Seminar Explores Generative AI for Data Storytelling and Creative Design

On July 7, 2026, Dr. Qing Chen, Associate Professor at the School of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, delivered a seminar titled “Controllable and Inspirational Intelligence: Generative AI for Data Storytelling and Creative Design.”

The talk presented a dual-perspective research framework of Controllable Intelligence and Inspirational Intelligence for how generative AI can deeply empower information communication, product creativity, and interactive experiences. Controllable Intelligence focuses on data storytelling, establishing a complete technical pipeline from automatic data insight extraction, narrative visualization construction, to visualization error correction and intelligent Q&A. The outcomes have been deployed in Ant Group’s self-service analytics system. Inspirational Intelligence centers on generative creativity. Through studies on data analogy, physical embodiment, and brand visual generation, we build a computational creativity engine that supports applications in education, manufacturing, and cultural innovation. Finally, this talk re-examines the essence of human-AI co-creation from the perspective of design-by-analogy, offering new insights for intelligent design research.

About the Speaker

Dr. Qing Chen is currently an Associate Professor at School of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, entitled in the Shanghai Chenguang Program. Before joining Tongji, she worked as a postdoc researcher at INRIA and École Polytechnique. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She received several awards including the CSIG Natural Science Award, Hong Kong ICT Best Innovation Silver Award, and Asia Pacific ICT Awards. She works as the committee member of various top conferences and the community chair for IEEE VIS 2022-2023. Her work has been exhibited at Dutch Design Week, Milan Design Week, among others, and have been covered by mainstream media outlets such as Shanghai Education Television and People’s Daily. She leads multiple projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as industry-academia collaborations with companies such as Alibaba, Ant Group, Tencent, and Zhipu AI.