Dr. Ning Yu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computing Sciences at SUNY Brockport, State University of New York. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia State University and joined SUNY Brockport in 2017, after serving as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina Upstate.
Dr. Yu has authored over 40 publications in prestigious journals and conferences, including ACM/IEEE Transactions, BMC, PLoS, and Information Sciences. His research interests encompass artificial intelligence, network and information security, big data analytics, deep learning, and cloud computing. An active contributor to academia, he serves on the editorial boards of several international journals and leads a multi-campus SUNY IITG-funded research initiative focused on AI development and applications for education.
As an educator, Dr. Yu has taught a wide range of courses, including Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Cloud Computing, Big Data Analysis, and Computer Security. His excellence in teaching and instruction has been recognized through many awards, including “SUNY FACT2 Excellence Award in Instruction”, “Excellence Award in Experiential Learning”, “Open Education Excellence and Impact Award”, “Teacher of the Year”, “Professor Influencer”, and the “Provost’s Post-Tenure Fellowship Award”. He also founded SUNY Brockport’s first ACM SIGAI Student Chapter, the inaugural AI-focused special interest group in Western New York.
Dr. Yu serves as the campus Representative on the SUNY Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology (FACT2), and is a member of Brockport AI Council. He has also been appointed to the Undergraduate-Academic Programs Policies Committee, a standing committee of the SUNY University Faculty Senate. He is the co-Chair of Multiple-year Reflective Practitioner Learning Community on AI & OER in Brockport. Previously, he served as the chair of International Faculty Staff Association in Brockport.
Before transitioning to academia, Dr. Yu accumulated 10 years of professional experience in software development and system networking, earning certifications from Cisco, Microsoft, Google, and other leading technology organizations.
Education
Georgia State University, Computer Science, Ph.D.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Computer Science, M.S.
Areas of Specialty
Artificial Intelligence, Networking, Embedded Systems, Big Data Analytics, Security, Cloud Computing
Dr. Yu’s research group is actively recruiting student scholars for research projects and ACM Student Chapter software development, using cloud development/deployment, CI/CD, Docker/K8s, software design, architecture, software testing, and more. Interested students are encouraged to contact him via email for further information.
Courses Taught
CSC 414, Operating Systems and Parallel Programming
CSC 434, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
CIS/CSC 419, Computer Networks
CSC 311, Computer Architecture and Organization
CSC 499, Independent Studies
CIS/CSC 421, Computer and Network Security
CSC/CIS 446, Principles of Cloud Computing
CSC 412 Operating Systems
CSC 209, Unix Tools
Research Interests
AI & ML, Big Data, Bioinformatics, Cybersecurity
SUNY FACT2 Excellence Award on Instruction, SUNY, 2025-2026
Excellence in Experiential Learning, SUNY Brockport, 2025-2026
Excellence in Open Education and Impact Award, SUNY Brockport, 2025-2026
SUNY Effective Online Practices Award 3rd Place, SUNY, 2025-2026
SUNY Effective Online Practices Award 2nd Place, SUNY, 2024-2025
UUP Individual Development Award, $1,000, SUNY Brockport, 2024-2025
Provost Post-Tenure Scholarship Award, $3,500, SUNY Brockport, Spring 2024
Influential Professor 2022, SUNY Brockport, Fall 2023
Teacher of The Year, School of Art & Science, SUNY Brockport, Spring 2023
Google Research Credits Grant, $5,000, Google Inc., 2018, 2020
Departmental DSI Award, SUNY Brockport, 2020-2025
Scholarly Incentive Award, $1,000, SUNY Brockport, Dec 2019
Pre-Tenure Proposal Development Grant, $2,000, SUNY Brockport, 2018
WORLDWIDE TOP 10 FINALISTS, IBM 2017 Watson Analytics Global Competition, 2017
RISE Funding, $6,000, University of South Carolina Upstate, 2017
William M. Suttles Award, $1,500, Georgia State University, 2016 (one recipient per year)
Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, 2016
PhD Dissertation Grant, Georgia State University, $2,000, 2016 (20 awarded/year in GSU)
Co-PI, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, $280,000, 2013-2015
MBD Fellowship, Georgia State University, 2014-2015, 2015-2016
N. Yu, J. Finn, A. Torres. An Empirical Investigation of Hybrid Detection-Classification Architectures for OCT Image Classification. Journal of Imaging Science and Technology. 2026
N. Yu, J. Zhang, S. Mitra, R. Smith, A. Rich. AI-Educational Development Loop (AI-EDL): A Conceptual Framework to Bridge AI Capabilities with Classical Educational Theories. Journal of Educational Technology Systems. July 2025 - Revision
Zhang, L. E. Fonseca-Llorca, L. Davies, S. R. Mitra, N. Yu. AI-powered tutoring: An interdisciplinary approach to enhancing college student learning outcomes. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue. Vol. 27 (2), 2025.
W. Zhong, X. Zhang, N. Yu (2025). Clustering Diffusion Model for Improving Protein Structure Prediction Performance. Chengdu, Sichuan: The 8th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data (ICAIBD 2025).
N. Yu, L. Davies, W. Zhong (2024). A Dual-Approach Framework for Enhancing Network Traffic Analysis (DAFENTA): Leveraging NumeroLogic LLM Embeddings and Transformer Models for Intrusion Detection (pp. 7262-7271). Washington DC, IEEE Big Data Conference, Dec 2024
W. Zhong, N. Yu and C. Ai, “Applying Big Data Based Deep Learning System to Intrusion Detection,” in Big Data Mining and Analytics, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 181-195, Sept. 2020, doi: 10.26599/BDMA.2020.9020003.
N. Yu, and K. Darling, “A Low-Cost Approach to Crack Python CAPTCHAs Using AI-Based Chosen-Plaintext Attack”. Applied Sciences, 9(10), 2010, May 2019.
Z. Yu, T. Li, N. Yu, Y. Pan, H. Chen and B. Liu, “Reconstruction of Hidden Representation for Robust Feature Extraction”, ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, vol. 10, No. 2 (18), Dec 2018
N. Yu, Z. Yu and Y. Pan, “A deep learning method for lincRNA detection using auto-encoder algorithm”, BMC Bioinformatics, Dec 2017, Vol. 18(S15):511
N. Yu, X. Guo, A. Zelikovsky and Y, Pan, “GaussianCpG: A Gaussian Model for Detection of CpG Island in Human Genome Sequences”, BMC Genomics, 2017, 18(S 4):392
N. Yu, Z. Yu, F. Gu, T. Li, X. Tian and Y. Pan. “Deep Learning in Genomic and Medical Image Data Analysis: Challenges and Approaches”, Journal of Information Processing Systems, Vol.13, No.2, pp.204~214, April 2017
Yu, N., Zhang, S., Zhang, J., Li, W., Mitra, S., Begany, G., Rich, A., & Hung, J. (2026). The AI-Educational Development Loop (AI-EDL) Framework: Fostering Constructive Engagement Between AI Innovation and Pedagogical Practice. Washington, DC, January 23–25, 2026. AAC&U Annual Meeting: Preparing Higher Education for an AI-Enhanced Future.
Zhang, J., & Yu, N. (2025). Enhancing college student learning: Leveraging AI-powered tutoring through interdisciplinary collaboration. Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, May 23-25, 2025. 2025 9th International Conference on Education and Information Technologies (ICEDUIT).
Yu, N., Zhang, J., Rich, A., Begany, G., Zhang, S., Li, W., & Hung, J. (2025). Enhancing learning across disciplines through AI-empowered interactive education. SUNY Oneonta, NY, May 20-23, 2025. The 2025 SUNY Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT).
