Ph.D. Candidate · Tsinghua University

Fanhong Li

Exploring the intersection of cognitive science, embodied AI, and biomedical computing — bridging how humans think, how machines learn, and how life computes.

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About

Background

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at Tsinghua University, working at the Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence (THBI) under the supervision of Prof. Jia Liu, with a focus on Embodied AI.

My research sits at a unique intersection — I bring a foundation in medicine from Peking University, computational expertise from my Master's in Automation, and a deep curiosity about human cognition from my doctoral work in Psychology.

I investigate how humans and AI agents can understand each other through Theory of Mind, how attention and decision-making emerge in both biological and artificial systems, and how computational tools can unlock insights in the life sciences.

2021–

Ph.D. in Psychology (Embodied AI)

Tsinghua University
2018

M.S. in Automation (Bioinformatics)

Tsinghua University
2012

B.S. in Fundamental Medical Sciences

Peking University

Research Intern

Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA)
Research

Interdisciplinary Nexus

Cognitive
Science
Artificial
Intelligence
Biomedical
Computing
Human-Robot
Interaction
Neural
Modeling
AI for
Life Science
Embodied
Intelligence

My work bridges three fields: understanding human cognition through the lens of psychology, building intelligent agents that can perceive and act in the physical world, and applying computational methods to decode the complexities of biological systems. At the center lies Embodied Intelligence — the pursuit of AI that truly understands both mind and body.

Experience

Selected Positions

Research Assistant
Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence
Oct 2020 — Present
Human-robot interaction with Theory of Mind, attention modeling, and RL agents for neural decision-making simulation.
AI Researcher
Wuji Biotech
Dec 2022 — Feb 2024
AI-based physiological signal models using large-scale polysomnography data.
Research Intern
Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA)
Mar 2017 — Dec 2017
Knowledge extraction for cardiovascular medical databases in the Web Search & Data Mining group.
Project Manager
Coyote Bioscience
Dec 2020 — Aug 2021
Research strategy, data analysis, and cross-institutional collaboration for biotech innovation.
Publications

Selected Works

1
Human-Robot Interaction Research with Theory of Mind Applications
RSS 2024
2
Computational techniques for biological knowledge discovery in single-cell RNA-seq data
Patterns, 2022
3
Integrating single-cell data for comprehensive atlas of human cells
Circulation, 2022
4
Machine-assisted methods for biological data analysis
NeurIPS 2021
5
Computational approaches in single-cell bioinformatics
Patterns, 2020
Beyond Research

Skills & Life

Technical

Python R Reinforcement Learning Bioinformatics Data Analysis

Languages

Mandarin — Native English — Fluent (TOEFL 110) CATTI Level 2 Translation

Interests

🏃 8× Full Marathoner 🧗 Climbing (School Team) 💃 Traditional Dance 🩰 Contemporary Dance 🤸 Pole Dance