Yuchong Zhang

Researcher · Human-Robot Interaction

Yuchong Zhang张羽翀

Researcher at the Department of Robotics, Perception and Learning (RPL), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

I study how people and intelligent systems can work together well. My research spans human-robot interaction with human-centered design, interactive human-centered AI, VR/AR/MR, affective computing, and embodied interaction. I work with Prof. Danica Kragic at KTH RPL.

I received my Ph.D. from the t2i Lab at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden supervised by Prof. Morten Fjeld, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher in the Horizon 2020 ITN TOMOCON. My doctoral work focused on human-centered design and interactive visualization for industrial process tomography using AR/MR.

Email CV Google Scholar DBLP ResearchGate LinkedIn
Portrait of Yuchong Zhang

News

Latest first

Research

Interests & projects
Human-Robot Interaction Human-Centered Design Interactive Human-centered AI VR / AR / MR Affective Computing Embodied Interaction Human Perception
SSF · Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research

BOS: Body-centric Operating System

Interaction and perception research toward an operating system built around the human body, in collaboration with the UART group at Uppsala University.

Project page
EU Horizon Europe

ELSA — European Lighthouse on Secure and Safe AI

A European network of excellence on trustworthy AI; my contribution centres on human-centred and interactive aspects of safe, embodied AI systems.

Project page
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Horizon 2020 ITN

TOMOCON — Smart Tomographic Sensors for Advanced Industrial Process Control

Doctoral research as an Early Stage Researcher: bringing AR/MR and human-centred visualization to industrial process tomography and process control.

Project page
Doctoral theme

Human-Centered Design & Interactive Visualization for Industrial Process Tomography

Task-based colormap design, affective visualization, and immersive AR systems for volumetric tomography data — evaluated with domain experts and in user studies.

ResearchGate project

Publications

Selected · full list on Google Scholar and DBLP
  • CHI2026
    AI That Moves With You: A Review of Interactive Technologies Powered by Large Foundation Models for Mobility Impairment
    D. Dai, Y. Zhang†, Y. Ma, D. Kragic
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26)
    Best Paper Award · top 1%CORE A*
  • IUI2026
    “Same Voice, Different Language”: An Exploration of Voice-Cloned Translation to Support Non-Native Speakers in Online Meetings
    Y. Ma, Y. Zhang†, P. Andrews, Z. Wu, S. Z. Portales, M. Fjeld
    Proceedings of the 31st ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI ’26)
    Best Paper Award · top 1%CORE A
  • IJHCI2026
    Personalizing Emotion-aware Conversational Agents? Exploring User Traits-driven Conversational Strategies for Enhanced Interaction
    Y. Zhang, Y. Ma, D. Fu, S. Z. Portales, M. Fjeld, D. Kragic
    International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction (accepted, in press)
    JCR Q1
  • HRI2026
    Neutral by Default? Replicating User Vocal Responses to Negative Affective Cues in Conversational Agents
    Y. Ma, Y. Zhang†, D. Fu, S. Z. Portales, M. Fjeld
    Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’26), Edinburgh, UK
    CORE A*
  • CHI EA2026
    InterAI: Interactive AI for Human-Centered Robotics
    Y. Zhang, D. Fu, Y. Ma, E. Yadollahi, I. Leite, D. Kragic
    Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26) — workshop proposal
    WorkshopCORE A*
  • HRI2026
    InterAI: Interactive AI for Human-Centered Robotics
    D. Fu, Y. Zhang, Y. Ma, M. Kyrarini, C. Chen, D. Jirak, W. Si, D. Kragic
    Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’26), Edinburgh, UK — workshop
    WorkshopCORE A*
  • IJHCI2025
    Mind Meets Robots: A Review of EEG-Based Brain-Robot Interaction Systems
    Y. Zhang, N. Rajabi, F. Taleb, A. Matviienko, Y. Ma, M. Björkman, D. Kragic
    International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2025, pp. 1–32
    JCR Q1
  • HCII2025
    LLM-Driven Augmented Reality Puppeteer: Controller-Free Voice-Commanded Robot Teleoperation
    Y. Zhang, B. Orthmann, M. C. Welle, J. van Haastregt, D. Kragic
    HCI International 2025, Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 97–112
  • Nat. Commun.2024
    Shaping High-Performance Wearable Robots for Human Motor and Sensory Reconstruction and Enhancement
    H. Xia, Y. Zhang, N. Rajabi, F. Taleb, Q. Yang, D. Kragic, Z. Li
    Nature Communications 15(1), 2024
    JCR Q1
  • MUM2024
    Human-Centered AI Technologies in Human-Robot Interaction for Social Settings
    Y. Zhang, K. Kassem, Z. Gong, F. Mo, Y. Ma, E. Kirjavainen, J. Häkkilä
    Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM ’24), pp. 501–505
    CORE B
  • MobileHCI2024
    Vision Beyond Boundaries: An Initial Design Space of Domain-Specific Large Vision Models in Human-Robot Interaction
    Y. Zhang, Y. Ma, D. Kragic
    Adjunct Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI ’24), pp. 1–8
    CORE B
  • HCII2024
    Will You Participate? Exploring the Potential of Robotics Competitions on Human-Centric Topics
    Y. Zhang, M. Vasco, M. Björkman, D. Kragic
    HCI International 2024, Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 240–255
  • ISMAR2023
    See or Hear? Exploring the Effect of Visual and Audio Hints and Gaze-assisted Task Feedback for Visual Search Tasks in Augmented Reality
    Y. Zhang, A. Nowak, Y. Xuan, A. Romanowski, M. Fjeld
    IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2023), pp. 1113–1122
    CORE A*
  • INTERACT2023
    Playing with Data: An Augmented Reality Approach to Immersively Interact with Visualizations of Industrial Process Tomography
    Y. Zhang, Y. Xuan, A. Omrani, R. Yadav, M. Fjeld
    Human-Computer Interaction — INTERACT 2023 (IFIP TC 13), York, UK, Springer
    CORE A/B
  • UbiComp2021
    Augmented Reality with Industrial Process Tomography: To Support Complex Data Analysis in 3D Space
    A. Nowak*, Y. Zhang*, A. Romanowski, M. Fjeld
    Adjunct Proceedings of ACM UbiComp/ISWC 2021, pp. 56–58
    Co-first authorCORE A*
  • IHCI2021
    A Novel Augmented Reality System to Support Volumetric Visualization in Industrial Process Tomography
    Y. Zhang, R. Yadav, A. Omrani, M. Fjeld
    International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction & Game and Entertainment Technologies (IHCI/GET 2021)
    Best Paper
  • Sensors2021
    Supporting Visualization Analysis in Industrial Process Tomography by Using Augmented Reality — A Case Study of an Industrial Microwave Drying System
    Y. Zhang, A. Omrani, R. Yadav, M. Fjeld
    Sensors 21(19): 6515, 2021
    JCR Q2
  • Sensors2021
    Affective Colormap Design for Accurate Visual Comprehension in Industrial Tomography
    Y. Zhang, M. Fjeld, M. Fratarcangeli, A. Said, S. Zhao
    Sensors 21(14): 4766, 2021
    JCR Q2
  • EuroVis2020
    Task-based Colormap Design Supporting Visual Comprehension in Process Tomography
    Y. Zhang, M. Fjeld, A. Said, M. Fratarcangeli
    EuroVis 2020 — Short Papers, pp. 61–65
    CORE B
  • CHI2019
    The Design of Social Drones: A Review of Studies on Autonomous Flyers in Inhabited Environments
    M. A. Baytaş, D. Çay, Y. Zhang, M. Obaid, A. E. Yantaç, M. Fjeld
    Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19), ACM
    CORE A*

† corresponding author  ·  * co-first author

Academic Service

Committees, editorial roles & reviewing

Program committees Associate Chair / PC

  • ACM CHI — Associate Chair, 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · 2026 · 2027
  • ACM IUI — Associate Chair, 2027
  • ACM TEI — Associate Chair, 2027
  • ACM VRST — IPC / Associate Chair, 2026
  • NordiCHI — Associate Chair, 2026
  • ACM CUI — Associate Chair, 2026
  • ACM MUM — PC member 2024 · Associate Chair 2025
  • ACM CSCW — Associate Chair, 2024
  • HCI International — Associate Chair & board member, 2023–2026
  • Mensch und Computer (MuC) — Associate Chair, 2024 · 2025
  • ICSR — Associate Editor 2024 · PC member (ICSR+ART) 2026
  • ACM UMAP — PC member, 2026
  • ACM UbiComp — Technical PC member, 2022

Editorial & organizing

  • ACM TOCHI — Distinguished Reviewer Board member
  • Empathic Computing — Youth Editorial Board member
  • Applied Sciences — Guest Editor, special issue From Human–Machine Interaction to Human–Machine Cooperation
  • InterAI Workshop — Co-organizer of the 3rd InterAI Workshop at CHI 2026 and the InterAI workshop at HRI 2026

Teaching

  • Algorithms for Machine Learning — 2019, 2020
  • Information Visualization — 2022
  • Human-Centered Design — 2022
  • Interaction Design Methodology — 2022

Reviewing

Long-term invited reviewer for:

CHICSCWUISTHRIISMARIEEE VR ICMIMUMNordiCHIEICSHCII IJHCIIEEE TVCGACM TOCHI

Supervision

  • M.Sc. project — Interaction design of a personal portfolio
  • M.Sc. project — Mobile app design and implementation
  • B.Sc. thesis — Network monitoring and application

About Me

Background

Experience

  • May 2026 — present
    Researcher
    Department of Robotics, Perception and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
  • May 2023 — Apr 2026
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
    With Prof. Danica Kragic
  • Aug 2018 — Feb 2023
    Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher
    Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden · TOMOCON (H2020 ITN)
  • Apr 2018 — Jul 2018
    Research Associate
    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
    Data mining and natural language processing
  • Sep 2017 — Apr 2018
    Research Assistant
    Singapore Management University, Singapore
    Medical data analytics

Education

  • Aug 2018 — Feb 2023
    Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering
    Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden — Division of Interaction Design
    Human-centered design and interactive visualization with AR/MR for industrial tomography. Supervisor: Prof. Morten Fjeld · Co-supervisors: Prof. Marco Fratarcangeli, Prof. Alan Said
  • Jul 2016 — Jul 2017
    M.Sc.
    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Sep 2012 — Jun 2016
    B.Eng.
    Hangzhou Dianzi University, China

Beyond research

PhotographyTravellingViolinSingingSportsChinese calligraphy

Contact

I am always happy to hear about collaborations, student projects, and program-committee invitations in HCI, HRI and interactive AI.

yuchongz@kth.se
drycz2025@gmail.com
+46 70 149 30 91

Room 308, Lindstedtsvägen 24
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
114 28 Stockholm, Sweden