Professor Zhen Liu received his Masters and PhD degrees, both in Civil Engineering, from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 1992 and 1996. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the space college of Harbin Institute of Technology. From 1998, he worked as a research engineer and project manager in Haier Group Company in China for three years. In 2001, he moved on to work as a post-doctoral fellow in State Key Lab of CAD&CG in Zhejiang University. In 2003, he joined Ningbo University, a member of the China Computer Federation, where he works in the Faculty of Information Science and Engineering.

Professor Liu’s main research interests include virtual reality, artificial intelligence, serious games and social computing. His research focuses on social life and he works with experts in the fields of medicine, engineering, and social sciences to carry out cross-disciplinary scientific research. His team is currently implementing virtual reality technology in the rehabilitation of children with autism, stroke patients, and drug addicts. They are also doing virtual crowd simulation for public safety, research and development of virtual companion technology for elderly people, and data analysis for social media.

Professor Liu has published one book and more than 70 journal papers. He has completed many research projects, such as Natural Science Foundation Project of China, National High Technology Research and Development Program China and Special Prophase Project on Basic Research of the National Department of Science and Technology. In addition, he has conducted international cooperation projects, working collaboratively with international experts from different disciplines.