Dr Zhibin Zhou is a Assistant Professor at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining PolyU, he served as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and received his Ph.D. in Design from the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University. Additionally, he was a visiting Ph.D. student in the School of Design and Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. His expertise lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and design disciplines, focusing on reforming design tools and methods to harness the transformative potential of AI.

His research elevates AI from a critical material to an integral collaborator, unfolding across two interconnected perspectives: (a) viewing discriminative AI as a design material, he explored how AI can be embedded in services to improve the functions and enhance user experience, thereby driving the creation of design tools that advance the development of AI-enhanced systems; and (b) treating generative AI as a design collaborator, he investigated how AI can serve as a creative agent to facilitate design processes (e.g., user research and ideation), leading to the development of novel AI-aided design platforms for journey maps, focus groups, etc.

By rethinking design literacy, Zhibin aims to explore design paradigms in the AI era that enable designers to simultaneously explore infinite design possibilities, test and refine them within synthetic environments facilitated by AI, and move beyond linear and iterative design approaches.

• PhD, Zhejiang University School of Computer Science and Technology

• Human-AI Interaction 
• Design Methodology/Tools for AI-enhanced UX