NTU Singapore and WHO collaborate to modernize global food safety standards

Nanyang Technological University

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 (From left, standing): Dr Moez Sanaa, Unit Head, Standards and Scientific Advice on Food & Nutrition, WHO; Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, Singapore Food Agency; and Professor Lim Kah Leong, Associate Vice President (Biomedical & Life Sciences), NTU Singapore. (From left, seated): Dr Simone Moraes Raszl, Scientist for Multisectoral Action in Food Systems, WHO; and Professor William Chen, Director, NTU Future Ready Food Safety Hub — the signatories at the signing ceremony on Wednesday (18 Jun).

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Credit: NTU Singapore

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are collaborating on a new project to bolster global capabilities in food safety risk assessment, in support of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022–2030.

It aims to modernise the global food safety framework through the application of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which include cutting-edge techniques such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital modelling. These innovations will enhance the ways that countries can assess risks associated with novel and emerging food systems.

The three-year collaboration was announced at the WHO-NTU Joint Workshop on New Approach Methodologies in Future Food Safety Risk Assessment, held at Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore, during a signing ceremony today.

The collaboration intends to jointly advance the food safety field by promoting the adoption and implementation of innovative tools and technologies that are more robust, reduce uncertainty, and enhance trustworthiness.

The agreement was signed by Professor William Chen, Director of the Future Ready Food Safety Hub (FRESH), NTU Singapore, and Dr Simone Moraes Raszl, Scientist for Multisectoral Action in Food Systems, Nutrition and Food Safety, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO. Guest of Honour, Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) witnessed the signing.

Prof William Chen, who is also Director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology programme, said: “This collaboration with WHO underscores NTU's commitment to advancing food safety science and innovation. Supported by FRESH and our partners in the Singapore ecosystem, we aim to develop robust methodologies that will benefit global public health, particularly to assess and regulate novel food innovations.”

Dr Moraes Raszl, WHO, added, “Ensuring safe food is fundamental to global health, sustainable development, and resilient societies. Our joint efforts with NTU Singapore exemplify our collective commitment to advancing science-driven solutions that can be shared and scaled across borders. By harnessing innovation and international expertise, we are laying a strong foundation for the future of food safety worldwide.”

The project will leverage the expertise of FRESH, a tripartite partnership between NTU Singapore, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and SFA.

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of SFA and the Guest of Honour for the event, added, “This project is an illustrative example of how international collaborations can drive innovation in food safety science. As Singapore develops a more resilient and robust food system, global partnerships like this will play a vital role in ensuring the safety, trust, and sustainability of both local and global food supply chains.”

NTU and WHO will embark on collaborative research, knowledge dissemination, and the development of technical guidance to support regulatory readiness for novel food categories such as cultured meat, functional foods, and precision-fermented products.

Joint activities under the agreement also include capacity-building workshops, scientific publications, and the establishment of an applied framework for integrating NAMs into national food safety systems.

These efforts are intended to help WHO member states strengthen their food safety risk assessment capabilities and meet emerging regulatory demands.

With this milestone collaboration, NTU Singapore and WHO demonstrate their shared commitment to global health through innovation, capacity building, and scientific excellence in food safety.

The WHO-NTU Joint Workshop on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) in Future Food Safety Risk Assessment is held from June 18-20, 2025.

This workshop will focus on the integration of NAMs, such as in silico computational models and in vitro assays, to improve food safety assessment. The event will also address the challenges of integrating NAMs into regulatory frameworks and exploring their potential for novel foods.

 

 

Advancing nuclear fission models for lighter sub-lead nuclei

A five-dimensional model accurately predicts the asymmetric fission of mercury isotopes, advancing our understanding of nuclear fission beyond traditional heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium

Institute of Science Tokyo

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The proposed five-dimensional Langevin approach predicts released energy in asymmetric fission with remarkable precision and accuracy, which is based on the role of shell effects and multichance fission

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Credit: Institute of Science Tokyo

A five-dimensional (5D) Langevin approach developed by an international team of researchers, including members from Science Tokyo, accurately reproduces complex fission fragment distributions and kinetic energies in medium-mass mercury isotopes (180Hg and 190Hg). The model successfully captures the unusual “double-humped” fragment mass distribution observed in mercury-180 and offers new insights into how nuclear shell effects influence fission dynamics—even at higher excitation energies than previously thought—advancing our understanding of fission in the sub-lead region.

