Department of Computing
Research Assistant (two posts)
(Ref. 261020003)
[Appointment period: each for twelve months]
Duties
The appointees will assist the project leader in the research project – “Agents with heart: Advancing human well-being through next-generation affective intelligence”. They will be required to:
(a) develop and implement affective intelligence and conversational agent models for emotion understanding, personalised emotional support and human well-being, and assist in building related interactive prototypes and experimental environments;
(b) conduct experiments, analyse results and evaluate the effectiveness and quality of the developed models and systems;
(c) draft and revise research papers, and prepare technical reports and project deliverables; and
(d) perform any other duties as assigned by the project leader, the Head of Unit or their delegates.
Qualifications
Applicants should have:
(a) an honours degree or above in Computer Science, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence or a related discipline, or an equivalent qualification;
(b) research experience in natural language processing, affective computing or conversational AI;
(c) excellent academic writing skills in English with the ability to independently draft and revise research papers, with at least one paper published at a top-tier conference or in a top-tier journal in AI or human-computer interaction;
(d) strong programming skills in Python, familiarity with deep learning frameworks, and practical experience in API integration, version control and multimodal processing of text, speech and visual data, including acquiring and integrating data from smart glasses or AR/XR devices; and
(e) good problem-solving, communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to work independently and in a team.
Preference will be given to those with experience in Large Language Models, emotional support dialogue systems or interactive simulation environments. Experience in developing interactive applications using Unity, Unreal Engine or relevant XR/AR SDKs would also be an advantage.
Applicants are invited to contact Prof. Wenjie Li at telephone number 2766 7297 or via email at wenjie.li@polyu.edu.hk for further information.
Conditions of Service
A highly competitive remuneration package will be offered.
Consideration of applications will commence on 27 October 2026 until the positions are filled.
Posting date: 20 October 2026