Faculty and Students of the School of Psychology Visit the UK for “Psychology + AI” Academic Exchange

From January 19 to 24, 2026, supported by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University–University of Warwick Academic Exchange Fund, a group of graduate students from the School of Psychology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, led by Associate Researcher Wang Lihui, undertook an academic exchange visit to the United Kingdom. The delegation visited the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, the School of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield, and the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Centered on the integration of artificial intelligence and psychology, the team held in-depth discussions with scholars across relevant disciplines. Throughout the trip, students interacted with multiple research teams to explore interdisciplinary research methodologies and potential collaboration pathways. Immersed in authentic international academic environments, the participants broadened their global outlooks, refined their research agendas, and strengthened their capacity for interdisciplinary communication.

On January 20 and 21, the delegation met with the research group of Professor Hongkai Wen at the Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick. The exchange opened with presentations from both sides outlining their respective research portfolios and ongoing project progress, followed by detailed deliberations on prospective collaborative initiatives. Members of the delegation then presented their research work, highlighting their exploration and practice of leveraging AI to address research questions within psychology. Discussions spanned behavioral modeling, AI-powered high-precision motion capture, and the interpretability of large language models. Both sides noted that psychological research boasts distinctive strengths in theoretical frameworks, application scenarios, and access to high-value human-related data, which can provide vital support for AI research. Meanwhile, modeling and evaluation approaches from computer science can supply new methodological tools for psychological science. The two parties expressed their intent to pursue further exchanges and joint research in related fields.

On January 22, the delegation visited the School of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield for a seminar with Assistant Professor Chaona Chen and other faculty attendees. Focusing on core areas including computer vision and reinforcement learning, participants explored interdisciplinary applications for psychological research and practice, and discussed emerging research questions, methodologies and opportunities brought about by cross-disciplinary collaboration. PhD researchers from the School of Computer Science then delivered presentations on their work, with a special focus on assistive dressing robots built upon human-centered care principles for real-world deployment, illustrating how robotics research can respond to human needs and help enhance quality of life.

On January 23, the delegation held academic exchanges with Professor Tony Prescott, Founding Director of the Sheffield Robotics Centre. The session began with a tour of the Sheffield Robotics Laboratory. Through on-site briefings, experimental demonstrations and representative case studies, the delegation gained a systematic overview of the lab’s cutting-edge research on social robots, medical robots and intelligent service robots.

In the subsequent seminar, Professor Tony Prescott elaborated on the Sheffield Robotics Laboratory’s framework for international collaboration and its priority research directions. Drawing on his rich experience in cross-disciplinary inquiry, he shared insights into collaborative research bridging engineering, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and related disciplines. His perspectives offered valuable inspiration for the visiting faculty and students to expand their research horizons and deepen interdisciplinary partnerships.

While in the UK, the delegation also toured the School of Psychology and the Centre for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham, holding in-depth discussions with Associate Professor Lei Zhang on frontier topics including neural modeling, interpretability of computational methods, and individual differences. The group also visited the main campus of King’s College London.