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 that can understand and interact with humans in a natural manner. Something on my mind these days:

• World Model & 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 form good understandings of the world that support prediction, counterfactual reasoning, generalization and adaptation.
• Agentic System in Interactive Environment: I am interested in agentic systems that learn through interaction with an emphasis on long-horizon decision-making and autonomous behavior. I often use games as compact, controllable environments relevant to real-world deployment.
• Cognitive Science & Social Reasoning: How can insights from human cognition inform the design of human-like agents? I’m curious about the computational foundations of Theory-of-Mind to build AI agents that collaborate naturally 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!