Adventuring with Self-Motivation

XSynth: GenAI-Empowered Shared Mental Model Building for Design Collaboration in XR

Supervisor: Prof. Dakuo Wang, Northeastern University CS/CAMD

• Conducted a formative study with 10 automotive designers to explore their workflows, collaboration patterns, and challenges in XR-based conceptual design, identifying key design opportunities.

• Proposed a conceptual framework grounded in C–K Theory with knowledge graph visualization to guide tool development for shared mental model formation.

• Developed XSynth, a GenAI-powered XR cognition support tool on Spatial.io, enabling distributed design teams to co-create and collaborate in an immersive virtual environment.

• Conducted a within-subject user study with 10 teams (30 designers) to evaluate the effects of XSynth on design performance, collaborative efficiency, and user experience. The findings demonstrated enhanced creativity and shared understanding among team members; a first-authored paper has been submitted to ACM CHI 2026.

Understanding Designer's Mental Models of GenAI-Assisted Design Tools during Problem-Solution Co-Evolution in Human-AI Collaborative Design through EEG

Supervisors: Prof. Niccolo’ Becattini, Dr. Shumin Li, Prof. Gaetano Cascini (President of Design Society); Polimi MechE

• In the first stage, collected questionnaire data and applied quantitative analysis to identify and cluster different mental model types and their dynamics across different design stages; a paper is in preparation for submission to the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design.

• In the second stage, we collect designers’ EEG signals throughout the human–GenAI collaborative design process, aiming to examine whether neural patterns can reveal the cognitive dynamics of the mental model types revealed in the first stage of this research project. 

Pre/Absence: Prompting Cultural Awareness for Lost Architectural Heritage through Dialectical Narrative Design in VR

Supervisor: Prof. Linping Yuan, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology CSE (VIS Lab)

• Conducted theoretical research on the presence–absence dialectics of lost architectural heritage, grounded in critical heritage studies and philosophy.

• Performed an interview-based formative study with archaeologists, administrators, and visitors to identify current challenges and define design goals for a VR narrative experience.

• Designed critical VR narratives of presence–absence for a lost heritage site in Xi’an, utilizing drone-based aerial modeling and 3D reconstruction as multimodal resources.

• Developed the VR experience in Unity and conducted a user study with 28 participants to assess cultural presence, awareness, and understanding.

• Organized a VR demo at the World Internet Conference 2025, submitted a first-authored paper to ACM CHI 2026, a design work to Muse Design Awards 2025, and received an official exhibition invitation from the conference.

Reality as Imagined: TeleAbsence-Driven Design of XR Experience for (Re) Interpreting Urban Cultural Heritage Across Time

Supervisor: Prof. RAY LC, City University of Hong Kong (School of Creative Media) 

• Conducted HCI theoretical research on Prof. Hiroshi Ishii’s TeleAbsence vision, extending its design application to the cultural heritage context as the philosophical foundation of this XR experience.

• Co-organized a human–GenAI co-creation workshop to collect imagined scenarios and collective memories of the ambiguous past and speculative future of urban cultural heritage (UCH).

• Designed and developed a Unity-based XR experience that fused historical realities with human–GenAI co-created imaginations of the UCH across temporal dimensions.

• Conducted a user study to examine participants’ experiences and their speculative narratives about the future of UCH.

• Co-curated a media art exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre; published a first-authored paper in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction (IJHCI) and submitted another to IEEE VR 2026 XR Gallery.

Human-GenAI Co-design Tool for Crafting Interactive Circuits on Traditional Lacquered Art Interfaces

Supervisors: Prof. Hongwei Li, Prof. Qi Dong, Prof. Meng Li; XJTU Dept of Industrial Design

• Led an interdisciplinary team involving craftsman, artists, interaction designers and engineers to explore how to leverage GenAI to design digital craftsmanship.

• Trained a LoRA model based on Stable Diffusion using a dataset of traditional lacquer patterns and developed a GenAI-assisted tool to create interactive circuit patterns. 

• Fabricated circuit patterns and created DIY lacquer-art interfaces to develop interactive prototypes (e.g., bow, vase) that integrate electronics with everyday craft objects. 

