Hi, this is Jung-Chun Liu 劉容均 (/li:'oʊ rɔŋ 'dʒyʊn/), or you can just call me Joan. I am a first-year CSE Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan advised by Joyce Chai. I visited Computational Cognitive Science Lab working with Jiayuan Mao in 2024.

Previously, I was a research assistant working with Professor Shao-Hua Sun at NTU Robot Learning Lab. I received my master degree from National Taiwan University, where I was advised by Professor Tian-Li Yu at Taiwan Evolutionary Intelligence Laboratory. I received my B.S. degree with double majors in Electrical Engineering and Psychology from National Taiwan University in 2021.

My ultimate research goal is to explore how human and machine develop fluid intelligence—the ability to reason, solve problems, and adapt to novel scenarios. The main themes of my research are concepts and symbols, from a embodied and evolutionary angles. How concepts and symbols emerge and evolve through interaction with environments, regardless of their origin (i.e., neural architectures, neural-symbolic models, or the human nervous system)? How agents leverage them for reasoning and problem solving? From a machine learning perspective, I aim to build machines capable of compositional and generalizable concept learning from few-shot examples as well as efficient, adaptive inference in test-time compute. From a cognitive science perspective, I investigate AI for cognitive science—the mechanisms of shared cognition between humans and machines, and the fundamental differences in the architecture and reasoning processes.

• I prefer using my original name, Jung-Chun, though it's actually pronounced Róng-jūn in Mandarin. You can pronounce it as Jūn-Chūn or however feels natural. Or just call me Joan if that's easier.
• I was born in Tainan, a city rich in history, culture, and amazing food in Taiwan.
• I enjoy listening to music. I particularly love Taiwanese indie and band music. Check out some of my favorite artists here.
• I love reading novels and literature. One of my favorite books is Ki-ken (キケン) by Arikawa Hiro (有川浩). The book and author that has influenced me the most are Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise (房思琪的初戀樂園) by Yi-Han Lin (林奕含).
• I want to live as a whole person. Being a researcher is part of me, but not all of me. Outside of research, I enjoy badminton, drawing/digital art, and photography to make life more colorful.