PhD Research and Works

The PhD programme at PolyU Design began in the 1990s with a significant emphasis on digital design technology. Since then, the program has diversified into various domains, including social design, service design, design management, media design, universal design, and design studies, resulting in a wide array of research endeavors, supported by a cohort of roughly 130 students. The majority of current students conduct research on a full-time basis.

Introduction

All PhD research is encouraged to connect with the three distinct themes of Design Intelligence, Design Wellbeing, and Design for Virtue. In addition to the obligatory completion of 15 credits (3 year) / 22 credits (4 year) of coursework, each PhD candidate must produce an independently authored thesis document as evidence of the generation of new knowledge within their respective fields of study.

[PolyU Design PhD Introduction Video] Why SD and Why HK

What you can expect?

To enhance the research process, independent thinking, and critical engagement, the School of Design mandates that each PhD student partake in biannual seminars structured as PhD Winter and Summer Schools. PhD Seminars are doctoral seminars organised by the Director of Postgraduate Research and the committee of PhD students, focused on their research interests and advancements. Facilitated by technology, we can now unite the global community on Zoom from any location. Since 2020 the Research Seminar Series has offered an unparalleled platform for engaging the speakers from across the globe in an interactive exchange of knowledge and critiques.

Research Enrichment

Speakers who have contributed to the Research Seminar Series include:

Timothy Ingold (2023)
Louise McWhinnie (2022)
Peter-Paul Verbeek (2022)
Paolo Favero (2020)
AbdouMaliq Simone (2020)

Anne Boddington (2022)
Heidi Sohn (2022)
Arturo Escobar (2021)
Terry Irwin (2020)
John Thackara (2020)

PhD Research Works

(by alphabetical order)

