Five-year-old Yi Fang kneels before the pieces of an electric toy car, his small fingers puzzling over tiny parts as he attempts to build his own rechargeable battery. With a curious gleam in his eye, he connects two live wires, not knowing the chaos it will unleash. A loud pop echoes through the room, and suddenly, the lights flicker and go dark. Somewhere in the building, a circuit breaker trips, sending everything into a blackout and engulfing the schoolboy in a cloud of battery powder.
Today, as an associate professor of computer engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, Fang is driven by the same curiosity, backed by a lifetime of careful research that has the potential to change the lives of millions. His pioneering work into embodied AI and robotics empowers machines to perceive, understand, and interact with their surroundings, helping visually impaired users to navigate better and engage with the world around them.
“I’m currently working on wearable devices that can take in information and direct a visually impaired person almost like a companion,” says Fang. “The wearer will be able to ask direct questions, and the device will talk back to guide them safely through a space. It’s called embodiment because it can listen, talk, and act independently, contextualizing and understanding complex environments.”
Fang has worked on the device, called the AI Companion for over ten years, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, which recently invested $5 million. A joint proposal, in collaboration with two professors from Harvard Medical School, for an additional $4.8 million was recently submitted to the U.S. National Institute of Health to make wearable devices comfortable and affordable globally.
“Over 300 million people worldwide are visually impaired,” says Fang. “Our goal is to develop something that costs less than $100, weighs less than 100g, and can be used daily for eight hours, whether clipped to glasses or attached to a necklace. Currently, they cost up to $4,000 and can’t be used for long, so our research is very important.”
Fang’s interest in AI and machine learning was ignited during his undergraduate studies in China, where his capstone project explored using Support Vector Machines to analyze blood cell images for disease detection.
This experience ignited a desire to leverage AI for meaningful purposes, propelling him to pursue a PhD in mechanical engineering at Purdue University in the US.
After graduating in 2011, Fang took a role at Siemens Healthcare in New Jersey, where he developed advanced 3D lung models to enhance medical diagnostics and improve patient outcomes using cutting-edge AI techniques. He later joined Riverain Technologies, also in the US, where he focused on applying deep learning to enhance lung X-ray images. In 2013, he joined NYU Abu Dhabi, founding the NYU Multimedia and Visual Computing Lab, a visionary project that predates mainstream AI applications like ChatGPT.
“I didn’t know much about the region before I began teaching at NYU Abu Dhabi, but coming here was an excellent decision,” he says. “Teaching keeps my knowledge fresh, and the resources at the university are simply amazing.”
Now, Fang is determined to make his mark on the region and beyond, using his research to further integrate people with disabilities into the UAE community.
“As we move towards a future empowered by AI, the potential for a more interconnected and inclusive world is becoming more attainable than ever before,” he says. “No one should get left behind.”
