PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Chunyan Miao

Also known as Miao Chun Yan

Chunyan Miao is an artificial intelligence researcher at Nanyang Technological University whose work spans cognitive agents, AI for ageing, conversational systems and curiosity-driven learning. She earned a PhD at NTU’s School of Computer Engineering in 2003 and founded LILY, the NTU-UBC centre for active living for the elderly, in 2012. Her work includes AI-powered exergames, a social-insurance AI system recognized by an AAAI award, the CARE conversational model and a 2022 review of curiosity-driven learning. She received NTU’s Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award in 2021 and the Super AI Leader Award in 2025; as of October 2026, she is a President’s Chair Professor and Chair of NTU’s College of Computing and Data Science.

Now at
Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly
Works
707
Citations
24,149
h-index
74
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2003

    A PhD at NTU

    She completes a PhD at NTU’s School of Computer Engineering in 2003 and studies cognitive agents that model human thought processes in computer models.

  2. 2012

    Founding the LILY centre

    In 2012, she initiates and becomes founding director of the Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly (LILY).

  3. 2018

    A social-insurance AI award

    In 2018, a widely deployed AI system for social-insurance service provisioning based on her research receives the AAAI Innovative Applications of AI Award.

  4. By 2019

    AI-powered exergames

    By 2019, her projects include AI-powered exergames that help predict, detect and rehabilitate neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke and dementia.

  5. 2021

    An alumni award and CARE

    She receives NTU’s Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award in 2021 for her contributions to research and talent development. In 2021, she coauthors CARE, a conversational AI model for commonsense-aware emotional response generation.

  6. 2022

    Curiosity-driven learning in AI

    In 2022, she coauthors a review of psychological curiosity and curiosity-driven learning methods across reinforcement learning, recommendation and classification.

  7. 2025

    A Super AI Leader Award

    In 2025, she receives the Super AI Leader Award at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference for her work applying AI to support healthy ageing.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and college chair

    As of October 2026, she is a President’s Chair Professor and Chair of NTU’s College of Computing and Data Science, and an Associate Vice President for Capability Building.

Career

  1. Since 1999Nanyang Technological UniversityPresident’s Chair Professor; Associate Vice President for Capability Building
  2. 2021–2024Shandong University
  3. 2012–2026Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the ElderlyFounding director
  4. 2006–2026National University of Singapore

Education

  1. 2003Nanyang Technological UniversityPhD

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Nanyang Technological University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Nanyang Technological University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Nanyang Technological University. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. 5 of the 25 people with the most-cited recent papers also lead on career citationsIncludes Nanyang Technological University. We compare citations to 2023–2025 papers with career citations and h-index, after correcting reviewed publication-date errors: who leads, when they started and where they work.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Chunyan Miao yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Nanyang Alumni Awards 2021 | College of Computing and Data Science | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Ageing well with AI | Alumni | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Virtual tool, real impact: Prof Miao Chunyan | Research | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. CARE: Commonsense-Aware Emotional Response Generation with Latent Concepts | Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence ojs.aaai.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. [2201.08300] From Psychological Curiosity to Artificial Curiosity: Curiosity-Driven Learning in Artificial Intelligence Tasks arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. NTU AI expert honoured with prestigious global award | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Faculty Directory | College of Computing and Data Science | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Prof Miao Chun Yan | SHBC 2026 shbc.com.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.