Biography：
Dr Luwen Yu is an Assistant Professor of Computational Media and Arts (CMA) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Information Hub. She received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design in 2013 and her master’s degree in Design Theory in 2017 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and obtained her PhD in Colour Science and Design from the University of Leeds, UK, in 2021. She has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) since 2022 and is a member of research communities including the Design Research Society (DRS). She has authored and co-authored over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences.
Dr Yu leads the Colour Neurocognition Lab at HKUST(GZ) . Her research starts from colour science and extends to visual perception, cognition, emotion, and behaviour in design, media, and interactive contexts.
Research Areas
Dr Yu’s research examines how colour and visual environments shape human perception, cognition, emotion, and behaviour. Her work is structured as a research framework that connects foundational colour science with aesthetic experience, neurocognitive mechanisms, and applied design contexts. Across these areas, she uses multimodal evaluation methods to generate evidence-based knowledge for design, media, and environmental applications.
Foundational Research: Colour Science, Perception, Cognition, and Behaviour
This area forms the foundation of her research. It investigates how colour and visual properties, including hue, lightness, chroma, contrast, and spatial colour distribution, influence perception, attention, cognition, emotion, preference, judgement, and behaviour.
Mechanistic and Experiential Research: Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics
Building on the foundational research, this area explores how visual stimuli shape aesthetic experience, affective response, and preference. It also examines the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying visual and aesthetic experience.
Applied Research: Colour, Lighting, and Environmental Experience
This area extends the research into physical, spatial, and immersive environments. It studies how colour and lighting conditions influence mood, comfort, creativity, cognitive performance, wellbeing, and spatial experience.
Methodological Platform: Multimodal Evaluation
Across all three areas, Dr Yu adopts multimodal evaluation methods, including subjective assessment, behavioural tasks, eye-tracking, fNIRS, EEG, physiological measures, and computational analysis. These methods allow research to examine human responses from perceptual, cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and neural perspectives.
Opportunities
Dr Yu welcomes motivated PhD, Master students, visiting students, and research fellows interested in colour science, visual perception, computational aesthetics, neuroaesthetics, human-computer interaction, digital media, and design research. Applicants with backgrounds in design, psychology, computer science, cognitive science, data science, media arts, architecture, lighting, or related fields are encouraged to get in touch.
Interested candidates may contact Dr Yu at luwenyu@hkust-gz.edu.cn for further discussion.