“Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt: Der bestirnte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir.”

🖺My Resume (English)

🖺简历 (中文)

📖 About me

[On Job Market].

I am a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Individualized Interdisciplinary Program (Robotics and Autonomous Systems) at Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), supervised by Prof. Yiwen Wang (CCEL in HKUST). Before joining HKUST, I received my M.Eng (Zhejiang Univ. 2021) and B.Eng (Tongji Univ. 2018) in Mechanical Engineering.

My research interest lies in Brain-machine Interface, NeuroAI and Cognitive Analysis. Now I focus on point processes modeling (spiking activity) for understanding neural populations coding in Brain-machine Interfaces. And I also did some work on brain-inspired intelligence and cognitive analysis. I am broadly interested in

1. Developing interpretable models to understand how neurons represent, process, and transmit information
2. Establishing brain-inspired machine intelligence frameworks bridging artificial neural networks and biological neural networks.
3. Exploring applications in wearable computing, mental health, and robotics learning, etc.

🔥 News

• [2025.Feb]: A paper is accepted by TNSRE.
• [2025.Feb]: Finished Postdoctoral Networking Tour in Artificial Intelligence in Heidelberg University and Technical University of Munich. Thank you Dr. Zahra Monfared and my friends.
• [2024.Oct]: Awarded DAAD AInet Fellowship
• [2024.Apr]: Two papers were accepted to EMBC 2024! I am honored with NextGen Scholar Award.
• [2023.Aug]: We organized the 4th International Workshop on Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation in Chengdu China
• [2023.Aug]: A paper was accepted to ESWA. I finished my master study eventually!
• [2023.Apr]: A paper was accepted to EMBC 2023.

📝 Publications

Journal paper

1. Mingdong Li, Shuhang Chen†, Xiang Zhang, Yiwen Wang. Neural Correlation Integrated Adaptive Point Process Filtering on Population Spike Trains, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (TNSRE), 2025. (†: co-first author) [PDF]
2. Mingdong Li, Shanhe Lou*, Hao Zheng, Yixiong Feng, Yicong Gao, Siyuan Zeng, Jianrong Tan. A Cognitive Analysis-based Key Concepts Derivation Approach for Product Design, Expert Systems With Applications (ESWA), 2024. [PDF]
3. Mingdong Li, Shanhe Lou*, Yicong Gao, Hao Zheng, Bingtao Hu, Jianrong Tan. A Cerebellar Operant Conditioning-inspired Constraint Satisfaction Approach for Product Design Concept Generation, International Journal of Production Research (IJPR), 2023. [PDF]
4. Xuanyu Wu, Zhaoxi Hong*, Yixiong Feng, Mingdong Li, Shanhe Lou, Jianrong Tan. A Semantic Analysis Driven Customer Requirements Mining Method for Product Conceptual Design, Scientific Reports (Sci. Rep.), 2022. [PDF]
5. Yixiong Feng, Mingdong Li, Shanhe Lou*, Yicong Gao, Jianrong Tan. A Digital Twin-Driven Method for Product Performance Evaluation Based on Intelligent Psycho-Physiological Analysis, Transaction of the ASME, Journal of computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE), 2021. [PDF]

Conference paper

1. Mingdong Li, Mingyi Wang, Yiwen Wang*. An Adaptive Superposition Point Process Model with Neuronal Encoding Engagement Identification, 2024 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC). (Oral) [PDF]
2. Zixu Wang, Shuhang Chen†, Mingdong Li, Yiwen Wang*. Tracking Dynamic Conditional Neural Correlation during Task Learning, 2024 46th EMBC. (Oral, †co-first author) [PDF]
3. Mingdong Li, Shuhang Chen, Zhijia Zhao, Yiwen Wang*. Tracking the Dynamic Functional Neural Connectivity via Conjugate Gradient Optimization, 2023 45th EMBC. (Oral) [PDF]
4. Mingdong Li, Shuhang Chen, Xi Liu, Zhiwei Song, Yiwen Wang*. Modeling Neural Connectivity in a Point-Process Analogue of Kalman Filter, 2022 44th EMBC. [PDF]

👨‍💻 Services and Teaching

• Teaching Assistant
  • EMIA4110 Practical Machine Learning (2024 Spring)
  • ELEC4130 Machine Learning on Images (2023 Spring)
• Reviewer: TIV, ISBI2025, NER2025

💻 Activities

• [2024.Nov-Dec] Talks on “Neural Population Encoding in Brain-machine Interface”
• [2024.Oct] “Modeling Neural Population Dynamics in a Point Process Filter” for Neuroprosthetics Control for 2024 Annual Conference of International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) [Poster]
• [2023.Nov]: Talk on Tracking Dynamic Neural Connectivity in Seminar of Robotics and Autonomous Systems Thrust
• [2023.Aug] Program Committee: 4th International Workshop on Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation

🏆 Honors and Awards

• [2024.Oct]: DAAD AInet Fellow (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdiens, Germany)
• [2024.Apr]: NextGen Scholar Award (IEEE Annual International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC))
• [2021.Mar]: Zhejiang University Dissertation Year Scholarship (Top 2 postgraduates of each college)
• [2019.Oct]: ZHEJIANG Lab International AI Competition (Multiple Objects Tracking (MOT) track), Excellence Prize
• [2016.Jul]: 1st prize in No.7 National College Mechanical Design Innovation Competition
• [2013 - 2018]: Tongji Scholarship of Excellence (2nd prize & 3rd prize)