• Conducted a user study through a human-AI co-creation workshop to understand participants’ making experiences and perceptions towards revitalizing crafts.

• Submitted a first-authored paper to ACM CHI 2026, and a design work to Muse Design Awards 2025. Invited by Xi’an Design Week 2025 for exhibition. 

Stylized VR Narrative Experience of Rural Cultural Heritage for Emotional Response and Heritage Identity Enhancement

Supervisors: Prof. Meng Li, Prof. Yiqing Zhao, Prof. Xue Wu, XJTU; Prof. Xin Tong, HKUST (GZ); Prof. Teng Han, China Academy of Sciences

• Conducted an on-site field study in a remote rural area to define the design requirements for VR experience and hosted a participatory workshop to co-design the VR experience. 

• Conducted social sciences theoretical research using Scene Theory to capture the tangible and intangible cultural heritage elements, while integrating into one VR experience.

• Developed a heritage identity measurement questionnaire and used physiological signals and qualitative soma-aesthetics tool to assess emotional responses to the VR experience.

• Organized a VR demo exhibition on World Heritage Day (2024) at the ICOMOS-led celebration event, and Xi’an Design Week 2025; submitted a first-authored paper to ACM CHI 2025 (entered second round but got rejected), later published in IJHCI.

• Published a co-first-authored mini-paper with advisors on VR applications in heritage education for Frontiers in Virtual Reality. 

Navigating Students' Self-Efficacy and Design Thinking Process in GenAI-Empowered Sustainable Design Education

Supervisor: Prof. Meng Li, XJTU (Instructor of the Course that I've TA'ed)

• Conducted as a teaching assistant of an elective course on GenAI-empowered design for undergraduate-level design students; developed a workshop and experimental protocol for design thinking-driven human-GenAI collaborative design.

• Organized three rounds of human-GenAI collaborative sustainable design workshop with over 100 participants and conducted mixed-method study on their self-efficacy, perceived usability and design thinking process during this design workshop.

•  Assisted the advisor in drafting funding proposal for university-level AI-assisted education program and published two first student-authored papers in the journal IJHCI. 

Exploring Effects of Short-term Meditation on Creativity of Novice Designers through Brain Activity (EEG) 

Supervisors: Prof. Meng Li, XJTU; Dr. Shumin Li, Prof. Gaetano Cascini (President of Design Society), Polimi MechE; Prof. Peter Childs, Imperial College London

• Developed an experimental protocol to examine the effects of short-term meditation on novice designers’ creativity and design performance.

• Collected participants’ brain activities (EEG signals) and conducted data analysis, to understand design cognition and creativity through neuroscience perspectives

• Resulted in a first-authored paper published in AHFE 2024 (top-tier venue in the ergonomics and human factors engineering field) and received Best Student Paper Award (awarding rate: 0.01%); Submitted one first-authored paper to Journal of Engineering Design.

Mechanics-Guided, AI-Driven Rational Design & Fabrication of Body Temperature-Responsive Liquid Crystal Elastomer-Based Personalized Wound Dressings

Supervisors: Prof. Feng Xu (Dean), Prof. Hao Liu, XJTU Center of Bio-Inspired Engineering and Biomechanics

• Synthesized a new liquid crystal elastomer material which can be actuated to shape-morph within human skin temperature range (34-37 ℃) to promote wound closure.

• Developed a mechanics-guided rational design and optimization method for pre-stretched negative Poisson’s ratio lattice structures using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL), resulting in a design library of five lattice configurations enabling temperature-driven actuation for wound healing.

• Conducted extensive finite element simulation (FEA) and structural optimization, and fabricated LCE-based wound dressings via laser cutting.

•  Performed a two-week in-vitro experiment on rats to validate the clinical effects of the designed dressings on wound healing.

•  Built an AI-driven personalized wound dressing design platform, integrating computer vision and deep learning to extract patient wound parameters and automatically generate customized dressing geometries for digital fabrication.

•  The project received an “Excellent” evaluation in the National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates and won a National Bronze Medal in the National College Students’ Biomedical Engineering Innovative Design Competition.

