I am Yaning Li (李亚宁), a final-year undergraduate student majoring in Engineering-Industrial Design affiliated with Politecnico di Milano (Polimi, top 1 in Italy 🇮🇹, Design ranks 6th globally) and Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU, top 9 in China 🇨🇳).  I'm fortunate to be enrolled in the first cohort of this international dual degree program in interdisciplinary design and engineering! My full CV can be found here.

I am honored to be the youngest awardee of the Excellent Undergraduate Student Model (only 10 awardees annually, top individual honor) at Xi'an Jiaotong University in the past 28 years. I also received the National Scholarship (top 0.02% nationally), the Future Scholar Fellowship for Young Talents (only 3 awardees in the mechanical engineering discipline among Chinese universities), and the Scientific Research & Entrepreneurship Innovation Excellence Awards (only 10 awardees annually at XJTU).

I founded and lead the Applied Smart Interaction Lab (ASIL), the first design research lab in XJTU, where I bravely explored a wide range of research topics with strong self-motivation and generous support from the faculty who are interested in HCI and design and the leadership team at XJTU and Polimi.  My undergraduate research explorations cover a wide range of HCI and desgn research topics including Extended Reality (XR), Human-AI Interaction (HAI), Engineering Design Theory and Methods, Design Cognition, Digital Cultural Heritage, Materials Design and Fabrication, Robotics, and Neuroscience. My first academic paper on design neuro-cognition received Best Student Paper Award (top 0.1%) at AHFE 2024 (a top-tier conference in the ergonomics and human factors engineering field). Moreover, my academic service contributions as a reviewer and student volunteer have been recognized and awarded by ACM SIGCHI.

I am also an award-winning designer and artist. I explore design-driven innovations in healthcare, ecological sustainability, materials design & fabrication, and robotics through human-centered and more-than-human design. My art practices include traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. My works have been recognized by top-tier international design awards such as Red Dot Design Award, Muse Design Awards, and James Dyson Award, and exhibited at Hong Kong Art Center, Xi'an Design Week, and the World Internet Conference.

My experiences along this journey are rewarding, please learn more about it here. 

🔔 I am now actively seeking a PhD position in HCI and design starting in Fall 2026!