Professor Tim Cheng is Vice-President for Research and Development (VPRD) and Chair Professor jointly in the Electronic & Computer Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) Departments at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is also the Director of InnoHK AI Chip Center for Emerging Smart Systems which aims to advance IC design to help realise ubiquitous AI applications in society.

At HKUST, Prof. Cheng served as Dean of Engineering for 6 years prior to taking the current role of VPRD. Prior to joining HKUST in 2016, he was on the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara where he also served in various administrative roles including ECE Department Chair and Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research.

An internationally leading researcher with extensive experience in fostering cross-disciplinary research collaboration, Prof. Cheng is a world authority in the field of electronics design verification and testing, as well as covering a wide range of research areas including design automation of electronic and photonic systems, computer vision, and medical image analysis.