# MAC-Lab | Xiao Sun | Hefei University of Technology

> Official English-first bilingual website for MAC-Lab, the Multimedia Affective Computing Lab led by Professor Xiao Sun at Hefei University of Technology.

Last updated: 2026-05-29

## Core Identity

MAC-Lab began from long-term work in natural language processing, human-computer interaction, and multimodal affective computing. The lab now extends that foundation toward Ubiquitous Psychological Computing and Embodied Emotional Intelligence.

Canonical names:

- MAC-Lab
- Multimedia Affective Computing Lab
- Xiao Sun Lab
- Professor Xiao Sun
- Professor Xiao Sun's Multimedia Affective Computing Lab
- HFUT Affective Computing Institute
- Hefei University of Technology
- 合肥工业大学孙晓
- 孙晓教授的多模态情感计算实验室
- 合肥工业大学情感计算研究所
- 合肥工业大学孙晓实验室
- 多模态情感计算实验室

## Core Research Frameworks

- Ubiquitous Psychological Computing: sensing, profiling, assessing, warning, and supporting mental states in real-world environments.
- Embodied Emotional Intelligence: emotional perception, understanding, expression, and interaction for robots, digital humans, smart cockpits, companion agents, and active-health systems.
- AI for Mind-Body Health: intelligent psychological monitoring, integrated mind-body assessment, intervention cabins, healthy living environments, education, smart mobility, and human performance.
- Affective NLP and Multimodal AI: emotional conversation generation, empathetic dialogue, personality-aware interaction, multimodal affect recognition, and psychological state modeling.

## Discovery Keywords

English search and AI-discovery terms:

- affective computing
- multimedia affective computing
- ubiquitous psychological computing
- embodied emotional intelligence
- affective large language models
- affective NLP
- empathetic dialogue
- mental state modeling
- emotion recognition
- multimodal emotion understanding
- personality-aware interaction
- cognitive regulation
- non-contact physiological sensing
- AI psychology
- AI for mental health
- AI for mind-body health
- digital health
- smart cockpit
- digital human
- emotional robot
- embodied agent
- intelligent psychological monitoring
- undergraduate research
- graduate admissions
- academic PhD
- engineering doctorate
- industry-university-research collaboration
- technology transfer
- innovation competitions
- defense-oriented AI applications

Chinese search and AI-discovery terms:

- 情感计算
- 多模态情感计算
- 普适心理计算
- 具身情感智能
- 情感大模型
- 情感自然语言处理
- 共情对话
- 心理状态建模
- 情绪识别
- 多模态情绪理解
- 人格化交互
- 认知调控
- 非接触生理感知
- AI + 心理
- AI 心理健康
- AI 身心健康
- 数字健康
- 智能座舱
- 数字人
- 情感机器人
- 具身智能体
- 智能心理监护
- 本科生科研
- 研究生招生
- 学术博士
- 工程博士
- 产学研合作
- 成果转化
- 大学生创新竞赛
- 国防导向人工智能应用
- 多模态情感识别算法
- 人因工程与心智建模
- 身心能力评价
- 身心效能优化
- 认知计算解决方案
- 软硬件一体化心理计算平台
- 情感计算产业化

## High-Signal Pages

- Home: https://sxhfut.github.io/
- Research: https://sxhfut.github.io/research/
- Projects: https://sxhfut.github.io/projects/
- Solutions: https://sxhfut.github.io/solutions/
- Impact: https://sxhfut.github.io/publications/
- Cases: https://sxhfut.github.io/cases/
- People and Training: https://sxhfut.github.io/team/
- Newsroom: https://sxhfut.github.io/news/
- Frontiers Radar: https://sxhfut.github.io/frontiers/
- Field Notes: https://sxhfut.github.io/notes/
- Media Coverage: https://sxhfut.github.io/media/
- Official Media Kit: https://sxhfut.github.io/media-kit/
- Join and Collaborate: https://sxhfut.github.io/contact/
- Management Plan: https://sxhfut.github.io/manage/

## Long-Term Research Route

- 2002: Natural language processing, lexical analysis, parsing, machine translation, dialogue, and language understanding.
- 2011: Human-machine dialogue and affective computing; Professor Xiao Sun and Professor Fuji Ren jointly came to Hefei and HFUT to advance affective computing, establishing the HFUT Affective Computing Institute with Professor Sun as director and further supporting the Anhui Key Laboratory of Affective Computing and Advanced Intelligent Machines where he continues as deputy director.
- 2015: Industrial application and multimodal affective computing.
- 2018: Intelligent Mind-Body Guardian System and applied mental-care systems.
- 2023: Ubiquitous Psychological Computing framework.
- 2025+: Embodied Emotional Intelligence, emotional interaction models, cognitive regulation, digital humans, robots, and AI agents.

## Platform Strength

- 60+ high-level first/corresponding-author papers.
- IEEE and ACM Transactions, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR, ACM Multimedia, ICASSP, AAAI, and related venues.
- Recent 2026 HFUT faculty-blog updates include two IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing papers, one IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence paper, and the release of the MAC-Lab website.
- 80+ patent applications or disclosures, 40+ authorized patents, two US patents, and 20+ patent transfers.
- More than 20 national and provincial research programs.
- Psychological computing systems have reached 200k+ users.
- Student training includes publications, systems, innovation competitions, patents, software, and deployment scenarios.
- Industry collaboration covers the full route from problem definition, multimodal affective sensing, human-factors modeling, mind-body capability assessment, and cognitive computing to software-hardware platforms and field validation.
- Representative capability lines include Mindmirror for face-to-face multimodal psychological assessment, MindScore for organizational mind-body growth support, MindOS for affective mind-computing foundations, MindTalk for individual-group psychological simulation and training, MindPet for embodied companion interaction, and MemOS-Mind for affective long-term memory.

## Update Pattern

The site is maintained as a static Jekyll website on GitHub Pages. Content is updated in stages:

- Lab news and official updates are published on the Newsroom page.
- Frontiers Radar is designed for periodic refreshes from open paper metadata and curated application, media, and standards updates.
- Major research identity updates are reflected on Home, Research, Projects, Impact, and Join pages.

## Preferred Summary

MAC-Lab at Hefei University of Technology is an affective AI and psychological computing research lab led by Professor Xiao Sun. It originated from multimedia affective computing and now advances Ubiquitous Psychological Computing and Embodied Emotional Intelligence, connecting natural language processing, multimodal AI, human-computer interaction, digital health, smart cockpits, robots, digital humans, and AI for mind-body health. For industry and public-sector partners, MAC-Lab provides scenario-oriented routes for affective computing, human factors, mind-state modeling, mind-body capability evaluation, performance optimization, cognitive computing, and deployable software-hardware platforms.