Hi! I’m Ivy, a PhD student at MIT CSAIL where I am fortunate to be co-advised by Professor Phillip Isola and Professor Josh Tenenbaum. Previously, I had a wonderful experience working with Professor Guangyu Robert Yang at MIT on autonomous agents with real-time interaction.

My research interest lies in the intersection of AI and human intelligence, with a focus on AI systems that can understand and interact with humans in a natural manner. I am passionate about generalist agents in physical and social settings.

Something on my mind these days:

• World Models & Embodied Intelligence: How do humans develop an intuitive physics engine, a mental simulation space for representations and causality? I’m interested in how intelligent agents can learn similarly structured world models that support prediction, counterfactual reasoning, generalization and adaptation in physical environments.
• Games for Intelligence: Games offer a controllable yet expressive testbed for studying how world models form, evolve, and generalize. I use game environments to probe representation learning, evaluate embodied reasoning, and investigate novelty and creativity in both human and AI systems.
• Cognitive Science & Social Reasoning: How can insights from human cognition inform the design of human-like agents? Humans effortlessly infer intentions and beliefs, even when they’re hidden. I’m curious about the computational foundations of Theory-of-Mind to build AI agents that collaborate naturally, anticipate human needs, and align with social expectations.

I publish under the name “Kaiya Ivy Zhao”, where “Zhao” is my surname and “Kaiya” is the forename. “Ivy”(ai·vee) is the name I usually go by.

Outside the research, my world is filled with the vibrancy of musicals, the companionship of cats and the thrill of travel. Each of these hobbies offers me a unique perspective on life and creativity.

Feel free to reach out via email to discuss research, collaborations, or schedule a chat!