Nuclear fission, the process by which an atomic nucleus splits into smaller parts, is a fundamental process in nuclear physics. While the fission of heavy elements like uranium and plutonium is well studied, lighter nuclei such as mercury (Hg) behave in unexpected ways. Experiments have shown that 180Hg undergoes an unexpected form of asymmetric fission, producing fragments of very different sizes. These findings challenge existing models and highlight the need to better understand how nuclear structure affects fission in the sub-lead region, which includes elements with atomic numbers below 82.

To better understand unusual fission behaviors in Hg isotopes, an international research team led by Associate Professor Chikako Ishizuka from Institute of Zero-Carbon Energy at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan developed a five-dimensional (5D) Langevin model. Their work, published online in Physical Review C on May 20, 2025, provides accurate predictions of fragment distributions and total kinetic energy (TKE) and was recognized as an Editor’s Suggestion by the journal.

The study was a collaborative effort and included Dr. F. A. Ivanyuk from the Institute for Nuclear Research Ukraine; Professor C. Schmitt from the University of Strasbourg, France; and Researcher Satoshi Chiba from NAT Co., Ltd., Japan, as co-authors.  

Unlike static models, the Langevin model dynamically tracks the shape evolution of the nucleus from its equilibrium state all the way to scission, the point where it splits into smaller fission fragments. “Describing the fission of actinides like uranium is not enough to understand the full picture,” says Ishizuka. “We need consistent models that work for other nuclei too, especially lighter ones like Hg that behave differently.”

The team successfully modeled the fission of two Hg isotopes: 180Hg produced from the collision of 36Ar and 144Sm, and 190Hg from 36Ar and 154Sm. For both, they calculated the distribution of fission fragment masses and their TKEs. The model was designed to simulate nuclear fission more realistically by considering both the macroscopic, large-scale, liquid-drop-like motion and microscopic shell structure effects. 

A key improvement was the use of a “soft wall” at the boundaries of the deformation space, which accurately simulates how the shape of the nucleus evolves during fission. The model also accounted for how shell effects change with increasing excitation energy, an aspect that previous models often oversimplified.

The simulation results showed strong agreement with experimental data for both the mass number distributions and the TKE of fission fragments. In the case of 180Hg, the model reproduced the unusual double-humped mass pattern seen in experiments. A key finding of the study is that shell effects persist even at higher excitation energies of 40–50 MeV, where they were previously thought to vanish.

The model also accounted for multichance fission, a process where the nucleus emits neutrons before it undergoes fission. They found that while this process has only a minor effect on fragment mass distributions at low excitation energies, it significantly impacts the TKE, making it a valuable indicator for studying multichance fission.

Overall, these findings provide new insights into the fission process with important implications for fundamental research. “The calculations presented in this work confirm that our 5D Langevin approach is a reliable tool for the theoretical predictions of the fission process observables,” concludes Ishizuka.

 

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About Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo)
Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) was established on October 1, 2024, following the merger between Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), with the mission of “Advancing science and human wellbeing to create value for and with society.”

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Journal

Physical Review C

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevC.111.054620 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Shell effects and multichance fission in the sub-lead region

 

Green chemistry milestone: fluorine complexes from common fluoride salt

Researchers from Japan develop a safer method for the synthesis of fluoride complexes for electrochemical fluorination

Shibaura Institute of Technology

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The reaction between KF and NBR in HFIP forms Bu4NF(HFIP)3 complex through ion exchange 
 

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Credit: Professor Toshiki Tajima from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

Chemical synthesis lies at the heart of modern science and technology, enabling the creation of various pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional materials. While the demand for chemical synthesis grows with scientific advancements, it comes with the costs of environmental pollution and hazardous waste. To combat the same, researchers are now turning towards sustainable alternatives using green chemistry approaches. 

