Design AI Lab

Ling founded the Design Artificial Intelligence Lab at Tongji University in 2017 as the research home of this work. Its master's, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers study the computability of creativity, through creative reasoning, subjective world models and agentic creativity, with applications in design, innovation, education and human–AI collaboration. The Lab has produced more than 100 publications and secured more than US$5 million in research funding from the National Social Science Fund of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education, Shanghai municipal programs and industry partners including Alibaba, ByteDance and Aptar. Ling currently advises 8 doctoral students and about 15 master's students, and 15 master's students have graduated under his supervision; graduates lead AI product design and development at technology companies, or go on to research at universities and research institutions.