Xin Yuan

Dr Xin Yuan

Research Fellow

School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Xin Yuan, a.k.a. Vernon, is fascinated by the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and autonomous machines on our contemporary daily lives and the innovations they brought to the industry. He believes that related research should not be limited to “narrow” domains. As a result, he is now enthusiastically involved in many developments of intelligent robotic systems to investigate more efficient approaches to Human-like intellectual functions. He focuses on discovering novel methods of constructing Artificial General Intelligence and Advanced Uncrewed systems.
Currently, Vernon is undertaking research at the University of Adelaide and working on discovering new approaches for the development of cognitive agent-based systems with AI and their impacts on the manufacturing, transportation and healthcare sectors. He teaches courses related to digital, electronics and autonomous systems. He has also supervised and led a long list of projects for developing advanced AI-enabled autonomous systems and applications.

Xin Yuan, also known as Vernon, is fascinated by the effects of AI on our contemporary daily lives. As a result, he is now enthusiastically involved in many developments of intelligent robotic systems to investigate more efficient approaches to AI functions and is focusing on methods of constructing Artificial General Intelligence, Autonomous Unmanned systems and Agent-based systems. He believes that, by analysing decision-making processes and behaviours of cognitive creatures, AI functions could be lifted and have more advanced impacts on our lives.

Currently, Xin Yuan is undertaking research at the University of Adelaide on a new form of cognitive architecture, which is using a parallel processing production rule-based structure. This research aims to investigate new approaches to develop cognitive agents with Artificial General Intelligence, which is to build machines with capabilities of understanding and learning intellectual tasks as a human does. There are two major challenges, which are how could we process data and information to be represented in a cognitive term, and what is the structure for making decisions as intelligent creatures. The investigation found that, in cognitive behaviours, information captured are fuzzy, and unnecessary details are ignored. Therefore, before decision-making, numerical values need to be converted into a fuzzy symbolic representation which describes the general situation in a “wordy” term. On the other hand, cognitive decision-making has a structure with IF-THEN rules at different levels. In this structure, fundamental information triggers to become knowledge and then knowledge provides an understanding of the situations. Eventually, a decision will be made while a serial of rules is triggered. In this research, an under-development computational architecture is used to process with only necessary environmental information and triggers a chain of knowledge-based rules to make a decision. The research contributes to demonstrating a new approach to build smarter machines in general, over “narrowed” AI functions.

  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2021 - ongoing Research Fellow University of Adelaide
    2017 - 2021 P/T Lecturer University of Adelaide

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2022 Award Outstanding Reviewer at IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society United States -
    2022 Award Outstanding Young Professional Volunteer Award IEEE South Australia Section Australia -
    2020 Research Award Best Innovation Award ISIKM Japan -
    2019 Scholarship The Simon Rockliff Scholarship Defence Science and Technology Group Australia -
    2018 Scholarship ARC Grant Funded PhD Scholarship Australian Research Council Australia -
    2018 Award 3-Minutes-Thesis People’s Choice The University of Adelaide Australia -
    2017 Scholarship The Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship Department of Education Australia -

  • Language Competencies
    Language Competency
    Chinese (Cantonese) Can read, write, understand spoken and peer review
    Chinese (Mandarin) Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    Japanese Can understand spoken

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    2016 - 2021 University of Adelaide Australia PhD
    2012 - 2015 University of Adelaide Australia Honour Bachelor Degree of Engineering

  • Research Interests
    Adaptive Agents and Intelligent Robotics Artificial Intelligence Autonomous Vehicles Computation Theory Flexible Manufacturing Systems Manufacturing Processes and Technologies Neural, Evolutionary and Fuzzy Computation
Date Project Title Investigators Funding Body Amount
2021 Remote Operations - Shadow Robots - Stage 1 Shi P, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 165,000
2021 Collaborative Robots Evaluation and Deployment Strategy Development – Stage 2 Shi P, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 34,000
2021 AGVs (with optional integrated collaborative robots) - Stage 2 Shi P, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 34,000
2021 A systematic solution for Innovation Challenges of Australian Meat Processor Corporation Shi P, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 9,857.10
2021 Bone Belt Monitoring - Stage 2 Shi P, Wu Q, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 55,000
2021 Beef Butt (HQ) Deboning Automation – Stage 2 Shi P, Wu Q, Yuan X Australian Meat Processor Corporation & Meat and Livestock Australia AUD 235,000
Date Taught Developed Coordinated Course Title Institution Course Level/ Code
2017 x     Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2017 x     Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101
2017 x     Digital Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1102
2018 x     Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2018 x     Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101
2018 x     Digital Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 2100
2018 x     Digital Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1102
2018 x x x Autonomous Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 4107
2019 x     Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2019 x x   Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101
2019 x     Digital Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 2100
2019 x x   Digital Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1102
2019 x x x Autonomous Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 4107
2020 x     Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2020 x     Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101
2020 x     Digital Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 2100
2020 x x   Digital Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1102
2021 x x   Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2021 x x   Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101
2021 x     Digital Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 2100
2021 x     Digital Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1102
2021 x     Research Methods and Project Management The University of Adelaide

ENG 3005
2023 x x   Analog Electronics The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1100
2023 x x   Electronic Systems The University of Adelaide ELEC ENG 1101

 

  • Committee Memberships
    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2023 - ongoing Member IEEE Australia Council IEEE Australia
    2022 - ongoing Member IEEE South Australia Section Executive Committee IEEE Australia

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2016 - ongoing Member IEEE United States
  • Position: Research Fellow
  • Phone: 83133159
  • Email: xin.yuan@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Ingkarni Wardli, floor 3
  • Org Unit: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
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External Profiles