Zhilin Zhang
About Me
Human-Computer Interaction; Artificial Intelligence; VR/AR;
Social Computing; Crowdsourcing; Education; Accessibility
My research interests are broadly in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I study HCI to better understand and improve human interactions with AI, VR/AR, and other complex algorithmic systems. I design and build computing systems to positively support users' online behaviors and interactions in a scalable and accessible way.
I received my B.S. and M.S., both in Computer Science, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), co-advised by Professor Lawrence Angrave and Professor Karrie Karahalios. I also worked with Professor ChengXiang Zhai in the Data and Information Systems Laboratory.
Please feel free to contact me at: zhilinzhang66@gmail.com
Latest Updates
[07/2021]: Best Paper Awards at ASEE 2021
Our paper "A UDL-based large-scale study on the needs of students with disabilities in engineering courses" has won the "3rd Best Paper Award & 2nd Best Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Paper Award".
[05/2021]: TWO NEW PAPERS ACCEPTED AT ASEE 2021
Our papers "How Students Search Video Captions to Learn: An Analysis of Search Terms and Behavioral Timing Data" and "A UDL-based large-scale study on the needs of students with disabilities in engineering courses" were accepted by ASEE 2021.
[05/2021]: A NEW PAPER ACCEPTED AT SOUPS 2021
Our paper "WebAlly: Making Visual Task-based CAPTCHAs Transferable for People with Visual Impairments" was accepted by SOUPS 2021.
[01/2021]: BECAME A TEACHING ASSISTANT FOR CS225
I started to work as a Teaching Assistant for CS225: Data Structures, with Professor Carl Evans and Professor Brad Solomon.
[12/2020]: A NEW PAPER ACCEPTED AT CHI 2021
Our paper "Attitudes Surrounding an Imperfect AI Autograder" was accepted by CHI 2021.
[09/2020]: BEST PAPER HONORABLE MENTION AT ASEE 2020
Our ASEE 2020 paper "Improving Student Accessibility, Equity, Course Performance, and Lab Skills: How Introduction of ClassTranscribe is Changing Engineering Education" has won the "Best Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Paper Honorable Mention".
[08/2020]: BECAME A TEACHING ASSISTANT FOR CS410
I started to work as a Teaching Assistant for CS410: Text Information Systems (Text Retrieval and Mining), with Professor ChengXiang Zhai.
[08/2020]: A LIGHTNING TALK ACCEPTED AT CRA 2020
I gave a lightning talk "ClassTranscribe: Addressing the COVID Challenge and Promoting Better Equity in Education" at CRA 2020.
Portfolio
ClassTranscribe is a Microsoft sponsored online learning platform. I analyzed behavioral data of 1,894 users totaling more than 5 million interactions with the system to study students’ attitudes and behaviors towards caption-based video search. The results have been published at SIGCSE and ASEE.
I used a grounded-theory approach to code the qualitative data from a 22-participant interview study. The results provided insights into students’ folk theories, interaction strategies, perceived accuracy, satisfaction and fairness towards the NLP-based grading system. The paper was published at CHI 2021.
Being motivated to promote equity for students with disabilities and accessible learning opportunities for all students, we conducted surveys and interviews across several large courses in engineering and computing at UIUC to identify course components that engage students with and without disabilities. The paper was published at ASEE 2021.
I led the design and implementation of a 20-participant user study on an integrated friend-sourcing tool that helps visually impaired people with inaccessible web tasks to investigate users’ attitudes towards the tool, regarding friend-sourcing vs. crowd-sourcing, paid vs unpaid, privacy concerns, and impacts on their relationship. (SOUPS 2021)
I designed and developed an Android app using the Android Accessibility Service to automatically record users’ interactions with other apps on the phone. The logged data include gestures, screenshots, and view hierarchies. The data was used to mine user habits and generate task shortcuts.
A VR game on Oculus, created with Unity. I wrote C# code to implement several attacking modes of the Ninja. I also ran user studies and enhanced the user experience on decreasing dizziness, improving prompts and controlling gestures, and enriching the experience of the boss fight.
Publications
(* = Equal Contribution)
Advancing Learnersourced Caption Editing for Video-Based STEM Education
In Submission
Bhavya*, Si Chen*, Zhilin Zhang*, Tiffany Wenting Li, Yun Huang, Lawrence Angrave, ChengXiang Zhai
How Students Search Video Captions to Learn: An Analysis of Search Terms and Behavioral Timing Data
ASEE 2021 - Full Paper [pdf]
Zhilin Zhang*, Bhavya*, Lawrence Angrave, Ruihua Sui, Rob Kooper, Chirantan Mahipal
A UDL-Based Large-Scale Study on the Needs of Students with Disabilities in Engineering Courses
ASEE 2021 - Full Paper [pdf]
3rd Best Paper Award & 2nd Best Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Paper Award
Jenny Amos*, Zhilin Zhang*, Lawrence Angrave*, Hongye Liu*, Yiyin Shen
WebAlly: Making Visual Task-based CAPTCHAs Transferable for People with Visual Impairments
SOUPS 2021 - Full Paper [pdf]
Zhuohao Zhang, Zhilin Zhang, Haolin Yuan, Natã Barbosa, Sauvik Das, Yang Wang
Attitudes Surrounding an Imperfect AI Autograder
CHI 2021 - Full Paper [pdf]
Silas Hsu*, Tiffany Wenting Li*, Zhilin Zhang, Max Fowler, Craig Zilles, Karrie Karahalios
Improving Student Accessibility, Equity, Course Performance, and Lab Skills: How Introduction of ClassTranscribe is Changing Engineering Education
ASEE 2020 - Full Paper [pdf]
Best Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Paper Honorable Mention
Lawrence Angrave, Karin Jensen, Zhilin Zhang, Chirantan Mahipal, David Mussulman, Christopher Schmitz, Robert Baird, Hongye Liu, Ruihua Sui, Maryalice Wu, and Rob Kooper
Who Benefits? Positive Learner Outcomes from Behavioral Analytics of Online Lecture Video Viewing using ClassTranscribe
SIGCSE 2020 - Full Paper [pdf]
Lawrence Angrave, Zhilin Zhang, Genevieve Henricks-Lepp, Chirantan Mahipal
Attitudes, Behaviors, and Learning Outcomes from Using ClassTranscribe, a UDL-Featured Video-Based Online Learning Platform with Learnersourced Text-Searchable Captions
UIUC - Master's Thesis (2021)
Zhilin Zhang
What Benefits? Exploring the Influences of Student Behaviors in Video-Based Online Learning
UIUC - Undergraduate Senior Thesis (2020)
Zhilin Zhang
ClassTranscribe: Addressing the COVID Challenge and Promoting Better Equity in Education
CRA 2020 - Lightning Talk [video]
Zhilin Zhang, Lawrence Angrave
Contact Me
Please feel free to contact me at zhilinzhang66@gmail.com