Jingjing Deng - Durham University

Jingjing Deng 邓晶晶

Assistant Professor (PhD, FHEA)

I am an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science at Durham University, as of . My research covers a range of topics in visual computing and deep learning. I lead the Rand2AI aiming to develop computational models that can cultivate and generalise intelligence from and for the complex visual world. We are actively working on challenging problems that are motivated by industrial practices and theoretical principles across fundamental disciplines.

University G-Scholar DBLP arXiv HuggingFace GitHub

I am seeking research students interested in the following topics. While these projects are NOT funded, several open scholarships are available for potential candidates.

Embodied AI Innovation in Healthcare & Consumer Technology
Semantic Foundation Models for Geometrics & Motion & Texture
Visual Computing & Deep Learning (CS/EE, General Sci./Eng.)

I warmly welcome collaborations on challenging problems with academics, provided that you are willing to commit your own intellect, time and effort, rather than delegating to PDRAs or students.

Please do NOT invite me to review unless you have first reached out to me for a preliminary discussion. Even then, I am likely to decline. Unsolicited requests will be discarded without reading.

I will be joining the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology at University of Bristol in June 2025. For any new PGR application enquiry, please get in touch only if you can meet the entry requirements for University of Bristol.

Selected Work

For the most recent works, the pre-print can be found on arXiv, the code are hosted on GitHub.

Deep Learning

📑 Ren H., Deng J., Xie X., Ma X. and Ma J., Gradient Leakage Defense with Key-Lock Module for Federated Learning, arXiv:2305.04095, 2023. [ Pre-Print | Code-PyTorch ]
📑 Ren H., Deng J. and Xie X., GRNN: Generative Regression Neural Network - A Data Leakage Attack for Federated Learning, ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST), 2022. [ ACM | Pre-Print | Code-PyTorch ]

Visual Computing

📑 Zhang F., Deng J., Lieck R. and Shum H.P., Adaptive Graph Learning from Spatial Information for Surgical Workflow Anticipation, IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (TMRB), 2024. [ IEEE | Pre-Print ]
📑 Deng J. and Xie X., 3D Interactive Segmentation with Semi-Implicit Representation and Active Learning, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (TIP), 2021. [ IEEE | Code-Xcode ]

Grant

My works have been funded by the following research councils and industry partners in various ways. I am grateful for the supports.

2024-2029, EPSRC (EP/Y028813/1), National Edge AI Hub for Real Data: Edge Intelligence for Cyber-Disturbances and Data Quality, £15M - fEC (incl. contributions from industry partners) Led by Newcastle (Durham, Co-I). [ UKRI | Durham ]
2022, Intel^®, FPGA Academic Program Award, 2x PAC D5005 (Swansea, PI).
2021, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), Capital Funds, £35K (Swansea, Internal Sub-Project, Co-I).
2018, NVIDIA^®, Academic Hardware Grant Program Award, 1x Quadro P6000 (Swansea, PI).

Our team support open-source and open-science initiatives in a greatest possible manner under the permission of ethics, privacy, confidentiality and commercial agreements. We are expecting the potential collaborators are also in favor of the openness.

Team Member

So far, I have successfully supervised 1 Ph.D and 1 M.Res students up to their completion. I am very fortunate to work with the following colleagues and students.

Research Students

2019, Research Student, Dr. Hanchi Ren 🎓 (Co- with Prof. Xianghua Xie, Swansea University), partially funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), passed Ph.D viva in Mar 2023 (➔ Academic Tutor at Swansea University).
2018, Research Student, Ms. Katarzyna Szymaniak🎓 (Primary, Swansea University), passed M.Res viva in Oct 2019 (➔ Ph.D Student at University of Edinburgh).

Visiting Scholars

2024, Visiting Scholar (Durham), Dr. Lei Jiang, Research Fellow, University College London (UCL), funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
2019, Visiting Scholar (Swansea), Dr. Di Lu, Lecturer, XiDian University, funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
2018, Visiting Scholar (Swansea), Dr. Liumei Zhang, Lecturer, Xi'an Shiyou University, funded by China Scholarship Council (CSC).

For prospective students who are interested in reading a Ph.D with me on Visual Computing and Deep Learning, please email me with your CV and research statement. I am expecting you have a solid background in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering or related subjects, (i.e. Mathematics, Physics, Comm.), professional programming skills, a deep sense of curiosity, and persistence. You must meet the University entry requirements.

The following scholarships are limited and highly competitive. If you are interested, please get in touch with me by the 1st of Nov for the coming round.

There are a number of EPSRC, University, Faculty and School funded Ph.D studentships or Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) at the University every year which (most-likely-only) cover a tuition fee at the UK-Home level and a living stipend.
国家公派出国留学项目: For Chinese students, I am more than happy to support your CSC applications. More information can be found here or there. The scholarship cover annual allowance etc. and the full cost of tuition fees (if via University nomination routine) to successful Chinese national candidates.

Professional Service

Member of EPSRC Peer Review College since 2024.
Technical Program Co-Chair of International Conference on AI-generated Content (AIGC) 2023-24.
Publication Chair of International Conference on AI in Healthcare (AIiH) 2024.
Website Chair of British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC) 2015.
Local-Organiser of BMVA Computer Vision Summer School (CVSS): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2024.
Local-Organiser of Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) 2012.

Teaching

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, 2022). I received Consistent Excellence in Teaching Award at Durham University (2023-2024). I had been leading the assessment office of Computer Science Department at Swansea University (2019-2022).

Ongoing Courses

Previous Modules

COMP52715 (PG): Deep Learning for Computer Vision and Robotics (Module Lead), Durham, 2023-2025
COMP2271 (UG Year-2): Data Science - Computer Graphics (Module Lead 2024-25, Sub-Module Lecturer), Durham, 2023-2025
CSCM35 (PG): Big Data and Data Mining (Module Lead), Swansea, 2018-2022
CSCM38 (PG): Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security (Module Lead), Swansea, 2018-2022
CS-150 (UG Year-1): Concepts of Computer Science (Sub-Module Lecturer), Swansea, 2018-2020

Office Hour: Wednesday 4:00pm-6:00pm (During Term Time, Book with Me) .

Email Response: I will try my best to get back to you ASAP, but it does not guarantee it can meet your expectation. A gentle reminder is always welcome. (A) For module related queries, I will answer them in a batch manner on Monday & Wednesday & Friday. (B) For any other urgent queries, I will answer them on a daily basis given that I have time to do so.

Academic Reference: For University UG/PGT students, please note that I am NOT able to provide you academic references UNLESS (A) you are working directly with me (primary supervisor) on your dissertation projects for at least 3-months in the last 18-months, OR (B) you currently are my academic advisee. You should ALWAYS ask permission to pass my contact to your employer or University admission office for every reference. Any unauthorised reference request will be ignored. Please be mindful of how many references you are requesting.

Rand²AI

We are researchers with common interests in visual computing and artificial intelligence, spanning from theoretical foundations to practical applications in physical and social sciences using stochastic and geometric methodologies.

Updated: April 2025