
I aspire to reverse-engineer human cognition, to build embodied machines that can see, learn, and interact with human-level cognition and social intelligence.
Area of research interests:
Embodied AI / Computer Vision / Computational Cognitive Science/
Achievements & Awards
Fun Projects
Media Coverage
Jiafei Duan
Hi, I am currently an AI research engineer at the Institute of Infocomm Research, Agency of Science, Technology and Research. I earned my B.Eng (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) with honors (Highest Distinction) from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore working with Dr Cheston Tan (A*STAR) and Professor Wen Bihan (NTU EEE). I am interested in the field of AI, specifically in the area of Embodied AI, Computational Cognitive Science, and Computer Vision. I was previously an A*STAR undergraduate scholar and currently a recipient of the National Science (PhD) scholarship. I will be starting my PhD at the University of Washington, Allen School of Computer Science Engineering under the advisory of Professor Dieter Fox.
Latest News
2022
- [Publication] 1 paper accepted at the IJCAI-ECAI 2022 Survey Track (18% Acceptance Rate)
- [Conference Service] I am an invited reviewer for NeurIPS 2022
- [News] I will be joining the University of Washington, Allen School of Computer Science Engineering and under the advisory of Professor Dieter Fox!
- [News] I have received PhD offers from UC Berkeley, CMU, UCLA, UW, and Johns Hopkins
- [Conference Service] I am an invited reviewer for ECCV 2022
- [Conference Service] I am an invited reviewer for IEEE T-CSVT Journal
- [Publication] Invited Commentary article for the National Research Foundation Magazine
- [Talks] Invited Speaker for Brown Bag Session on Embodied AI to A*STAR
- [Publication] 1 paper accepted for IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence (Journal)
2021
- [Non-Academic Achievement] Awarded the Nanyang Award for Teamwork ( Highest honor given to a student club)
- [Conference Service] I am an invited reviewer for CVPR 2022
- [Publication] 1 paper accepted for Neurips 2021 PRIBRW (Spotlight Paper)
- [News] Interviewed and featured in Straits Times and Channel 8 News
- [Publication] 1 paper accepted for ICCV21 SEAI Workshop (Spotlight Paper)
- [Academic Achievement] Awarded Koh Boon Hwee Scholars Award (Gold Medal)
- [Academic Achievement] Awarded NTU Class of 1985 Book Prize
- [Academic Achievement] Awarded NTU EEE Excellence Award
- [Research] Won 3rd Prize at NTU Final Year Project Challenge
- [Academic Achievement] Awarded the National Science Scholarship (PhD) Overseas by A*STAR
- [Talk] Invited Opening Speaker for AI Research Undergraduate Conference 2021
- [Talk] Invited Guest Speaker for the NTU EEE Research Apprenticeship Program
2020
- [Competition] Won the Superlative Award, SIA App Challenge 2020
- [Publication] 1 paper accepted for IEEE ICIP 2020
- [Research] Awarded the Best Poster Award at AI Summer School 2020, AI Singapore
- [Academic Achievement] Completed my undergraduate exchange program at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
- [Research] Completed the undergraduate research ECE 2699 under Dr Ayanna Howard, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
- [Competition] Won the “Most Innovative 5G/IoT/Sensors Design Award at MAKEMIT Hackathon, MIT
- [Talk] Invited Guest Speaker at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Alumni Sharing
- [Voluntary Service] Invited Judge for the MLDAxSGInnovate AI Hackathon
2019
- [Competition] Won the 1st Runner up for Singapore-India Hackathon 2019, Chennai India
- [Academic Achievement] Dean’s List for Academic Year 2018/19
- [Research] Awarded the Excellent Research Presentation Award, 6th ASPIRE Undergraduate Research Conference at KAIST Korea.
- [Academic Achievement] Awarded the NTU Silicon Valley Technological Study Trip Award
Publications
*Here are all the published work. For preprints under review, please refer to my google scholars.

“A Survey on Machine Learning Approaches for Modelling Intuitive Physics
[IJCAI-ECCAI 2022 ] (Survey Track 18% Acceptance Rate)
Authors: Jiafei Duan*, Arijit Dasgupta*, Jason Fischer, Cheston Tan

“PIP: Physical Interaction Prediction via Mental Simulation with Span Selection”
ArXiv Preprint
Authors: Jiafei Duan*, Samson Yu*, Soujanya Poria, Bihan Wen, Cheston Tan

“A Benchmark for Modeling Violation-of-Expectation in Physical Reasoning Across Event Categories ”
ArXiv Preprint
Authors: Arijit Dasgupta, Jiafei Duan, Marcelo H Ang Jr, Yi Lin, Su-hua Wang, Renée Baillargeon, Cheston Tan

“AVoE: A Synthetic 3D Dataset on Understanding Violation of Expectation for Artificial Cognition ”
[NeurIPS 2021 Physical Reasoning and Inductive Bias Workshop]
Authors: Arijit Dasgupta, Jiafei Duan, Marcelo H.Ang Jr, Cheston Tan

“SPACE: A Simulator for Physical Interactions and Causal Learning in 3D Environments ”
[ICCV2021, Simulation Technology for Embodied AI Workshop]
Authors: Jiafei Duan, Samson Yu, Cheston Tan
[Paper] [Code] [Video] [Website]

“A Survey of Embodied AI: From Simulators to Research Tasks.”
[IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence]
Authors: Jiafei Duan, Samson Yu, Tan Hui Li, Hongyuan Zhu, Cheston Tan

“ActioNet: An Interactive End-to-End Platform for Tasked-Based Data Collection and Augmentation in 3D Environment.”
[ICIP 2020, Oral Presentation]
Authors: Jiafei Duan, Samson Yu, Tan Hui Li, Cheston Tan
[Paper] [Code] [Video][Website]
Professional Service
General Chair ARSC 2021
Invited reviewer for IEEE T-CSVT, CVPR 2022, ECCV 2022, NeurIPS 2022
Alumni
*Here are some students/interns that I have helped with co-advising
Arijit Dasgupta (2021-2022), Incoming MIT EECS PhD
Ye Jieyi (2021-2022), Incoming at SWE Shopee
Hobbies and Interests
Cycling / 3D modeling & Animating / Magic / VR Gaming / Traveling


Media
