A generative-agent virtual school

ESAIAS

Leveraging the power of generative agents to support adolescents facing social challenges.

01 / Project

What is ESAIAS?

ESAIAS stands for Enhancing the social skills of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder through a gamified interactive artificial society of generative agents. The project creates a virtual school environment for social and emotional learning in Hong Kong's integrated education setting.

Human-led role-playing scenarios and generative AI give students accessible, adaptive opportunities to practise collaboration, conflict resolution and emotional regulation with virtual agents.

SEL learning framework

What is social and emotional learning?

Social and emotional learning (SEL) helps learners understand and manage emotions, empathise with others, build relationships and make responsible decisions.

ESAIAS turns these broad competencies into repeatable practice through supported interactions in a virtual school.

Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship skills
Responsible decision-making

Explore the CASEL SEL framework

02 / Approach

Our Solution

Our AI-enabled, multiplatform approach is designed for tablets and standalone mobile devices. It combines a welcoming virtual-school experience with adaptable role-playing scenarios.

An intuitive LLM editor lets practitioners define characters, personalities and relationships without prior coding knowledge. The approach is research-based, co-created with certified therapists and tested with students.

03 / Learning contexts

Learning across the school day

ESAIAS places role-playing in familiar school spaces, allowing practice to move between structured classroom tasks and informal peer interaction.

Classroom

Collaborative activities

Students can practise joining a group, asking for help and contributing to a shared activity while facilitators retain control of the scenario.

Students and a teacher talking together beside the school running track

Schoolyard

Everyday conversations

Open schoolyard scenes support informal exchanges, turn-taking and the kinds of social decisions that happen between lessons.

Students and facilitators seated around a table for a group discussion

Small group

Guided reflection

Structured group settings give educators space to pause, debrief and adjust agent roles around a social and emotional learning objective.

04 / Scenario demos

Watch ESAIAS in action

Four short walkthroughs show how social and emotional learning moves from everyday conversation to collaborative activities.

Joining a New Class

Practise listening to introductions, responding to peers and beginning a conversation in class.

05 / Scenario design

Editor

Build new role-playing situations with a node-based editor that makes agent behaviour and relationships understandable to people without an agentic AI background.

Shape the sequence of tasks and events.

06 / People

The Team

Chen 'Richard' Li

Asst. Professor

PolyU APSS & COMP

Daniel Archer

Research Associate

PolyU COMP

Dongpu Luo

Research Assistant

PolyU COMP

Jerry Zhang Fu

Research Assistant

PolyU COMP

Gina Wujie Gao

Research Assistant

PolyU APSS

Hong Ming Ma

Alumnus

PolyU AMA

07 / Recognition

AIREA International Competition on AI in Education

ESAIAS received the Champion award in the Open Category, Stream 3, recognising a comprehensive generative-AI solution to an educational challenge.

PolyU award announcement AIREA Competition 2025

08 / Connect

Contact Us

If you are interested in participating, please contact Richard.

richard-chen.li@polyu.edu.hk