Brief CV (Last Updated 2023 January)
Dr. Cheng (Professor) obtained her MSc in Computing Science from the University of Alberta (U0fA) in 1999. She then worked as Chief Software Architect at a local Multimedia company in Edmonton until 2002. During this period, she invented the trademark "Zoomage" for a high resolution scanned imagery, which was showcased by SGI (Silicon Valley) in their Reality Centre and the SIGGRAPH conference. She then continued her graduate studies towards a PhD in Computing Science, obtaining her PhD degree from the University of Alberta in 2005. After that, she spent some time pursuing multiple research and teaching activities simultaneously, working as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Kostas Daniilidis at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, teaching some courses in our department as an Adjunct, and setting up the CROME (Computer Reinforced Online Multimedia Education) project. She received the UofA Alumni Horizon Award in 2008, which recognized her outstanding professional achievements. In 2009, she set up a pilot interdisciplinary course (now CMPUT307) and taught the course for 6 years. In 2011, she was awarded a Visiting Professorship of the highest rank by Institut National des Sciences Appliquees (INSA) de Lyon, France, and a 2012 Mobility Fund for Canadian Researcher visiting France, invited by the Office for Science and Technology, French Embassy in Canada. These trips built her collaborations with researchers in France until today.
After serving as the Chair of IEEE Northern Canada Section Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) from 2009 for three years, in 2011 she started her professional services with the IEEE Communications Society Multimedia Technical Committee: International Conference in Multimedia & Expo (ICME) General Chair (2011), Technical Program Chair (2013) and other executive team positions, which earned her the MMTC Outstanding Leadership Award in 2014. She also organized the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society (SMC) Conference as Technical Program Chair (2017) and served as an Associate Editor of IEEE SMC Transactions on Human-Man Systems (2014-2017), which earned her the IEEE SMC Society Meritorious Service Award (2019).
She set up in 2015 (and has been the Director of) the Masters with Specialization in Multimedia (MM) Program, and sustains its enrollment growth, by attracting highly qualified students, engaging companies to offer internship opportunities and securing Mitacs funding of over $2 millions. 200+ MM students, with 33% female, have since graduated, including Frincy Clement (2021 graduate now in Telus) who just won the 2022 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 in the science and technology category, and Advocate of the Year 2022 for her efforts to promote Women in AI Canada.
In 2017, Dr. Cheng received Alberta's first Consortium for Aerospace Research and Innovation in Canada (CARIC) funding, followed by the current NSERC CRD. The project outcome with media coverage strengthened her research, leading to the 2018 NSERC DG plus DND supplement. These Aerospace related funding (until 2024) amount to $939K. By extending her Remote Sensing research, Dr. Cheng is one of the five Pillar Leads in the $7 millions Alberta Major Innovation Fund inter-disciplinary and cross-institution application on Sustainable and Smart Agriculture and Food Systems submitted in 2022 November.
In addition to her 230+ publications (including 3 books and 67 journals), her HQPs are contributors of eight US patents based on their thesis or internship work, during their PhD studies under Dr. Cheng's supervision. Her international research collaborations stem from her professional services in the IEEE community and publications. She has attracted many CSC, CONACyT and NSERC scholars to join her team.
Her research interests, among others, include incorporating human perception, following the concept of Just-Noticeable-Difference or JND) psychophysical methodology, to improve multimedia, graphics and computer vision techniques. Before returning to academia, she was an Information Technology, Accounting and Administration executive in Lloyds Bank International Pacific Region.
Multimedia Research Center - Computing Science Center (CSC 2-25)
Tel: (780) 492-7144
Office - Computing Science Center (CSC 2-61)
Multimedia Master Program Lab - CAB 379