorithm designer and programmer)

University Awards

  • 2025
    Ki te Pae Research Excellence Award Victoria University of Wellington [ certificate ]
  • 2022
    Supervisor Award (Honourable Mention) Victoria University of Wellington Post-Graduate Students' Association [ certificate ]
  • 2019
    Early Career Research Excellence Award Victoria University of Wellington [ certificate ]
  • 2010
    Dean's Award Chinese Academy of Sciences (top 200 postgraduates across China)