How a Chinese PhD’s Vision Research Earned a 2‑Million‑Yuan Huawei Offer

On July 12, a post titled “#Huawei hires 2.01 million‑yuan genius youth#” highlighted Liao Minghui, a recent PhD graduate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, who secured the highest‑tier salary of 2.01 million CNY in Huawei’s talent recruitment.

Academic Background

In 2012, Liao entered the School of Telecommunications at Huazhong University, pursued a master‑doctorate program, and joined Professor Bai‑Xiang’s lab, focusing on information and communications engineering. His research centered on computer‑vision, specifically scene text detection and recognition.

During his undergraduate summer, he developed a concise text‑detection algorithm that led to his first paper, which was accepted at the top AI conference AAAI 2017 and attracted wide attention from both academia and industry.

As a PhD student, Liao published ten first‑author papers, including two highly cited journal articles, seven top‑conference papers, and one second‑tier journal paper. His work has been cited over 1,900 times on Google Scholar, his open‑source code has received more than 3,000 stars on GitHub, and he holds five invention patents. His text‑detection algorithm has been adopted by companies such as Tencent WeChat and Baidu and is incorporated into the OpenCV main branch. He also serves as a reviewer for numerous international journals and conferences and helped organize two international competitions.

Peers describe him as a clear‑goaled, meticulous researcher whose depth of expertise is rare among Chinese PhDs, making his “Genius Youth” offer unsurprising.

Community Impact

Lab members praise his warm mentorship, noting that he frequently guides juniors, shares experience, and even organizes group activities such as gym sessions and team‑building events.

After graduation, Liao joined Huawei in Shenzhen, where he will continue research and application of computer‑vision and OCR technologies, aiming to contribute AI solutions across industries.

Other “Genius Youth” Alumni

To date, Huazhong University has produced six “Genius Youth” talents, including another undergraduate, Wu Minyan, who also received a Huawei offer. The university’s close partnership with Huawei results in roughly 300 graduates hired annually, with over 10,000 alumni having worked at Huawei, supporting the establishment of Huawei’s Wuhan Research Institute.

The university’s Computer Science department emphasizes a system‑oriented, hardware‑software co‑design curriculum, integrating autonomous CPU, OS, compiler, and database projects, while fostering a sense of national responsibility among students.