Who will you work with? 🔥

Anyi Rao is an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, leading the Multimedia Creativity Lab (MMLab@HKUST) and associate directing HKUST Media Intelligence Research Center, recruiting Ph.D. students (anytime), research assistants (anytime), and visiting students (anytime).

He was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. He studies human AI for creativity, with focuses on the understanding, editing and creation of art, media and film, aiming to build human-AI collaborative intelligence and unleash human creativity and productivity. The research spans computer vision, human-computer interaction, graphics, and multimedia, with flexible directions, aiming to create wonderful things together!

His work includes ControlNet, AnimateDiff, MovieNet, Virtual Studio, and IC-Light, and he has received one of the highest honors in computer vision research, the Marr Prize (Best Paper Award at ICCV). He organized the SIGGRAPH/CVPR/ICCV/ECCV Creative Visual Content Workshop and the SIGGRAPH Generative Models Course, curated 2025 Hong Kong HKUST AI Film Festival and 2023 Paris ShortFest AI Film Festival. He also serves as a co-chair of UIST24, UIST25, VINCI25, CVM25 and area chair (TPC) of SIGGRAPH Asia25. He received his Ph.D. from CUHK MMLab and has conducted research at the University of Toronto, Vector Institute, Meta Reality Lab, and the University of Hong Kong. He has published over 30 top academic papers, with over 9000 Google Scholar citations. He has hosted the Brown Media Innovation Research Fund, Amazon Video Research Fund, been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 List, and won the Rising Star Award at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2024. He gave keynote at the Golden Rooster Film Festival, the Shanghai Television Magnolia Festival, was featured by Shanghai TV Financial Channel, Hong Kong Cable Television.

What you can gain? 👍

  • Basic: A free and fulfilling research environment, comprehensive research/independent work training, ample computing resources, rich industry-academia connections and job opportunities, multidimensional training from partners, less burden from tedious rountinue, more flexibility in the new school. And there are other benefits.

  • Personalized training: If you are more senior, I can help you develop your mentorship/leadership skills and become independent. If you are more junior, I can provide more one-on-one hands-on help to develop your skills and pave the way for more future options. Regardless of your stage, I hope we can grow and be happy together! Technology always evolves, and I hope we can create more timeless value together! What do you need?

  • Personalized degree: Individualized Interdisciplinary MPhil/PhD Program (IIP) offers degrees like, Artifical Intelligence, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Human Computer Interactin, Multimedia, or any other formats. You can discuss this with me.

What you need? 🥳

  • Passion: Passion is always our top priority for innovation, whether creating code, algorithms, or beautiful content, telling your own story, or making the tools you want to use.
  • Academic Background: Relevant majors such as electronic computing, artificial intelligence, visual computing, and media technology. Research usually involves content not yet included in textbooks, and cutting-edge research can provide more future opportunities. As long as you have a solid foundation and are smart enough, I believe there will be no problem.

  • Research Interests: A strong interest in intelligent vision, user-centered, content generation/design/creation tools, etc. Passion for creation and a desire to make beautiful content.

  • PS: My MBTI is ENFP, the Happy Puppy. Although our Ph.D. research life often requires us to write code alone, respect objective facts, be rational, and plan (ISTJ), I believe every new feeling precious, and genuine passion can help us produce impactful work! Besides solid scientific research, I hope we can also visit art exhibitions and shows, combining art and technology to create something cool! I look forward to having you, passionate about research and innovation, join my team and push forward the development of intelligent vision and creative technology together!

How to apply? 📧

If you are interested, please fill out this 2026 Google Form for 2026 intake, 2025 Google Form for 2025 intake, and send an email to anyirao@outlook.com. The email title should be “School-Name-PhD/RA/Visiting Student.” The email content can briefly describe your motivation for applying and your creativity that might impress me! Also, attach your resume, academic ranking, awards, and research experience. The email and CV are recommended to be in English. If suitable, we will continue with the formal process at the school. Contacting me early can help you apply for the Hong Kong government scholarship together!

I will read all your application emails, but I may not be able to respond to each one. If you don’t receive a response within a month, you can try sending another one. If there is still no response, it may be that I feel we are not a good fit. Thank you for reading this. You are welcome to share this virtual popcorn 🍿 and I am glad to share a real one with you if we meet in person 🎬