The human cognitive system learns quickly, generalizes easily and robustly to new situations, enabling rapid decision-making even in critical situations. These amazing capabilities are driven by life-long learning on dynamic and multi-modal information coming from the different sensory inputs.

How is the brain able to learn and process such dynamic, multi-modal data given the massive amounts of input streaming from its sensors? Can we teach artificial cognitive systems similar capabilities? Once we do, how do we align artificial intelligence systems better to humans, where alignment spans all aspects from perceptual, cognitive, and emotional aspects all the way up to moral reasoning and high-level decision-making?

In the Cognitive Systems Lab, we address these questions aiming to enhance the understanding of the algorithms employed by the human cognitive system. For this, we make use of cutting-edge methods from machine learning (AI) and mixed reality coupled with neuroimaging and psychophysics experiments.

We currently conduct research in four main areas:

Decision making (combining virtual/mixed reality and EEG experiments to investigate decision-making in high-risk, complex scenarios)

Human-centered AI (evaluation, validation, and improvement of algorithms from computer graphics, computer vision, and visualization in human-centered applications, alignment)

Social face processing (neuroimaging of face and facial expression processing, exploration of conversational facial expressions)

Multisensory and multimodal object processing (combining vision and touch for object processing, shape representations in the brain, multisensory skills in robotics, mixed reality studies using vision and touch)

NEWS

• September 1, 2025: Two papers and one collaboration paper at ISMAR 2025. Jiyoon Park, Christian Wallraven. Investigating Dynamics of Subjective Anxiety and Behavior due to Personal Space Violations and COVID-19-related Stressors in a Social VR Simulation. Hoesung Ryu, Uijong Ju, Christian Wallraven. Seeing What Matters: Attentional (Mis-)Alignment Between Humans and AI in VR-Simulated Prediction of Driving Accidents (invited also into special issue of IEEE TVCG). 

• June 6, 2025: Successful PhD defense by Dilara Derya, and two successful Master defenses by Hyunseung Lee and Cansu Malak - congratulations!

• May 13, 2025: New publications by Jaehyoung Bae in PLoS One, and a publication with Uijong Ju in TRF: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Congrats ^^

• April 28, 2025: Podcast interview.

• April 22, 2025: New webpage online on google sites.

• March 1, 2025: Selected as one of the (unfortunately becoming fewer) recipients of funding from NRF on "Advanced Deep Learning Models of Risky Decision Making in Simulated Driving Integrating Behavioral and EEG Data" - excited for the upcoming 3 years about this research!

• October 21, 2024 → October 25, 2024: Three poster presentations at ISMAR2024 by Hoesung Ryu, Jiyoon Park, and Jaehoon Jang, check https://ieeeismar.org/

• October 6, 2024 → October 10, 2024: Paper presentation at MICCAI Workshop by Daehyeon Cho, see https://sites.google.com/view/ml-cdsmiccai2024/home

• September 10, 2024: Publication from Taeho Kang and Yiyu Chen in Journal of Neural Engineering, available at https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/ad788e

• July 8, 2024 → July 14, 2024: Poster presentation in collaboration with Taeho Kang at NeuroErgonomics, see https://neuroergonomics2024.inria.fr/program/

• July 3, 2024 → July 6, 2024: ICPRAI2024 in Jeju - Christian Wallraven is co-chairing this conference on pattern recognition and AI. Sponsored by IAPR and published in LNCS in Springer, check http://www.icprai2024.org