Student Name	Project Title
BI Xia	Positive Solitude: Rethinking public open space design in densely populated urban contexts — A Study in Hong Kong
CHAI Kedong	Extended Reality, Human-Computer Interaction
CHAN Hei	Constructing Social and Architecture: Asset Based Design as Socio-material Assemblage in Rural Community Development.
CHEN Junjian	Development of an FE-HNS model
CHEN Luwei	Elderly Eyeglasses Personalisation Design Study Based on Anthropometric and Visual Parameters
CHEN Xingtong	Shared autonomous mobility system design
CHEN Ziwei	Computer Graphics, Creative Media, Digital Human Design
CHEN Ziyi	Digital transformation in financial service industry, Experience design, Service design, UX evaluation, FinTech, Artificial intelligence
CONG Yangfan	An AI-Supported Human-Centred Design Framework for Co-Evolution Product Development
DAS Bharati	Application of Disruptive Innovation in business strategies of companies: Exploring frameworks that link Value Creation with User Experience.
DAS Mohana	Post-occupancy Evaluation on long-term care homes for the elderly in a post-pandemic world in Hong Kong: Strategies for health smart homes and home-based consumer health technologies as a public health intervention for independent aging.
DU Qin	Establishing 3D Statistical Shape Model of Human Neck for Mass of Ergonomic Design
DU Yunhe	Research on the Design Strategies for Public Facilities in Rural Areas of China under the Countryside Endowment Pattern.
FANG Cong	Enhancing Collective-Creativity: An AI-driven Collective Design Approach
FANG Le	Affective Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, AI
HE Junda	A study on interrelation between decision making and creativity in design thinking process : China design education perspective.
HE Maoen	Environmental behavior design; human-AI integrated innovation; computer-aided design
HE Rui	Research Proposal of A Story Design Language to Drive Automatic Story Generation by Deep Learning.
JIANG Qian	Human Behavior, Immersive Technology, Exhibition, Embodied Experience
JIANG Yijia	Public Design of Sports Culture, Healthy Lifestyle and Urban Renewal
JONES Rhys	Videogame Spectatorship and Secondary Fandom Value.
KHALIL Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Abdellatif	Urban Sensory Experiences Through Linguistic Lenses: A Comparative Study of Urban Spaces in Hong Kong and Istanbul
LEE Ching	Reterritorialising the hyper dense city from a perspectivist approach - A study of the complex fold between the ‘private’ and the ‘public’ in the context of Hong Kong.
LI Huanhuan	Safe, Friendly, Flexible: 3D vision based intelligent human robot collaboration system design.
LI Jiaan	Human-computer Interaction, social computing, VR/AR, accessibility
LI Jiajuan	Enhancing Trust and Rapport in Human-Intelligent Agent Interactions for AIoT
LI Jiaman	A Study of Community Development in Rural Museums in Southwest China Rural Museums; Anthropology; Public Space and Community；Southwest China
LI Yating	A Research on Design Thinking in Chinese Education.
LIU Mengru	Constructing a comprehensive experience model through applying sports user behavior profiles for facilitating basketball training of teenagers
LIU Xi	From Inclusion to Empowerment: A Design Learning Framework to Foster the Competencies and Development of Students with Special Educational Needs
LIU Yu	Mapping the landscape ecology sustainability of Pearl River Delta with a Bayesian Belief Network Model.
LIU Zhuoman	A Correlative Statistical Shape Model of both Head Skin and Bone Surfaces for Ergonomic Headgear Design.
LONG Qiling	Public Inclusive Design in the Post Pandemic Era for the Visually Impaired, to Enhance Social Inclusion.
LUKENGE Richard Kamya	Towards Attaining Socially Inclusive Mobility in Developing Cities: Assessing Informal-Formal Continuum for Participatory Modelling Processes.
MAO Qian	Designing a wearable mobility-care ecosystem for older adults based on a symmetrical model
QIU Yuyan	Design for the elderly, immersive technology
SHAH Furqan Ali	Art and Design Innovation for Aging with Dementia
SHI Xinyu	Facial attractiveness Social traits
WANG Can	A Study on the Social Robot Plant and its Effects on Young People’s Self-disclosure and Mental Health
WANG Jiahao	The Role of Design in Achieving Product-Market Fit
WANG Jiashen	User Research; Consumer Behavior; Experience Design; Media Storytelling
WANG Luqian	Design neurocognition; protocol analysis; design co-evolution; cross-disciplinary collaboration; design education; neuroimaging; functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)
WANG Mingming	Augmented Reality, Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience, Urban Design
WANG Shuyun	Service design, product-service systems, digital innovation, user experience, social interaction
WANG Yuxuan	Design and Evaluation of a kind of Educational Tangible Analog Computer System
WANG Zhuo	Imagining for real: embodied transformative practices for co-constitutive living and organizing with the more-than-human
WONG Lionel Zhen Jie	Approaches to applying Machine Learning (ML) to Facilitate Computational Fashion Design.
WU Lingyi	Human-computer interaction and ergonomics
WU Yucheng	Research Title: Spatial Intervention for enhancing the social interaction in Long-term-care Facilities with People with Dementia: The development of A person-centred Participatory Design Mechanismc
XING Pangrui	Designing Tangible Interactions among Connected Things.
XU Yue	HCI, AR, architecture design
YANG Zi	The Evolving Human Dimensions of Public Space from the Chinese Perspective: Directions for Inclusive Public Design.
YE Wanchun	Liquid Spatial Production: Inclusive Perspective of Creative Place-making for Urban Public Space
YIN Ziyou	Challenges in Participatory Design Research: Tangible Design for Improving Intergenerational Connectedness
ZHANG Fan	Emotionally-Driven Design of Service Robots from a Social Innovation Perspective
ZHANG Haoran	Human-computer interaction design, user experience design, VR/AR
ZHANG Huiyi	Decentralized System Design in community for Insect Farming, Family Kitchen Waste Recycling and Sustainable Future Food Production
ZHANG Jun	Designing Interfaces for Cognitive Cooperation in Human-Vehicle Team
ZHANG Keren	Title: Tangible Interaction and Facility Design for Urban Childhoods in the Public Space: A new Combination of Digital and Outdoor Activities with AI generative tools
ZHANG Siyue	XR, Phygital, Hand-tracking, Spatial Design, Mobility, Cultural heritage
ZHANG Yaqi	From Co-design to environmental policy: an online offline integrated model to facilitate sustained recycling behavior.
ZHAO Xinzhe	Designing and deploying augmented reality product to improve human subjective wellbeing: behavioural activation therapy
ZHAO Zhen	Research on User Experience Design of Digital Health for the Aging Population: From an Embodied Cognition Perspective
ZHENG Bing	Research on Theory and Practice of Synergistic Mechanism Based on Design-driven Brand.
ZHOU Yiwei	Co-design Tourism Experience with stakeholders for community rebuilding
ZHU Yujie	IoT-enabled Interactive Education and Training Approach for Assisting Rehabilitation.
ZOU Jiayi	Social innovation, social design, participatory design, artificial intelligence design, and public design

(by alphabetical order)

