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Alston Lantian Xu

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About me

Alston grew up in Shanghai (China) and pursued his undergraduate study at the City University of Hong Kong where he continued as a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Alvaro Cassinelli at the Augmented Materiality Lab, School of Creative Media. Being exposed to diverse people and cultures, he was fascinated by how people interact with each other regardless of their “properties”. 

As a cognitive science researcher, he specialises in exploring spatial cognition, delving into how people perceive and navigate the space around them. He employs a range of methodologies, from experimental studies with human participants to computational modeling. A portion of his recent work has concentrated on understanding the impact of predictive processing on cognition—aligning objects at positions with our body positions and movements would expedite the recognition. He introduces a new variable, spatial placement, to the mental rotation experiment, uncovering evidence for a non-linear relationship between the angle of rotation and the time it takes to identify. This contradicts traditional views that suggest a proportional correlation. His research adds new perspectives to the understanding of two processes during spatial cognition, predicting and matching. The end goal is to advance our knowledge of spatial navigation and perception, ultimately informing the development of new human-computer interaction models with both 2D and 3D interfaces. 

Education

Ph.D. Creative Media, expected 2025, City University of Hong Kong

B.Sc. Creative Media, 2020, City University of Hong Kong 

Prizes and awards

Outstanding Academic Performance Award, 2021/2022

Geneva Inventions Bronze Medal 2022

HSBC Prosperity Hall Prosperian Scholarships 2017/2018

HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund (Non-academic Awards) - Reaching Out Award 2017/2018

DUTIES

Teaching Assistant for SM4602, SM4712B Graduation Thesis (GT) / Project, 2022/2023

Residence Tutor at Jockey Club Harmony Hall 2022/2023

CERTIFICATES

SPORT CLIMBING TRAINING - LEVEL 1, CHKMCU 2023

UAS OPERATION - OPEN CATEGORY A1/A3, EASA 2023

STAND-UP PADDLE BOARD -  BEGINNER PROGRAM, HKSURFSUP 2022

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