From May 24 to 25, 2025, the Frontiers of Psychological Cognition in the AI Era — Tsinghua University Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Doctoral Student Academic Forum and Tsinghua University 797th Doctoral Student Academic Forum was held at Xiong'an Science and Innovation Center. This forum was hosted by the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at Tsinghua University and co-organized by the Xiong'an New Area Science Park Management Committee.
Yangbiao Ma delivering a speech
At the forum opening ceremony, Yangbiao Ma, Deputy Director of Xiong'an Science Park Management Committee, delivered a speech. He pointed out that Xiong'an New Area focuses on building an innovative ecosystem with multidisciplinary cross-integration, and the Science Park Management Committee will provide comprehensive support for this forum and the industry-academia-research integration of artificial intelligence technology and psychological cognitive science. Subsequently, Jia Liu, Director of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at Tsinghua University, gave a keynote report titled "Computational Neuroscience: Intuition and Formalization in Psychology." He approached from the philosophical perspective of "beginning with the end in mind," exploring the revolutionary significance of AI development for traditional psychology, and systematically introduced "computational psychology" as an emerging disciplinary direction. The report was insightful and received enthusiastic response from the audience.
Jia Liu giving a presentation
This forum established four directions: "Cognition and Intelligence," "Society and Health," "Cross-Frontier," and "Undergraduate Forum," covering multiple sessions including keynote reports, sub-topic discussions, poster presentations, and exchange symposiums. The forum preliminarily collected 74 submissions from 18 domestic universities, adhering to evaluation standards of "landmark significance, interdisciplinarity, frontier nature, and comprehensiveness," ultimately selecting 26 oral presentations and 33 poster presentations for exchange and discussion. The sub-forums adopted a "15+5" interactive presentation format, where each presenter gave a 15-minute academic presentation followed by 5 minutes of expert commentary and opened to audience questions; the poster presentation session built an open academic dialogue space, where researchers presented and explained research results through exhibition boards, and attendees evaluated outstanding posters through on-site voting. The academic atmosphere on site was intense, with participants conducting in-depth discussions on the content of presentations and posters.
Sub-forum discussions
Poster presentations
Faculty-student exchange and learning
In addition, the forum established a series of activities including Department Director Reception Day and Party Secretary Lecturing on Party Classes, where faculty and students sat together for discussions around themes such as disciplinary development, talent cultivation, and work style construction. Attending faculty and students actively offered suggestions, providing opinions and recommendations for the construction and development of the Department of Psychology.
Guest sharing
At the forum closing ceremony, Liyuan Wang, Assistant Researcher in the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, gave a themed presentation on "Brain-Inspired Continual Learning and Physiological Health Applications," proposing new ideas for mining "natural algorithms"; Kai Du, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tsinghua University, gave a themed presentation on "Beyond Brain Simulation, Toward Biological General Intelligence," sharing new tools and theories in brain science research; Yu Zhang, Distinguished Researcher at Zhejiang Lab, gave a themed presentation on "Brain Atlas-Constrained Cognitive Function Modeling and Brain-Like Intelligence Research," exploring brain state recognition under natural stimulation.
Award ceremony
The award ceremony was presided over by Jing Qian, leader of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences graduate work group. Department of Psychology teachers Kai Du, Yisi Zhang, and Chaogan Yan successively presented awards to 16 students who received "Best Presentation Awards," and Yuanyuan Mi, Zhen Wu, and Dan Zhang successively presented awards to 10 students who received "Outstanding Paper Awards."
Ying Li's summary
Ying Li, Party Secretary of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, pointed out in the forum summary that this forum, as the first independently held doctoral student forum by the Department of Psychology, has three major characteristics: landmark significance, interdisciplinarity, and comprehensiveness. She expects attending faculty and students to continue upholding scientific spirit, cultivating deeply in fundamental research, embracing disciplinary cross-integration, expanding thinking boundaries, maintaining humanistic care, and contributing to technology for good.
The forum was one of the special activities of the Third Science·Talent·Innovation Week in Xiong'an New Area and received strong local support and widespread attention. More than one hundred people participated in the activities, including faculty and students from fields such as psychology, artificial intelligence, and brain science from 18 universities including Tsinghua University, local enterprise representatives, and leaders from relevant departments.