One such chemical process which is in urgent need for greener alternatives is fluorination. Fluorine-based organic compounds find applications in a variety of industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to electronics. These compounds are synthesized through the process of fluorination using different fluorinating agents like potassium fluoride (KF) and quaternary ammonium fluorides like tetrabutylammonium fluoride (Bu4NF). While these reagents are promising, their reactivity is often hindered due to low solubility (as in the case of KF) and high hygroscopicity (seen in Bu4NF). This calls for the development of novel fluorinating agents with suitable properties and better reactivity. 

Against this backdrop, a team of researchers led by Professor Toshiki Tajima from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, came up with an exciting solution. The team developed a new fluorinating quaternary ammonium complex by combining KF with tetrabutylammonium bromide (Bu4NBr). The newly formed quaternary ammonium tri(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol)-coordinated fluoride (Bu4NF(HFIP)3) showed extremely low hygroscopicity and was found to be an excellent fluorinating reagent for electrochemical fluorination. The findings were made available online on April 29, 2025, and published in Volume 61, Issue 42 of Chemical Communications on May 25, 2025. 

“KF is a safe, affordable fluorinating agent, but its poor solubility in organic solvents has limited its use. We had been exploring ways to make it more effective,” explains Prof. Tajima. “It all clicked only after we discovered it readily dissolves in HFIP." 

To develop the fluorinating complex, the team started by dissolving KF in HFIP and Bu4NBr in dichloromethane, respectively. Once dissolved, both solutions were mixed together for 30 minutes and were then subjected to filtration and purification. The resultant product was a viscous and clear liquid of Bu4NF(HFIP)3. The chemical composition of the product was confirmed through NMR spectroscopy studies. Furthermore, the approach was also applied to other quaternary ammonium bromides for synthesis of different reagents. 

The resultant products showed low hygroscopicity, which is favorable for a greater shelf life. Additionally, the synthesis only involved a basic ion exchange reaction using KF which makes the method simpler and inexpensive. Moreover, the method is also safer compared to other synthesis methods, making it a greener alternative for fluorination.  

“The new fluorinating agent we developed in this study can have a range of applications in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, functional materials, molecular probes for PET inspection, and many more...” remarks Prof. Tajima. 

Many industries use fluorinating agents for the synthesis of organofluorine compounds. Having a safer fluorinating reagent that is easier to handle could be a game-changer and is a significant milestone in the field of green chemistry. By overcoming the limitations of two different fluorinating reagents to form a novel fluorinating agent, the research has bridged a critical gap in the process of fluorination, opening avenues for sustainable and effective synthesis strategies. 

 

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Reference  
DOI: 10.1039/d5cc01341k   

 

About Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan 
Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) is a private university with campuses in Tokyo and Saitama. Since the establishment of its predecessor, Tokyo Higher School of Industry and Commerce, in 1927, it has maintained “learning through practice” as its philosophy in the education of engineers. SIT was the only private science and engineering university selected for the Top Global University Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and had received support from the ministry for 10 years starting from the 2014 academic year. Its motto, “Nurturing engineers who learn from society and contribute to society,” reflects its mission of fostering scientists and engineers who can contribute to the sustainable growth of the world by exposing their over 9,500 students to culturally diverse environments, where they learn to cope, collaborate, and relate with fellow students from around the world.  

Website: https://www.shibaura-it.ac.jp/en/ 

 

About Professor Toshiki Tajima from SIT, Japan 
Dr. Toshiki Tajima is a Professor at the College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan. He earned his doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and specializes in organic electrochemistry and synthesis. He has over 56 peer-reviewed publications and over 11 book chapters to his credit. His research mainly focuses on green chemistry, environmental chemistry, and sustainable sciences. 

