Westlake University Establishes World Model Research Center, Focusing on the Core Bottleneck of Physical Intelligence
On October 31, Westlake University established the Westlake World Model Research Center at its Yungu Campus. This is a university-level interdisciplinary research platform the university has set up for the field of physical intelligence. The center is headed by Yu Kaicheng as director and Jin Yaochu as chief scientist, and focuses on world models and physical intelligence. Its goal is to develop general world models that can understand physical laws, predict the consequences of actions, and continuously learn from real feedback.
Body · AI translation
Westlake University Establishes World Model Research Center, Committed to Breaking Through Core Bottlenecks
2026-10-31 21:24 IT Home - Haomiao
IT Home, October 31 news: On October 31, the Westlake World Model Research Center was established at Westlake University's Yungu Campus. This is a university-level interdisciplinary research platform established by Westlake University for the field of physical intelligence.
The center is directed by Yu Kaicheng, a doctoral supervisor and assistant professor at Westlake University's School of Engineering and co-founder and chief scientist of the artificial intelligence company KMind; Jin Yaochu, Chair Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence at Westlake University, serves as chief scientist; and multiple PIs (principal investigators) jointly undertake research tasks in various directions.
IT Home learned from the official introduction that the center is oriented toward the development direction of artificial intelligence moving from language cognition to physical interaction, focuses on world models and physical intelligence, and is committed to breaking through the core bottlenecks of intelligent systems in understanding physical laws, predicting environmental changes, and carrying out interactive decision-making, so as to build an internationally leading academic highland and innovation engine for physical intelligence.
The center takes world models as its core research direction, explores intelligent systems that combine perception, cognition, prediction, and action, and promotes artificial intelligence's ability to understand the world, simulate the future, and act autonomously in real environments. Relying on Westlake University's research foundation and interdisciplinary advantages, the center will bring together research forces from multiple fields, promote the coordinated development of basic theory, key technologies, and application exploration, and develop general world models capable of understanding physical laws, predicting the consequences of actions, and continuously learning from real feedback, thereby supporting China's independent innovation and frontier layout in the new generation of artificial intelligence.