Cui Yan is a leading scholar in the fields of smart cities and 3D digitization, serving as a Chair Professor in Artificial Intelligence. He is a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), Director of the China-German AI Institute (CGAII) at Wuyi University, Founder of 4DAGE, and Director of the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for 3D Computer Vision.

He was selected into the fourth batch of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Leading Talents by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, and named a Science and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent under the Ministry of Science and Technology's Innovation Talent Promotion Plan. He also serves as a cybersecurity and informatization expert for the Counselors' Office of the State Council, a member of the editorial committee for the National Cultural Big Data System Construction Standards, and a committee member of the Smart City Working Committee of the Chinese Society for Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography.

Furthermore, he is a member of the Expert Committee for the White Paper on the Development of New Generation Artificial Intelligence (2017), a board member of the European graphics and imaging algorithm alliance GraphicsVision.AI, and a co-editor/associate editor for AI Perspectives.

His distinctions include the 10th China Youth Entrepreneurship Award in 2019, selection as one of the Top 100 Postdoctoral Innovators in Guangdong Province in 2020, and the 24th Guangdong Youth May Fourth Medal in 2022. He also serves as a reviewer on the program committees of several top international conferences and journals in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence.