Hi, this is

Emily Kuang

INCOMING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR · HCI RESEARCHER

Photo of Emily Kuang in a grey suit with medium brown hair

Bio

In Fall 2025, I will join the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at York University as an assistant professor. I completed my PhD in Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, where I was also a member of the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research (CAIR).


I am a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher, who designs and evaluates human-AI collaborative tools that enhance usability analysis. I also lead and collaborate on accessibility projects that promote inclusive computing education and develop assistive technologies for diverse users. As one of only eight HCI Google PhD Fellows in 2023, I demonstrate the global impact of my research and my ability to secure highly competitive funding.


If you would like to talk about my work or get connected, please reach out!


Recent News

  1. May 2025: I successfully defended my PhD dissertation! Huge thanks to my committee members and collaborators!
  2. Apr 2025: I attended CHI 2025 in Japan, and had one paper on LLM-powered multimodal instructions accepted.
  3. Feb 2025: A systematic literature review I coauthored on haptic assistive tools was published at TACCESS.
  4. Sept 2024: I was invited to represent RIT at the inter-institutional NRT+ Summit, where I organized and co-led a panel.

Research

All Human-AI Collaboration Accessibility Visual Analytics Computer Vision
The first subfigure shows a learner wearing the web camera on the head, Leap Motion hand-tracking camera on the neck, and pressure sensors on the hand and watching the multimodal review of stroke performance. The second subfigure shows a virtual teaching assistant (VTA) giving a review of the learner's stroke performance. The third subfigure shows the VTA summarizing the learners' performance to the instructors.

Designing LLM-Powered Multimodal Instructions to Support Rich Hands-on Skills Remote Learning: A Case Study with Massage Instructors and Learners

Chutian Jiang*, Yinan Fan*, Junan Xie, Emily Kuang, Baichuan Feng, Kaihao Zhang, Mingming Fan
(* indicates equal contribution)


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25)


The mechanisms of 5 haptic feedback and their relationships: pressure, kinesthetic feedback, vibration, skin-stretch, and thermal feedback.

How Can Haptic Feedback Assist People with Blind and Low Vision (BLV): A Systematic Literature Review

Chutian Jiang*, Emily Kuang*, Mingming Fan
(* indicates equal contribution)


ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, Volume 18, Issue 1


The six AI probes used in the study: image generation, 3D object generation, scene generation, chat facilitator, emotion visualization, and info assistant

AI as a Bridge Across Ages: Exploring The Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in Supporting Inter-Generational Communication in Virtual Reality

Qiuxin Du*, Xiaoying Wei*, Jiawei Li, Emily Kuang, Jie Hao, Dongdong Weng, Mingming Fan
(* indicates equal contribution)


Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW 2025)


The process of how AIGC tools mediate debates, where UX designers leverage AIGC tools to gain insights into collaborators' workloads

Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content (AIGC) Tools on Social Dynamics in UX Collaboration

Ziyan Wang, Luyao Shen, Emily Kuang, Shumeng Zhang, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '24)


User interface of proactive conversational assistant

Enhancing UX Evaluation Through Collaboration with Conversational AI Assistants: Effects of Proactive Dialogue and Timing

Emily Kuang, Minghao Li, Mingming Fan, Kristen Shinohara


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)


Number of surveys and interviews

Mapping Accessibility Assignments into Core Computer Science Topics: An Empirical Study with Interviews and Surveys of Instructors and Students

Emily Kuang, Selah Bellscheidt, Di Pham, Kristen Shinohara, Catherine M. Baker, Yasmine N. Elglaly


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)


Electrotactile guidance features

Designing Unobtrusive Modulated Electrotactile Feedback on Fingertip Edge to Assist Blind and Low Vision (BLV) People in Comprehending Charts

Chutian Jiang*, Yinan Fan*, Junan Xie, Emily Kuang, Kaihao Zhang, Mingming Fan
(* indicates equal contribution)


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)


Screenshots from livestreams

Bridging the Literacy Gap for Adults: Streaming and Engaging in Adult Literacy Education through Livestreaming

Shihan Fu, Jianhao Chen, Emily Kuang, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)


AR instructions

Exploring the Opportunity of Augmented Reality (AR) in Supporting Older Adults to Explore and Learn Smartphone Applications

