Rui (Ranger) FAN

About

Rui (Ranger) FAN [范睿] was born in Jining, Inner Mongolia, China, in 02/1993. Rui completed his high school education with the Elite Class at the Affiliated Middle School to Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, in 06/2011. Rui received his B.Eng. degree from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 07/2015, and his Ph.D. degree (thesis title: ''Real-Time Computer Stereo Vision for Automotive Applications'') from the University of Bristol in 06/2018.

From 07/2018 to 02/2020, Rui worked as a Research Associate, under the supervision of Prof. Ming Liu, with the Robotics Institute at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Between 02/2020 and 09/2021, Rui worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar-Employee with Prof. Linda M. Zangwill and Prof. David J. Kriegman at the University of California San Diego. Rui began his faculty career as a Full Research Professor with the College of Electronics & Information Engineering at Tongji University in 10/2021. Rui was promoted to Full Professor in 12/2022 and attained tenure in 12/2024, both in the same college and at the Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems (SRIAS), the State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Autonomous Systems, and Frontiers Science Center for Intelligent Autonomous Systems in 12/2022. Rui directs the Machine Intelligence & Autonomous Systems (MIAS) Group [微信公众号：mias-group] and serves as the General Chair of the Autonomous Vehicle Vision (AVVision) Community.

Rui's research interests include computer vision and deep learning for autonomous driving and robotics.

Featured Publications

	ViPOcc: Leveraging Visual Priors from Vision Foundation Models for Single-View 3D Occupancy Prediction. AAAI, 2025. (Oral Paper, Acceptance Rate: 4.7%) Feng, Y., Han, Y., Zhang, X., Li, T., Zhang, Y., Fan, R.^✉ pdf
	These Maps Are Made by Propagation: Adapting Deep Stereo Networks to Road Scenarios with Decisive Disparity Diffusion. IEEE Trans on Image Processing (T-IP), 2025. Liu, C.W., Zhang, Y., Chen, Q., Pitas, I., Fan, R.^✉ pdf
	One-Vote Veto: Semi-Supervised Learning for Low-Shot Glaucoma Diagnosis. IEEE Trans on Medical Imaging (T-MI), 2023. Fan, R., Bowd, C., Brye, N., Christopher, M., Weinreb, R.N., Kriegman, D. and Zangwill, M. L., pdf
	Autonomous Driving Perception -- Fundamentals and Applications. Springer, 2023. Fan, R.^✉, Guo, S., Bocus, M.J. pdf / webpage
	Detecting Glaucoma in the Ocular Hypertension Study Using Deep Learning. JAMA Ophthalmology, 2022. Selected as the cover article Fan, R.*, Bowd, C., Christopher, M., Brye, N., Proudfoot, A. J., Rezapour, J., Belghith, A., Goldbaum, H. M., Chuter, B., Girkin A. C., Fazio, A. M., Liebmann, M. J., Weinreb, N. R., Gordon, O. Mae., Kass, A. M., Kriegman, J. D., and Zangwill, M. L. pdf / webpage
	Graph Attention Layer Evolves Semantic Segmentation for Road Pothole Detection: A Benchmark and Algorithms. IEEE Trans on Image Processing (T-IP), 2021. Fan, R.^✉, Wang, H., Wang, Y., Liu, M., and Pitas, I. pdf / code
	SNE-RoadSeg: Incorporating Surface Normal Information into Semantic Segmentation for Accurate Freespace Detection. ECCV, 2020. (Acceptance rate: 26%) Fan, R., Wang, H., Cai, P. and Liu, M. pdf / webpage / code / dataset / demo
	Pothole Detection Based on Disparity Transformation and Road Surface Modeling. IEEE Trans on Image Processing (T-IP), 2020. Fan, R., Ozgunalp, U., Hosking, B., Liu, M. and Pitas, I. pdf / dataset / supp
	Road Surface 3D Reconstruction Based on Dense Subpixel Disparity Map Estimation. IEEE Trans on Image Processing (T-IP), 2018. Fan, R.^✉, Ai, X. and Dahnoun, N. pdf / dataset

Teaching

• Spring-term lecture “Autonomous and Intelligent Unmanned Systems [自主智能无人系统]” (1000652000201) for first-year Ph.D. students at the Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems.
• Spring-term lecture “Intelligent and Autonomous Robots and Systems [智能自主机器人与系统]” (100604) for second/third-year undergraduates majored in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence at Tongji University.
• Spring-term lecture “Image Processing & Machine Vision [图像处理与机器视觉]” (100599) for third-year undergraduates majored in Automation and Artificial Intelligence at Tongji University.
• Fall-term lecture “Deep Learning [深度学习]” (100698) for second/third/fourth-year undergraduates majored in Automation and Artificial Intelligence at Tongji University.
• Book chapter “Computer Stereo Vision for Autonomous Driving: Theory and Algorithms” (for undergraduates and postgraduates).
• Rui’s lecture material “Introduction to Autonomous Car Vision” has been used for the Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Autonomous Systems Web Lecture Series.
• Lectures for the 2019 Short Course on Deep Learning & Computer Vision for Autonomous Systems, in Thessaloniki, Greece, invited by Prof. Ioannis Pitas (IEEE Fellow, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, EURASIP Fellow). [08/2019]
• Teaching Support Assistant at the University of Bristol. The units undertaken include: (1) Mathematics for Signal Processing and Communications (for Ph.D. students); (2) Image Processing and Computer Vision (for M.Sc. & B.Sc. students); (3) Optimization Theory and Applications (for M.Sc. students); and (4) Engineering Mathematics 1 & 2. (for B.Sc. students). [01/2017 – 05/2018]

Awards

• Shanghai Science & Technology 35 Under 35 [上海科技青年35人引领计划] (2024).
• The First Prize for Science & Technology Innovation from the China Society for the Promotion of Science and Technology Commercialization [中国科技产业化促进会科技创新一等奖] (2024).
• CCF Senior Member (2024).
• 2022 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Transportation Safety and Environment.
• Best Junior Editorial Board Member Award from the journal of Intelligence & Robotics.
• Xiaomi Young Talents [小米青年学者] (2023).
• Forbes China List of 100 Outstanding Overseas Returnees [福布斯中国青年海归菁英100人] (2023).
• IEEE Senior Member (2023).
• Top 2% of Scientists on Stanford List (2022, 2023, 2024).
• Best Student Paper (2021, Student: Jiahe Fan): Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Road Crack Detection: Qualitative and Quantitative Comparisons, the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques (IST).
• BrightFocus Foundation Travel Grant Award (2021): Deep Learning for Detecting Glaucoma in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study: Implications for Clinical Trial Endpoints, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting 2021.
• Best Paper Finalist (2019): Road Curb Detection Using a Novel Tensor Voting Algorithm, the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO).
• Best Student Paper (2016): Faster-than-real-time linear lane detection implementation using SoC DSP TMS320C6678, the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques (IST).