Xingchen Zhang
Bio
I am a Senior Lecturer in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science, University of Exeter. I founded and currently lead the Fusion Intelligence Laboratory (FIL). I also serve as the Deputy Director of Business Engagement & Innovation in the Department of Computer Science.
My research focuses on machine intelligence and information fusion for human benefit, with a particular emphasis on multimodal perception, embodied intelligence, and trustworthy AI, as well as applications in areas such as healthcare. Through FIL, I lead research in these areas with funding and support from various sources, including the Royal Society, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, NVIDIA, UKRI AIRR, and global partnership funding from the University of Exeter.
Before joining Exeter, I spent several years at Imperial College London, where I worked across research, teaching, and supervision in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the Personal Robotics Laboratory, working with Prof. Yiannis Demiris. I also worked as a Research Associate on robotics, computer vision, and intelligent transportation projects with Prof. Demiris and collaborators including Prof. Panagiotis Angeloudis. In addition, I served as a Teaching Fellow, teaching the Deep Learning module with Prof. Krystian Mikolajczyk.
I have published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and conferences. I co-authored the book Image Fusion and authored Intelligence of Fusion: Deep Learning-Based Image Fusion. I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) since July 2023 and have been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (Stanford University’s list, 2023, 2024, 2025).
Research interests
My Fusion Intelligence Laboratory aims to use machine intelligence and multi-source information fusion to benefit humanity. I am very interested in applying fusion intelligence in robot perception, medical data processing, and computer vision. Specifically, my research areas include
- Multimodal Learning and Image Fusion
- Robotics and Embodied Intelligence
- Human-Centered Computer Vision
- Trustworthy and Responsible AI
- AI for Healthcare
To know more about my research, please go to the ‘Research’ section.
Call for papers
You’re welcome to submit your manuscript to the following journals and special issues where I serve on the editorial board, or to the workshop I am organizing. Please feel free to contact me before submission if you have any questions.
Pattern Recognition Special Issue: Multimodal Representation Learning Based on Vision Foundation Models. Open for Submission: from 15-Apr-2026 to 31-Mar-2027. More details can be found here.
Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware Special Issue on Embodied Intelligence: Bringing Disciplines Through System Integration. Submission deadline: 31 December 2026 [Details]
News
[09/2026] Welcome Yuan to join my group as a PhD student!
[07/2026] A candidate has been awarded an University of Exeter - Paris-Saclay PhD scholarship and will join my group in October this year.
[06/2026] Our paper “MultiTaskVIF: Segmentation-oriented visible and infrared image fusion via multi-task learning” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. Congratulations to Zixian!
[06/2026] I was awarded an UKRI AIRR Gateway project as PI.
[05/2026] A candidate has been awarded an Exeter-CSC PhD scholarship and will join my group in September this year.
[05/2026] Our paper “SSVIF: Self-Supervised Segmentation-Oriented Visible and Infrared Image Fusion” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. Congratulations to Zixian!
[05/2026] Invited to give a talk at Université Paris-Saclay.
[05/2026] I have joined the UKRI AIRR User Advisory Group (UAG) as a core member.
[03/2026] I was awarded an NVIDIA Academic Grant as PI.
[02/2026] A Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship application (Horizon Europe) hosted by me has been awarded.
[01/2026] Welcome Yanlong to join my lab as a PhD student! Yanlong is fully funded by a QUEX (UQ-Exeter) joint PhD studentship.
[12/2025] I was awarded an UKRI AIRR Gateway project as PI.
[12/2025] I was awared an Exeter–Université Paris-Saclay Seed Fund Grant as PI.
[10/2025] My new book, Intelligence of Fusion: Deep Learning-based Image Fusion, is now freely available for download.
[09/2025] Our paper “More effort is needed to protect pedestrian privacy in the era of AI” has been accepted by NeurIPS2025 as an Oral paper (Position Paper Track, acceptance rate is less than 6%). [PDF]
[09/2025] Honored to be listed once again among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (Stanford University’s list, 2025) — my third time receiving this recognition!
[09/2025] Welcome Quangao to join my lab as a PhD student! Quangao received his Master degree from Chinese Academy of Science before joining my lab.
[09/2025] My TPAMI paper Visible and Infrared Image Fusion Using Deep Learning was selected as ESI Hot Paper. This is also an ESI Highly Cited paper.
More news about me can be found here.
Selected funders
My research has received funding and support from several funders, including the Royal Society, the European Commission, UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), NVIDIA, and the QUEX Institute.
Contact
- Email: x (dot) zhang12 (at) exeter (dot) ac (dot) uk
- Address: Department of Computer Science, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RN