From Likelihood to Utility: Quality-Axis Diffusion for End-to-End Autonomous Driving
AAAI 2027, Under Review
具身心智与进化智能实验室
Embodied Intelligence · World Models · Autonomous Driving · LLM Agents
MENS Lab is led by Hongliang Lu, an Assistant Professor (Associate Researcher) and Ph.D. Supervisor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). MENS stands for Mind, Embodiment, NeuroAI, and Self-evolution, reflecting our vision of intelligence as something that emerges through perception, physical interaction, memory, adaptation, and continuous growth.
The lab explores embodied intelligence, robotic manipulation, autonomous driving, world models, brain-inspired AI, and LLM agents, with the goal of building intelligent systems that do not merely compute, but sense the world, understand action, learn from experience, and evolve within complex real-world environments.
We warmly welcome motivated students and researchers to join us in exploring the future of embodied intelligence.




🎉🎉🎉 Our paper “Reframing Urban Transportation As Complex Systems: A Three-Dimensional Evolutionary Perspective” has been formally accepted by Engineering.
Hongliang Lu is an Assistant Professor (Associate Researcher) and Ph.D. Supervisor in the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). He received his Ph.D. from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, with a research focus on embodied intelligence, autonomous driving, world models, brain-inspired AI, robotic manipulation, and LLM agents. His work explores how intelligent systems can perceive the physical world, reason about complex interactions, make adaptive decisions, and continuously evolve through experience.
As a first author, he has published in leading journals and conferences, including PNAS, Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, Engineering, Transportation Research Part C, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, and other venues. His long-term research vision is to develop intelligent machines that can understand, act, and grow within real-world environments.
Contact: luhl3@sustech.edu.cn Google Scholar ↗
Ph.D. student, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Sep 2026 -
MPhil, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Sep 2024 - July 2026
B.Eng., University of Science and Technology Beijing, Sep 2020 - July 2024
Research: Autonomous Driving, Embodied Intelligence
Contact: jyang512@connect.hkust-gz.edu.cn
Ph.D. student, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 -
M.Eng., Zhejiang University, Sep 2022 - Jun 2025
B.Eng., Beijing Jiaotong University, Sep 2018 - Jun 2022
Research: AI Agents, RAG, LLM Memory
Contact: zshiay@connect.ust.hk
Ph.D. student, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Sep 2025 -
M.Eng., Xidian University, Sep 2022 - Jun 2025
B.Sc., China University of Petroleum (East China), Sep 2018 - Jun 2022
Research: Embodied Intelligence, World Models, Robot Learning, Perception and Decision-Making
Contact: yli382@connect.hkust-gz.edu.cn
Ph.D. student, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Sep 2025 -
B.Eng., Beijing Jiaotong University, Sep 2021 - Jun 2025
Research: Embodied Intelligence, World Models, Robot Manipulation
Contact: yhuang411@connect.hkust-gz.edu.cn
Coming soon.
MSc, The University of Hong Kong, Sep 2025 – Nov 2026
B.Eng., Dalian University of Technology, Sep 2021 – Jun 2025
Research: Computer Vision, Embodied Intelligence
Contact: northtzzz@163.com
M.S., Columbia University, Jul 2025 – Oct 2026
B.Sc., Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University & University of Liverpool, Sep 2021 – Jul 2025
Research: Video Generation and Editing, Multimodal Learning, World Models
Contact: jh5117@columbia.edu
MSc, National University of Singapore, Sep 2023 – Jan 2025
B.Eng., Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Sep 2019 – Jun 2023
Research: Embodied Intelligence, World Models
Contact: zhangjhf25@gmail.com
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2023 – Jul 2027
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12312901@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2023 – Jul 2027
Interests: Autonomous Driving
Contact: 12310323@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2023 – Jul 2027
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12313411@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2023 – Jul 2027
Interests: Physics×AI
Contact: 12313109@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2024 – Jul 2028
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12410607@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2024 – Jul 2028
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12410327@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2024 – Jul 2028
Interests: World Model & VLA
Contact: 12411711@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 – Jul 2029
Interests: LLM Agents
Contact: 12511232@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 – Jul 2029
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12512118@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 – Jul 2029
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12510246@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 – Jul 2029
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: 12510810@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2025 – Jul 2029
Interests: Autonomous Driving
Contact: 12512845@mail.sustech.edu.cn
Southern University of Science and Technology, Sep 2026 – Jul 2030
Interests: Embodied Intelligence
Contact: sunrui26nanke@163.com
Coming soon.
* Corresponding Author † Project Lead
AAAI 2027, Under Review
AAAI 2027, Under Review
AAAI 2027, Under Review
AAAI 2027, Under Review
AAAI 2027, Under Review
AAAI 2027, Under Review Paper
AAAI 2027, Under Review
Nature Communications, Under Review
Engineering, Accepted in Principle
NeurIPS 2026, Under Review
iScience, Under Review Paper
IEEE TPAMI, Under Review Paper
PNAS, Accepted Paper
IROS 2026, Accepted Paper
Content coming soon.
Content coming soon.
We are recruiting Master’s and Ph.D. students for the 2027 cohort. We welcome highly motivated applicants interested in embodied AI, robot learning, world models, and LLM agents. Applicants with relevant research experience will be given priority consideration.
We are also continuously recruiting Research Assistants. Outstanding Research Assistants may receive priority recommendation for future Ph.D. applications.
Join MENS Lab and work with us on meaningful, exciting, and impactful research.