Our Team
Our research group has provided support to honours, postgraduate, and doctoral students, as well as professional researchers from the University of Auckland.
![robotics-05](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/robotics-05-1-1.png)
Lab Director
![Dr. Michael Witbrock](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/12/biggest.jpg)
Dr. Michael Witbrock
Professor
Michael’s research is at the intersection of machine learning, reasoning and natural language understanding, with an additional focus on achieving the best social and civilisational impacts of increasingly powerful AI.
Postdoctoral Researchers
![Dr. Alex Peng](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/Alex-A4-2d5b43fa2575c116.jpg)
Dr. Alex Peng
Research Fellow
Alex’s research focuses on NLP tasks and automated reasoning with neural networks.
![Dr. Yang Chen](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/unnamed-1-14a682535d58ef83.jpeg)
Dr. Yang Chen
Research Fellow
Yang’s research focus is on applying reinforcement learning to automatic reasoning and proving.
PhD Students
![Stefan Fuchs](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/Stefan_Fuchs_SAIL-e1624241286850.jpg)
Stefan Fuchs
PhD Candidate | 2020 – 2024
Transformer-based Semantic Parsing of Building Regulations: Supporting Regulators in Drafting Machine-Interpretable Rules
![Qiming Bao](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/qiming_bao_new_profile-1-2-d5eab9a721328201.jpg)
Qiming Bao
PhD Candidate | 2020 – 2024
Assessing and Enhancing Language Models for Complex and Robust Logical Reasoning over Natural Language
![Yonghua Zhu](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/YonghuaZhu-e1623981922803.jpg)
Yonghua Zhu
PhD Candidate | 2020 – 2024
Inductive Reasoning over Multiple Texts for Reading Comprehension
![Sam Wei](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/samwei-274a747910829f53.jpg)
Sam Wei
PhD Candidate | 2023 – 2026
Echoes of Authenticity: Exploring the Frontiers of Copyright Protection in Music AI with Watermark Technologies and Adversarial Machine Learning
![Dr. Neşet Tan](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2021/06/neset-e1624241069226.jpg)
Dr. Neşet Tan
PhD Candidate | 2020 – 2024
![Gaël Gendron](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/profile-4cdf2dc02a0676b4.jpeg)
Gaël Gendron
PhD Candidate | 2021 – 2024
Robust reasoning in Deep Learning engines with Causal Graph modelling
![Tim Hartill](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/TimHartill-e1623981933348.jpg)
Tim Hartill
PhD Candidate | 2021 – 2024
Teaching Smaller Language Models To Generalise To Unseen Compositional Questions
![Andrey Borro](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/Day-15-46-2ee1079b97a04def.jpg)
Andrey Borro
PhD Candidate | 2021 – 2025
Generating Optimal Path Subgoals through Supervised Learning
![Minjung Kim](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/ai_image-2f1e1bd1eef48105.webp)
Minjung Kim
PhD Candidate | 2021 – 2025
General-purpose time series modelling for interpretable and domain-agnostic time-series analysis
![Nathan Young](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/ComputerScience_StafPHDfStudent_2023-93-40303d8ed90e80a4-scaled.jpg)
Nathan Young
PhD Candidate | 2022 – 2025
Explaining State-of-the-Art Models as Approximations of Unbounded Ideals
![Kobe Knowles](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/kobe_photo_updated-11895abc100e5f44-300x300.jpg)
Kobe Knowles
PhD Candidate | 2022 – 2025
Integrating Insights from Human Cognition with Artificial Neural Networks to Improve Data Efficiency During Learning
![Timothy Pistotti](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/Tim_headshot-bfd6de47f3a12c35.png)
Timothy Pistotti
PhD Candidate | 2022 – 2025
Leveraging Linguistic Knowledge for Low-resource Natural Language Processing
Alumni
![Dr. Diana Benavides Prado](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/dbp-e1648164037117.jpg)
Dr. Diana Benavides Prado
Lecturer
Diana’s research focuses in the areas of lifelong/continual learning and human-centred AI.
![Dr. Trung Ngyuen](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/02/Trung-Bao-Nguyen-Square-f3f2dcb97c2bbe56.jpg)
Dr. Trung Ngyuen
Research Fellow
Trung’s research centers on modularizing deep learning models to enhance specialization, interpretability, and scalability.
![Dr. Vithya Yogarajan](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/vithya-e1648161238618.jpg)
Dr. Vithya Yogarajan
Research Fellow
Vithya’s research is motivated by the advancements of technology, and what AI can do to improve lives.
![Dr. Joshua Bensemann](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/Josh-e1607397103974.jpg)
Dr. Joshua Bensemann
Research Fellow
Josh’s research interests include incorporating concepts from psychology into deep learning and applying machine learning techniques to psychological data.
![Dr. Aaron Keesing](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2024/01/profile_2022_02_15_cropped-b4305b019c71264e.jpg)
Dr. Aaron Keesing
PhD | 2019 – 2023
Classifying Emotions Across Variations in Speech Data
![Dr. Qianqian Qi](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/Qianqian-e1607397467258.jpg)
Dr. Qianqian Qi
PhD | 2019 – 2023
Incorporating Multiple Types of Information in Condition Text Generation
![Dr. Zhenyun Deng](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/12/zhenyun-e1607397367681.jpg)
Dr. Zhenyun Deng
PhD | 2019 – 2023
Interpretable Multi-hop Question Answering
![Ming-Bin (Bryan) Chen](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2020/08/bryan-e1607397478936.jpg)
Ming-Bin (Bryan) Chen
MSc | 2020 – 2021
Open domain interviewing agent
![Ziqi Wang](https://www.ai.ac.nz/files/2021/06/ziqi.jpg)
Ziqi Wang
MSc | 2020 – 2021
TQALL: Text-based Question Answering for Low-resource Languages
Join our team
The Strong AI Lab has immediate opportunities for Ph.D. Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, and Senior Research Programmers.