NEWS
07/2026
Serving as an AC for CHI '27.
07/2026
"Narrative Keyframking" and "Malleable Prompting" conditionally accepted to UIST '26.
03/2026
"Interactive Explainable Ranking" received a Best Paper Award at CHI '26.
01/2026
"IER," "EvaluAId," and "Narrix" conditionally accepted to CHI '26.
01/2026
Serving as an AC for IDC '26.
01/2026
Joining Google DeepMind as a student researcher in Mountain View.
07/2025
"Synthia: Visually Interpreting and Synthesizing Feedback for Writing Revision" conditionally accepted to UIST '25.
06/2025
"Hey Curio, Can You Tell Me More?": Children's Information-Seeking and Trust in AI" received a Best Short Paper Award at IDC '25.
05/2025
Joining Adobe Research as a research intern in San Jose.
05/2025
"Navigating the Fog: How University Students Recalibrate Sensemaking Practices to Address Plausible Falsehoods in LLM Outputs" accepted to CUI '25.
03/2025
Joining Microsoft Office of Applied Research as a research intern remotely.
01/2025
"Friction: Deciphering Writing Feedback into Writing Revisions through LLM-Assisted Reflection" conditionally accepted to CHI '25.
01/2025
Three papers "BrickSmart", "CharacterCritique", and "DiSandbox" conditionally accepted to CHI '25.
11/2024
"From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UX" received a Best Paper Award at CSCW '24.
07/2024
Built a tool with Dr. David Mimno to compare LLM vocabularies. Check it out at token-board.chaozhang.design
06/2024
"See, Hear, Touch, Smell, and,...Eat." received a Best Short Paper Award at IDC '24.
05/2024
Attending CHI '24.
01/2024
"Mathemyths" and "Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie" conditionally accepted to CHI '24.
09/2023
"From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UX" accepted to CSCW '24.
06/2023
Starting my Ph.D. at Cornell this fall.
03/2023
"Observe It, Draw It: Scaffolding Children's Observations of Plant Biodiversity with an Interactive Drawing Tool" accepted to IDC '23.
01/2023
"What Makes Creators Engage with Online Critiques? Understanding the Role of Artifacts' Creation Stage, Characteristics of Community Comments, and their Interactions" accepted to CHI '23.
01/2023
"MathKingdom: Teaching Children Mathematical Language Through Speaking at Home via a Voice-Guided Game" accepted to CHI '23.
01/2023
"MechCircuit: Augmenting Laser-Cut Objects with Integrated Electronics, Mechanical Structures and Magnets" accepted to CHI '23.
08/2022
"SSpoon: A Shape-changing Spoon That Optimizes Bite Size For Eating Rate Regulation" accepted to IMWUT '22.
07/2022
Started research internship in HCI group @ HKUST with Prof. Xiaojuan Ma.
06/2022
Working with Prof. Toby Jia-jun Li in SaNDwich Lab @ NDCSE.
03/2022
Presented "StoryDrawer: A Child-AI Collaborative Drawing System to Support Children's Creative Visual Storytelling" at CHI '22.
11/2022
First first-authored paper "StoryDrawer: A Child-AI Collaborative Drawing System to Support Children's Creative Visual Storytelling" conditionally accepted to CHI '22.
11/2022
Design works "Silent Delivery" and "To Life" exhibited at 2022 Dubai Design Week.
Chao Zhang
Ph.D. Student & HCI Researcher @ Cornell
I build AI systems that keep humans thinking.
I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Bowers School of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University. I am fortunate to be advised by Professors Abe Davis and Jeff Rzeszotarski. During my Ph.D., I interned at Google DeepMind, Adobe Research and Microsoft Research.
My research builds AI systems with useful friction for thoughtful human-AI interaction: an interaction paradigm that sustains the value of human thinking in the age of AI. As AI makes it increasingly easy to outsource cognitive work, people can bypass the very processes through which they develop judgment, build skills, and deepen understanding. I design interactive AI systems that strategically introduce friction at moments when human thinking is valuable, while allowing AI to reduce effort elsewhere.