Xiaofu Jin, Wai Tong, Xiaoying Wei, Xian Wang, Emily Kuang, Xiaoyu Mo, Huamin Qu, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)


Key steps in daily data analysis

Understanding Strategies and Challenges of Conducting Daily Data Analysis (DDA) Among Blind and Low-vision People

Chutian Jiang, Wentao Lei, Emily Kuang, Teng Han, Mingming Fan


The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)


User interface of conversational AI assistant

Collaboration with Conversational AI Assistants for UX Evaluation: Questions and How to Ask them (Voice vs. Text)

Emily Kuang, Ehsan Jahangirzadeh Soure, Mingming Fan, Jian Zhao, Kristen Shinohara


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)


Keyboard showing gesture typing

Enhancing Older Adults' Gesture Typing Experience Using the T9 Keyboard on Small Touchscreen Devices

Emily Kuang, Ruihuan Chen, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)


Procedure of the participatory design session

Bridging the Generational Gap: Exploring How Virtual Reality Supports Remote Communication Between Grandparents and Grandchildren

Xiaoying Wei, Yizheng Gu, Emily Kuang, Xian Wang, Beiyan Cao, Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)


List of research questions

Crafting Human-AI Collaborative Analysis for User Experience Evaluation

Emily Kuang


CHI Doctoral Consortium: Extended Abstracts of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '23)


Demographic information of respondents

“Merging Results Is No Easy Task”: An International Survey Study of Collaborative Data Analysis Practices Among UX Practitioners

Emily Kuang, Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22)


User interface of the visual analytics tool

A Multi-scale Visual Analytics Approach for Exploring Biomedical Knowledge

Fahd Husain, Rosa Romero-Gómez, Emily Kuang, Dario Segura, Adamo Carolli, Lai Chung Liu, Manfred Cheung, Yohann Paris


In the Workshop on Visual Analytics in Healthcare (VAHC) held in conjunction with VIS, 2021

[Best Paper Award]


User interface of CoUX

CoUX: Collaborative Visual Analysis of Think-Aloud Usability Test Videos for Digital Interfaces

Ehsan Jahangirzadeh Soure*, Emily Kuang*, Mingming Fan, Jian Zhao
(* indicates equal contribution)


IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 28, no. 1 (Proceedings of VIS '21), 2022


Types of banking transactions

"Too Old to Bank Digitally?": A Survey of Banking Practices and Challenges among Older Adults in China

Xiaofu Jin, Emily Kuang, Mingming Fan


Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '21)


Selected region of sample under microscope

Compensated lens-free light field microscopy

Ameneh Boroomand, Mohammad Javad Sahfiee, Linda Wang, Emily Kuang, Farnoud Kazemzadeh, Alexander Wong


International Conference on Inverse Problems in Engineering (ICIPE), 2017


Spectrum of calibration source using the smartphone spectrometer

Enhanced Smartphone Spectroscopy via High-throughput Computational Slit

Emily Kuang, Farnoud Kazemzadeh, Alexander Wong


Journal of Computational Vision and Imaging Systems 2 (1), 2016


3D CAD render of the microscope

Compact, Field-Portable Lens-free Microscope using Superresolution Spatio-Spectral Light-field Fusion

Farnoud Kazemzadeh, Emily Kuang, Alexander Wong


Journal of Computational Vision and Imaging Systems 2 (1), 2016


  • Education

  • PhD - Rochester Insitute of Technology

    2020 - present

    Program: Computing and Information Sciences

    Advisors: Dr. Kristen Shinohara and Dr. Mingming Fan

  • BASc - University of Waterloo

    2015 - 2020

    Program: Biomedical Engineering

    Graduated with Distinction - Dean's Honour List

  • Industry Experience

  • Research Intern - Autodesk Research

    May 2024 - Sept 2024

    - Worked on the HCI & Visualization Research Group

    - Led a mixed-methods research project on integrating generative AI into 3D computer-aided design

  • UX Research Intern - Meta Reality Labs

    May 2022 - Aug 2022 and May 2023 - Aug 2023

    - Worked on the Hardware UXR Team

    - Designed and conducted user studies on Ray-Ban | Meta smartglasses and Meta Quest 2