Spherical Robot for Industrial Hazardous Environment Inspection

Supervisor: Prof. Aibin Zhu, XJTU MechE, Department Head

• Conducted mechanical and control design of a dual-pendulum actuation and flywheel-based stabilization mechanism, enabling high maneuverability and robust motion stability within confined spaces. 

• Implemented a panoramic vision perception system using multi-camera image fusion and real-time stitching algorithms, achieving a 2.06× frame rate improvement (22.16 FPS at 1080P, 4× optical + 16× digital zoom) and 90% detection accuracy through a deep learning–based twin-network fusion method, significantly enhancing environmental awareness and image quality. 

• This course project resulted in a National Gold Prize in the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition and James Dyson Award 2024.

[Project Page] Detailed information of this project can be found in the project page in "Design" section.

Material-Driven Design and Fabrication of Devices for Direct Ecological Interventions in Ecological HCI Context

Supervisor: Prof. Qiuyu Lu, PolyU School of Design, Former Postdoc @ UC Berkeley Morphing Matter Lab

• Led a group of HCI researchers to conduct theoretical research on Sustainable HCI and Ecological HCI and conducted a systematic review of the fabrication research in HCI field to define the scope of the emerging research vision “Ecological HCI”.

• Based on the literature review, we conducted a case study of the devices that can yield direct ecological interventions and summarized the discussions from ACM CHI 2024 Special Interest Group on Ecological HCI to ground insights in community-engaged practices and participation 

• Resulted in a first-authored paper, which was co-authored with nearly 30 HCI researchers active in the fabrication and tangible interaction field, and submitted to ACM CHI 2026 as first author. 

Bio-inspired Design and Fabrication of Biohybrid Robotics Actuated by Living Cells

Supervisor: Prof. Lin Gao, XJTU MechE

• Learned and practiced biomanufacturing techniques including cell culture, MEMS, micro/nano fabrication, and bio 3D printing, to explore the intersection of living systems and interactive robotics within the framework of Ecological HCI.

• Performed primary skeletal muscle extraction from neonatal rats, isolating and culturing muscle cells into 3D muscle rings through two-week differentiation with daily medium exchanges and microscopic observation. Overcame repeated failures inherent in cell culture and successfully cultivated contractile muscle tissues responsive to electrical stimuli.

• Designed and fabricated a biohybrid robot powered by skeletal muscle cells as living actuators, capable of simultaneous grasping and locomotion through electrical stimulation. 

VR-Assisted Medical Training for Laparoscopic Surgery

Supervisors: Prof. Meng Li, XJTU; Prof. Pietro Piazzolla, Polimi MechE

• Conducted a scoping review study on this topic and published a first-authored paper in Frontiers in Virtual Reality.

• Trained as a Unity developer to assist graduate students in developing two immersive medical training systems and a co-authored invited paper for HCII2025.

• After previous experience as a system developing trainee, I independently developed a VR-based training system for single-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy using Unity3D, integrating immersive surgical environments, realistic laparoscopic imaging and optical characteristics, accurate instrument operation mechanics, and a well-designed, guided interaction interface. The system achieved a SUS score of 76.75 ± 11.37 and a CSAT score of 85.47 ± 7.02, demonstrating good usability and user experience. This experience resulted in a National Golden Award of China International College Students’ Innovation Competition. 

ELLMA-T: Embodied LLM Agents for Reducing Speaking Anxiety of English Learning in Social Virtual Reality

Supervisors: Prof. Prpa Mirjana, Prof. Dakuo Wang, Northeastern University, CS/CAMD; Prof. Alexandra Kitson, University of Victoria, CS

•   Assisted in analyzing and visualizing quantitative data of the user study. 

•  Paper writing, video editing of the final submission for ACM CHI 2026 . 

VR Game for Contextually Relevant Assessment of Psychological Disorder

Supervisors: Prof. RAY LC, City University of Hong Kong (School of Creative Media); Prof. Xin Tong, HKUST (GZ); Prof. Meng Li, XJTU

• Received training as a freshman summer research intern at the School of Creative Media in City University of Hong Kong, this is my first HCI research project during undergraduate study.

• Learned and practiced conducting user study, statistical analysis, data visualization, and academic paper writing.

• Co-authored a journal paper submitted to IEEE VR 2024, and finally published in Frontiers in Virtual Reality.