Alibaba's Scientists Recognized in MIT Technology Review's 2017 Innovators Under 35 List

Gang Wang, a leading researcher at Alibaba A.I. Labs, and Hanqing Wu, Chief Security Scientist of Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, are recognized in the "MIT Technology Review's 2017 Innovators Under 35" List revealed last night.

Wang joined Alibaba as a researcher at Alibaba A.I. Labs, which explores the uncharted territory of human-computer interactions and produces consumer-facing AI products that use cutting-edge technology. Wang takes the lead in the research of computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, and machine learning for the Labs, and his contributions to speech recognition and natural language processing have lately been exemplified by Tmall Genie, the very first voice-controlled smart device produced by the Labs.

Prior to joining Alibaba, Wang was a tenured Associate Professor with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research interests include artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision. He is a recipient of the Harriett & Robert Perry Fellowship, the CS/AI award, best paper awards from PREMIA, and top 10 percent paper awards from MMSP.

Wu joined Alibaba in 2005, acting as the company's early security expert. He was also one of the key people involved in designing the security architecture of Apsara, the self-developed cloud operating system of Alibaba Cloud. Wu became the Chief Security Scientist of Alibaba Cloud in 2014, leading the team to defeat one of the world's largest DDoS attacks (453.8Gbps) in the same year.

Wu also led the development of 'Alibaba Cloud Security', a security service that had protected more than 37% of websites in China by the end of 2016. His innovation of a unique DDoS mitigation solution, or Elastic Security Network scheme, enables small to medium-sized companies to fend off massive DDoS attacks with limited resources.

"We are excited about the news and it is our honor to have two talented people from Alibaba recognized in the list," said Jeff Zhang, Chief Technical Officer of Alibaba Group. "Wang's contribution to developing cutting-edge technologies to empower next-generation artificial intelligence applications, and Wu's efforts in designing world-class Internet security systems and helping small businesses defend against cyberattacks, make them true pioneers in their fields. Alibaba's ecosystem offers diverse business scenarios where talented people can test out and apply their latest research to tackle complex technology challenges. By recruiting and nurturing these people to thrive in their areas of expertise, Alibaba is committed to driving the development of the latest technologies."

Alibaba Group has been leading efforts in innovation and technology development, with research and development in areas including cloud computing, quantum communications, biometric recognition, machine learning, image processing and speech recognition. Alibaba Group recently launched Alibaba Innovative Research (AIR), a new global program to support collaborations with global academics and researchers promoting innovation in science and technology.