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Journal

Chemical Communications

DOI

10.1039/d5cc01341k 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Facile synthesis of R4NF(HFIP)3 complexes from KF and their application to electrochemical fluorination

Hidden role of hydrogen - Unlocking the roar of heavy metal atom

Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences

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Bromine and hydrogen play unexpected roles in the dissociation dynamics of triazole anions. The findings provide new insights into the behavior of transient negative ions. Photo taken thanks to the ActiveZone fitness club. Photo courtesy: Grzegorz Krzyzewski

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Credit: Source IPC PAS, Grzegorz Krzyzewski

Hydrogen interactions play a crucial role in organic chemistry. The position of hydrogen in many molecules can completely change what happens to the other atoms in the rings. The international research team, led by Dr. Dariusz Piekarski from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Jaroslav Kočišek from the Czech Academy of Sciences, explored the role of hydrogen in the molecules under the hit with low-energy electrons, revealing mechanisms behind it. Their study helps us to understand how small changes in molecule structure affect the dynamics of the molecular target, i.e., particular breaking of it, which is important for both environmental cleanup and designing new materials. Let’s take a closer look at their studies.

Imidazoles and triazoles are essential chemical compounds used in many medicines, including drugs used to defeat various pathogen-induced infections and cancer. Besides these applications, both imidazoles and triazoles are used not only in humans but also to protect crops against fungi. However, despite their high effectiveness, they can easily end up in water or soil leading to environmental pollution and uncontrolled development of fungi resistant to fungicides. Removing these chemicals from the environment is far from easy for the high stability of the compounds. Therefore, novel ways to degrade imidazoles and triazoles are widely studied to improve and deeply understand the mechanisms that stand behind the bonds breaking in both compounds, especially in developing effective wastewater treatment. To control the structure of obtained molecules under the application of external stimuli the mechanistic insight for the detailed description on a molecular level is needed.

Recent study published in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) by international research team, led by Dr. Dariusz Piekarski from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences and Dr. Jaroslav Kočišek from the Czech Academy of Sciences presents the significant advancement for molecular chemistry revealing the role of hydrogen and bromine in the dissociation dynamics of triazole anions. Researchers shows in details how to break these molecules is using low-energy electrons. How does it work?

When a compound like triazole captures one of these low-energy electrons, it forms a short-lived charged version of itself that finally breaks up. But not all triazoles undergo such a reaction in the same way. This process depends on the molecular structure, especially the position of hydrogen atoms. In the present study, researchers looked at two versions of a bromine-substituted triazole. Researchers employed dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to study the behavior of the specific site in two nearly identical molecules like 3-bromo-1H-1,2,4-triazole and 3-bromo-4H-1,2,4-triazole (4HBrT) that differ only in the position of one hydrogen atom, under the exposition to low-energy electrons.

By combining of the empirical studies with sophisticated theoretical calculations based on the potential energy surfaces, molecular dynamics, and analytic continuation methods they tracked the atoms position change and the lifetimes of transient negatively charged molecules with remarkable precision. Such combining of experiment with quantum chemistry shows that hydrogen position change has a direct influence on the molecule dynamics after an interaction with low-energy electrons, where even single electron induces subtle structural difference resulting in dramatic different molecular dynamics. This is how it works. Hydrogen position controls the character of the resonant states. While the singly occupied molecular orbital SOMO of 1HBrT is highly symmetric with a short lifetime against both dissociation of bromine or loss of electron, the 4HBrT SOMO state is asymmetric, resulting in induced dance of the bromine atom around the rest of the molecule.

Quantum chemical calculations show that bromine migrates more easily when the hydrogen is in the 4-position than an 80 times lighter hydrogen atom, forming a stable noncovalent complex around the triazole ring. The hydrogen position defines whether the bromine atom will move around a molecule or break away directly during a molecular breakup reaction. For 4HBrT, the dissociation of the bromine atom proceeds via a delayed mechanism, where the bromine forms temporarily weakly bonded species, stabilizing the transient negative ion and elongating its lifetime. This results in an intermediate metastable state before hydrogen bromide (HBr) is formed. In contrast, the 1HBrT, a different position of the H-atom facilitates easy and direct cleavage of the C–Br bond, allowing bromine to dissociate without interaction with the remaining triazole ring structure.

The research findings provide new insights into the behavior of transient negative ions and could have far-reaching implications for pharmaceutical development and environmental chemistry. They found that the bromine atom not only makes it easier for the molecule to grab an electron, but also helps stabilize different forms of the molecule, depending on where the hydrogen is placed in the ring via different timescale-lived resonant states called transient negative ions.

