Postdoctoral Research Associate
College of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the ProbAI Hub. My research develops scalable probabilistic inference for high-dimensional problems.

Previously, I completed my PhD in Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge, working on Bayesian multi-object tracking, sensor fusion, and decentralised inference.

Research Interests

I work across probabilistic AI, statistics, and signal processing. My research focuses on developing scalable, uncertainty-aware inference methods, with applications to complex sequential and multi-agent systems.

  • Predictive and post-Bayes inference: martingale posteriors, predictive resampling, and generalised Bayes methods for robust uncertainty quantification under model misspecification.
  • Nonparametric Bayesian methods: Bayesian clustering and analysis for high-dimensional data, including biomedical applications such as RNA sequencing.
  • Scalable and distributed inference: variational inference, sequential Monte Carlo, and MCMC for high-dimensional latent-variable models.
  • Sensor fusion and multi-object tracking: decentralised optimisation and data fusion of heterogeneous sensors; robust tracking under clutter and occlusion; group interaction modelling and intent inference in multi-agent systems.

I actively seek interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly in applications such as animal interaction and behaviour learning, pollution tracking, and marine monitoring.

News

2026
Our paper "Uncertainty Analysis and Martingale Posteriors for Clustering under Noise" (Q. Li and S. Wade) won the Best Poster Prize at the 18th World Meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA 2026), Nagoya, Japan
2026
New preprint on arXiv: "PiVoT: A Variational Solution for Real-time Large-scale Multi-object Detection and Tracking under Heavy Clutter"
Oct 2025
Our paper on "Decentralised Variational Inference Frameworks for Multi-object Tracking on Sensor Networks" is online now on IEEE TSP
July 2025
Our work on a fast detection and tracking algorithm PiVoT was presented on FUSION 2025 in Rio
Jun 2025
We are hosting a special session on 'Advances in Sensor Fusion and Distributed Learning' at IEEE 23rd Statistical Signal Processing Workshop (SSP 2025), Edinburgh
July 2022
Our paper 'A variational Bayes association-based multi-object tracker under the nonhomogeneous Poisson measurement process' was awarded Best student Paper Award at the 25th International Conference on Information Fusion

Recent Talks

Distributed Inference and Object Tracking in Sensor Networks
University of Warwick, UK
2026
Distributed Learning and Sensor Fusion: A Case Study in Multi-Object Tracking
ProbAI Hub Seminar
14 Mar 2025

Selected Research & Demos

PiVoT: Poisson measurements-based variational multi-object detection and tracking
R. Gan, Q. Li, S. Godsill
2025 28th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION)

Publications (full list on Google Scholar )

Modern Bayesian Object Tracking: Challenges and Solutions (PhD Thesis)
Q. Li
University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering

My PhD thesis studied Bayesian state-space models and efficient sequential inference methods for high-dimensional sequential tracking data. The work demonstrated how Monte Carlo sampling techniques can be made computationally practical for various large-scale tracking tasks.

PiVoT: A Variational Solution for Real-time Large-scale Multi-object Detection and Tracking under Heavy Clutter
R. Gan, Q. Li, S. J. Godsill, M. E. Davies, J. R. Hopgood
arXiv preprint, 2026
Uncertainty Analysis and Martingale Posteriors for Clustering under Noise
Q. Li, S. Wade
Poster, 18th World Meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA 2026) — Best Poster Prize
Decentralised Variational Inference Frameworks for Bayesian Multi-object Tracking on Time-varying Sensor Networks
Q. Li, R. Gan, S. Godsill
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2025
Variational Tracking and Redetection for Closely-spaced Objects in Heavy Clutter
R. Gan, Q. Li, S. Godsill
IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2024
An Adaptive and Scalable Multi-object Tracker based on the Non-homogeneous Poisson Process
Q. Li, R. Gan, J. Liang, S. Godsill
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2023
Sequential dynamic leadership inference using Bayesian Monte Carlo methods
Q. Li, B. I. Ahmad, S. Godsill
IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2021

Codes

SSMProblem.jl
Julia package for state space model programming and inference (Turing.jl).
Stone Soup extensions
Extensions to the Stone Soup tracking library, including non-Gaussian (Lévy) motion models and associated filters for robust tracking.