Student Name	Project Title
BAKHOTMAH Fawaz Abid M	Supporting Development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through Culture-based Innovation: Expanding the Saudi National Festival for Culture and Heritage into a National Project for Innovation and Design
CHEUNG Yik Yuen	Study on the effect of sports bra on senior women exercise behavior based on the psychological and biomechanical analysis
DING Jing	Adopting the first-person perspective theory to safeguarding heritage craftsmanship in immersive virtual narrative design
DU Pengyu	A product language-mediated information expression model : from the perspective of cognitive linguistics
ECHEVERRI Daniel	Experiencing stories through artifacts : an authoring model for tangible narratives
ENDEMANN Henry Leonard	Compact mega: scenarios for the interplay between urban megaprojects and megaregional planning strategies
EVANS Susan	A Design-Led approach for transformation towards sustainability in the context of a circular-economy
FONG Wai Man Tifanni	Business incubation process for design start-ups : case studies on government-based and university-based business incubators in Hong Kong
GERA Krity	Informal mobilities through the lens of gender : identifying capacities emerging from the daily mobilities of urban marginalised women
GUI Shun	Anticipatory human-robot handover interaction model in an assistive robot design
HUANG Lusha	Enhancing the travel experiences of people with visual impairments through application design
HUANG, Shiming	Exploring the impact of robot-delivered interpretation bias modification on depressed young adults in Hong Kong : a mixed-methods iterative approach
IFTIKHAR Hassan	A design framework for synthesizing the mobile and static wayfinding information in complex environments
JIANG Ying	Designing as care
KIM Kyulee	An exploration on the roles of design to create shared value as an integrative social and business innovation process
KING Pui Yuk Alex	Universal design in public housing : an ethnographic study on enhancing the quality of life of older people with mild cognitive impairment living alone
LEE Jennifer Yoohyun	The effect of narrative formation on design for participation : focusing on group chat conversation as participation and practice
LEE Sang Won	Responsible social media : development and evaluation of key guiding principles
LI Qingchuan	User modelling for older adults' mobile interaction behaviour : evaluation of user characteristics, task demands and interface design
LION Giovanni	Concept Formation in Computational Creativity: a Comparative Study of Algorithmic Approaches
LIU Helene	Datafied : a critical exploration of the production of knowledge in the age of datafication
LO Kwok Yin Angelina	How children design : observational study of children's design process
LUO Jing	Development of an Artificial Intelligence-Driven Product Design Evaluation Model Using Multi-modal Data
MA Yuanhong	Social design in China : community-based comprehensive old-age service facilities design
MILLER Martin Dean	Finding the found critically locating contextually-reflective photographs
MUNOZ PRIETO Daniel Alejandro	Experience design and immersive technology for the protection of physical and mental health: a cognitive, affective, and behavioral approach in the context of the construction industry.
NASKOVA, Julija	Dramaturgical framework for the study of designers’ experiences during cloud transformation
NAVARRETE RIGO Andrea	Autonomous design as a decolonial tool
NAVARRO Louie	Towards a new, filtered interior : arriving at a typology of interior perspective rendering and its impact on thinking, practice, and policy of interior design
NEL Darren Henry	Morphologies of Resilience: Towards an approach to the study of urban spatial resilience
NG Po Choy	Towards a framework for synthesis of visual language for computational brand mark design
OUSTAMANOLAKIS Michail	Design education : an investigation into how it improves idea generation
PENG, Yixuan	Chinese megablock urbanism : an enquiry into the conceptualization and interpretation of urbanization practice in China
QIN Zhenzhen	A touch of classical chinese poetry : enriching interactive everyday products with poetic metaphors
SHAH Parth Bharat	Measurement of pressure thresholds and biomechanical properties of soft tissues in the head region for product design
SHAW Chris	Identifying An Educational Framework To Develop Imaginative Thinking For Animation Students : An Asian Perspective.
SHEN, Xin	Designing text-based Chatbots for eating disorders : from an identity-based perspective
SONG Yao	Initial trust in AI agent : communicating facial anthropomorphic trustworthiness for social robot design
TIAN Yao	The cultural interpretation framework : how experienced graphic designers innovate Chinese culture? Case study of six experienced Chinese designers
VENKATESH Aruna	Facilitation of Design Students' Tacit Knowledge Construction: An Interpretive Research in Interior Design Studios
WAN Chi Kwong Bruce	Design for technology-mediated memorable and meaningful tourism experiences : a strengths-based approach
WAN Jingyi	Dynamic Human Body Reconstruction from a Sparse Multi-view Video.
WANG Shisi	The production of the visual images of Tibet : a semiotic and contextual study
WANG Xue	A Framework of Protective Sustainable Design to Promote the Dissemination Effect of Chinese Shadow Puppetry on We-media Platforms with a Study Focus on Huaxian, Shaanxi Province
WEI Lai	Towards efficient and robust volumetric video streaming
WEI Xiaokang	Accurate 3D Human Head Reconstruction from Image.
WEI Xintong	Residential well-being of urban communities in densely populated cities in China
WEN Qi	Design museums in a “City of Design” in China
WERNLI Markus	Adventurous homemaking : exploring collaborations toward agroecological probabilities
WU Xiuxiu	Design innovation in design-centric SMEs How to developing strategies that can stimulate design innovation from intrinsic motivation and creative self-efficacy for SMEs designers in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) toward benefiting both SMEs owners and policymakers.
YANG Chien-Hui	Towards a social model of care : the case of Scandinavian co-housing for privacy and social interaction in Hong Kong residential care homes
ZHANG Jie	Sizing Children’s Headwear based on Modelling 3D Head Geometric Characteristics and Product Perceived Comfort
ZHANG Suxin	Placemaking and revival in heritage conservation areas located in the Chinese urban centres
ZHANG Wenjing	The construction of digital self-identity : with the focus on Chinese social media platform
ZHU Mingjie	The applicability of participatory design for urban community building