"Like two keys that at first glance look the same but open completely different doors, these nearly identical molecules behave in strikingly different ways," explains Dr. Dariusz Piekarski.

This "roaming" of bromine completely reverses the molecular breaking patterns, facilitating the release of hydrogen bromide HBr, whereas, in the 1H-form, the direct bromine dissociation dominates. This fundamental scientific achievement challenges conventional chemical knowledge in several ways, not only for the bromine orbiting around a molecule. More surprisingly, the bromine roaming happens in negative charge states prior to the electron auto-detachment process. Second, the study reveals that even a tiny shift in the position of the hydrogen atom can completely alter this reaction pathway. Third, it shows that Br- ions can form weak, noncovalent bonds around the triazole ring, creating a much more stable complex that holds the electrons much longer than expected.

"The idea that we can control the movement of heavy atoms through something as simple as placing hydrogen in a given position is exciting and offers new possibilities for chemical design," remarks Dr. Dariusz Piekarski.

Now, it is possible to steer halogenated molecular targets' breakups in desired directions just by positioning hydrogen atoms. These findings point out how even subtle structural differences can guide chemical reactions in unexpected directions. Their study opens new directions for controlled molecular manipulation in chemistry and material science, demonstrating the value of low-energy electron studies in probing dynamic molecular behavior. Demonstrated work enables describing a pathway to a more effective breakdown of stable, pollution-prone compounds in the environment and understanding of how drug-like molecules behave under certain conditions, which is crucial for drug design. Future studies will explore whether similar phenomena occur while induced with different radiation sources and in other halogenated compounds.

This work was supported by National Science Centre, Poland, Grant No. 2022/47/D/ST4/03286 and MEYS, OP JAK project CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004558 “AMULET”.

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Journal

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.4c18446 

 

ECNU Review of Education reports on how global education leaders are responding to AI

Article highlights how global education leaders confront AI’s rise, calling for collaboration, ethics, and human-centered teaching

ECNU Review of Education

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This report captures insights from the 2024 Global Education Deans Forum, where deans and academic leaders from 29 countries gathered in China to explore the future of education in the age of AI. Through keynote speeches, collaborative discussions, and reflections on digital transformation, the forum highlighted global concerns around equity, ethics, and the irreplaceable role of human connection in teaching and learning.

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Credit: Professor G. Williamson McDiarmid from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

The latest annual meeting for the Global Education Deans Forum brought together 53 representatives from 40 institutions across 29 countries in Shanghai and Lijiang, China. An article published online in ECNU Review of Education on May 27, 2025, attempts to  capture how a group of global education leaders view the promise and perils of AI amidst a rapidly changing educational landscape.

The Global Education Deans Forum (GEDF) is an annual meeting co-organized by East China Normal University (China) and the University of Kansas (USA). The inaugural meeting took place in October 2018 in Shanghai, with 30 deans from 16 countries across six continents. The most recent forum was held from October 31 to November 2, 2024, in both Shanghai and Lijiang, China, welcoming 53 representatives from 40 institutions across 29 countries.

In the opening remarks, Dean Zhenguo Yuan from East China Normal University outlined a shift in education research from the “small science era” led by individual scholars, to the “big science era,” defined by interdisciplinary collaboration between humans and machines. He emphasized the growing need for cross-disciplinary innovation, international platforms for idea exchange, and the creative application of AI technologies.  

In his remarks, Dean Rick Ginsberg from the University of Kansas reflected on progress made on initiatives that were planned  at past GEDF meetings in Shanghai, Boston, and Dublin. These included establishing thematic continuity, developing organizational bylaws, and launching projects like the “Deans’ Dialogue” online series. He stressed the urgency of building a global network of education leaders to collaboratively navigate the AI era.

During the discussions sessions that followed, deans reported on how their higher education institutions, faculty, and students are responding to generative AI. In small groups, participants explored the impact of AI on: teacher education, school reform, the economy and culture; and instruction and evaluation.  Issues that emerged included: equitable access to AI tools, the need for responsible use policies, and the broader societal implications of AI-driven education.