For example, my work investigates how such friction can help people critically examine biases in AI-assisted decision-making (e.g., Interactive Explainable Ranking), remain actively engaged in reflection rather than defaulting to convenient AI answers (e.g., Friction), and preserve meaningful human control over AI-assisted work (e.g., Narrative Keyframing). Together, this work asks a broader question: as AI makes more of our thinking optional, how should we build AI systems that preserve the parts of thinking that remain valuable for us to do ourselves?
My work has been published in top-tier HCI venues, such as CHI, UIST, and CSCW. This includes six award-winning papers: a Best Paper at CHI ’26, a Best Paper at CSCW ’24, two Best Paper Honorable Mentions at CHI ’25, and two Best Short Papers at IDC ’24 and ’25. My projects have also been recognized with international design awards, such as Red Dot Award, iF Design Award, A’ Design Award, and James Dyson Award, and have been featured at notable events, including Dubai Design Week and China Design Exhibition.
NEWS
07/2026
Serving as an AC for CHI '27.
07/2026
"Narrative Keyframking" and "Malleable Prompting" conditionally accepted to UIST '26.
03/2026
"Interactive Explainable Ranking" received a Best Paper Award at CHI '26.
01/2026
"IER," "EvaluAId," and "Narrix" conditionally accepted to CHI '26.
01/2026
Serving as an AC for IDC '26.
01/2026
Joining Google DeepMind as a student researcher in Mountain View.
07/2025
"Synthia: Visually Interpreting and Synthesizing Feedback for Writing Revision" conditionally accepted to UIST '25.
06/2025
"Hey Curio, Can You Tell Me More?": Children's Information-Seeking and Trust in AI" received a Best Short Paper Award at IDC '25.
05/2025
Joining Adobe Research as a research intern in San Jose.
05/2025
"Navigating the Fog: How University Students Recalibrate Sensemaking Practices to Address Plausible Falsehoods in LLM Outputs" accepted to CUI '25.
03/2025
Joining Microsoft Office of Applied Research as a research intern remotely.
01/2025
"Friction: Deciphering Writing Feedback into Writing Revisions through LLM-Assisted Reflection" conditionally accepted to CHI '25.
01/2025
Three papers "BrickSmart", "CharacterCritique", and "DiSandbox" conditionally accepted to CHI '25.
11/2024
"From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UX" received a Best Paper Award at CSCW '24.
07/2024
Built a tool with Dr. David Mimno to compare LLM vocabularies. Check it out at token-board.chaozhang.design
06/2024
"See, Hear, Touch, Smell, and,...Eat." received a Best Short Paper Award at IDC '24.
05/2024
Attending CHI '24.
01/2024
"Mathemyths" and "Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie" conditionally accepted to CHI '24.
09/2023
"From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UX" accepted to CSCW '24.
06/2023
Starting my Ph.D. at Cornell this fall.
03/2023
"Observe It, Draw It: Scaffolding Children's Observations of Plant Biodiversity with an Interactive Drawing Tool" accepted to IDC '23.
01/2023
"What Makes Creators Engage with Online Critiques? Understanding the Role of Artifacts' Creation Stage, Characteristics of Community Comments, and their Interactions" accepted to CHI '23.
01/2023
"MathKingdom: Teaching Children Mathematical Language Through Speaking at Home via a Voice-Guided Game" accepted to CHI '23.
01/2023
"MechCircuit: Augmenting Laser-Cut Objects with Integrated Electronics, Mechanical Structures and Magnets" accepted to CHI '23.
08/2022
"SSpoon: A Shape-changing Spoon That Optimizes Bite Size For Eating Rate Regulation" accepted to IMWUT '22.
07/2022
Started research internship in HCI group @ HKUST with Prof. Xiaojuan Ma.
06/2022
Working with Prof. Toby Jia-jun Li in SaNDwich Lab @ NDCSE.
03/2022
Presented "StoryDrawer: A Child-AI Collaborative Drawing System to Support Children's Creative Visual Storytelling" at CHI '22.
11/2022
First first-authored paper "StoryDrawer: A Child-AI Collaborative Drawing System to Support Children's Creative Visual Storytelling" conditionally accepted to CHI '22.
11/2022
Design works "Silent Delivery" and "To Life" exhibited at 2022 Dubai Design Week.
Publication
* denotes equal contribution
