Prof. Xiangen Hu began his academic journey in applied mathematics, earning his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1982 and 1985, respectively. He then moved to the United States to further his education, obtaining a Master's in social sciences in 1991 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology in 1993.

Before his current position as a chair professor in learning sciences and technologies at PolyU, Prof. Hu held several positions. He was a professor in the Departments of Psychology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science at The University of Memphis (UofM) for 30 years, where he also worked as a senior researcher at the Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS). His leadership roles included serving as a professor and Dean of the School of Psychology at Central China Normal University (CCNU), leading the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Partnership Laboratory at UofM, and working as a senior researcher at the Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, backed by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Prof. Hu's research focuses on four key areas: developing mathematical models to decode human cognitive behavior, specializing in research design and statistical analysis particularly for categorical data using general processing tree models, delving into artificial intelligence for knowledge representation, creating computerized tutoring systems, and enhancing distributed learning technologies.

His work has attracted significant funding from prestigious bodies like the US National Science Foundation, the US Institute of Education Sciences, the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative of the US Department of Defense, the US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, the US Army Research Laboratories, and the US Office of Naval Research. As the lead principal investigator, Prof. Hu has managed projects with over $10 million in funding, and as a co-principal investigator, he has been involved in projects amassing more than $30 million in grants.