The closing session featured real-time AI-based transcribed translation. In closing, Dean Yuan noted that despite the benefits of machine translation, the presence of human translators, faculty, and student volunteers remained essential in fostering understanding, warmth and connection. He pointed out that while AI handles repetitive tasks well, creativity, emotional connection, and personal engagement remain distinctly human domains. As summarized in the McDiarmid and Yin (2025) article, GEDF reinforced the message that “the heart of education lies in the unique human qualities.”

To explore more about the Global Education Deans Forum, including related articles, videos, and updates, please visit:

1. ECNU Review of Education: journals.sagepub.com/home/ROE   
2. GEDF X account: @GEDF2018
3. GEDF videos on YouTube: youtube.com/@ecnureviewofeducation6270

This summary draws on the McDiarmid and Yin (2025) article, official meeting notes, and the second author’s meeting experiences. While it captures key themes and discussions, it does not encompass the full depth and diversity of perspectives shared during the forum.

 

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Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311251327228

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Journal

ECNU Review of Education

DOI

10.1177/20965311251327228 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Education: Insights From Global Deans

In an era where empathy feels unfamiliar, AI now translates emotions

Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)

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The operation process of the AI agent EmoSync, which generates personalized analogy to elicit target emotions based on users' personal information.

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Credit: POSTECH

A research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea) has developed AI technology that helps individuals deeply understand others' emotions by analyzing individual personality traits and values and generating personalized analogy. This study was recognized with the "Popular Choice Honorable Mention Award," given to the top 5% of 74 Interactivity track demonstrations at ACM CHI 2025, the world's leading international conference in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

 

Society is a complex community where people with different identities and diverse backgrounds live together. While people strive to understand each other, even the concept of "empathy" can sometimes feel overwhelming - because even in the same situation, emotions can differ greatly from person to person. Until now, computer-based empathy technologies have been operating on the assumption that showing the same experience would evoke similar emotions. However, reality is more complicated: emotional reactions vary widely depending on an individual's personality, past experiences, and values.

 

"EmoSync", an LLM-based agent, embraces and utilizes these individual differences. By meticulously analyzing each user's psychological traits and emotional response patterns, the LLM generates personalized analogical scenarios that allow people to understand others' feelings through the lens of their own experiences.

 

For example, if a user struggles to empathize with subtle discrimination or exclusion in the workplace, EmoSync analyzes the user's past experiences and creates a relatable connection, such as ‘a moment of feeling excluded by peers during school days.’ This approach helps users understand others' emotions more vividly and realistically by using the lens of familiar experiences.

 

The research team conducted experiments involving over 100 participants from diverse backgrounds using this technology. The results showed that participants who used EmoSync demonstrated significantly improved emotional understanding and empathy compared to traditional methods. This scientifically demonstrates that personalized metaphorical experiences can genuinely enhance empathy.

 

Hyojin Ju, the first author of the study, said, "Our research demonstrates that AI can be used to facilitate genuine understanding and empathy among people," and added, "We will continue to develop AI technologies that help foster true understanding and empathy in real-life situations."

Professor Inseok Hwang of POSTECH commented, "This study is a successful example showing that generative AI can identify each user's unique emotional structure and generate personalized experiences that induce specific emotions. It represents a novel and meaningful approach-both academically and socially-to fostering empathy in ways that were not possible before."

 

This research was conducted by Professor Inseok Hwang and Ph.D. students Hyojin Ju, Jungeun Lee, and Seungwon Yang from POSTECH's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Jungseul Ok. The project was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Mid-career Researcher Program, the Future Convergence Technology Pioneer Project funded by the Korean government (MSIT), and the University ICT Research Center Project from the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), also funded by the Korean government (MSIT).

Toward Affective Empathy via Personalized Analogy Generation: A Case Study on Microaggression [VIDEO] | 

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DOI

10.1145/3706598.3714122 

Article Title

Toward Affective Empathy via Personalized Analogy Generation: A Case Study on Microaggression