Yun Huang

• Faculty Affiliate, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
• Faculty Affiliate, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
• Faculty Affiliate, Illinois Informatics
• Faculty Affiliate, Siebel Center for Design

Human-computer interaction, social computing, mobile computing, computer-supported cooperative work, human-AI interaction, conversational agents, social media, and crowdsourcing.

• Linowes Faculty Fellowship, the Cline Center, University of Illinois, 2024-2025
• Awardee of OpenAI Researcher Access Program (2024)
• 2024-2025 Emerging Research Leaders Academy at the Illinois Institute for Health Sciences and Technology
• Co-Investigator of an OpenAI project (2023)
• Co-Investigator of an NSF-led AI Institute (2023)
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Early Career Development Grant (2022)
• Teacher Ranked as Excellent, University of Illinois (Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023)
• NSF CRII award
• Google Faculty Research Award
• Best Paper Honorable Mention at the ACM CHI Conference
• NSF I-Corps Award
• iConference Best Paper Award

Yun Huang is an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She co-directs the Social Computing Systems (SALT) Lab. Before joining Illinois, she was a faculty member in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and a postdoc fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work focuses on social computing systems research, in which she examines context-driven approaches of designing crowdsourcing systems. For example, her research examines how different contexts impact user contributions to crowdsourcing systems; how to leverage these contextual effects to design innovative social computing systems that can better engage users; and how crowdsourced user behavioral data may help better understand users and the community. She received her PhD from the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She earned her bachelor's degree from the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China.

• Summer 2026 - Independent Study - IS189YH
• Summer 2026 - Independent Study - IS589YH
• Fall 2026 - Independent Study - IS389YHU
• Fall 2026 - Intro Gen AI for Human-AI Coll - IS492AIG
• Fall 2026 - Intro Gen AI for Human-AI Coll - IS492AIU
• Fall 2026 - Independent Study - IS589YH

By appointment, please contact professor

Tanusree Sharma, Yujin Potter, Jongwon Park, Yiren Liu, Yun Huang, Sunny Liu, Dawn Song, Jeff Hancock, & Yang Wang. Democratic governance through DAO-based deliberation and voting for inclusive decision making in AI models. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 11792 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40180-8. PMID: 41775822; PMCID: PMC13066484

Yiliu Tang, Mengke Wu, Jason Situ, Jingyi Liu, Andrea Yaoyun Cui, Yun Huang. Empowered XR through Generative AI: Balancing Superpowers and Risks. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026)

Yongming Li, Lingyun Ling, Yunpeng Song, Yun Huang, Zhongmin Cai. AReframedChair: Reframing the Empty Chair through Dyadic and Triadic AR-Mediated Self-Embodiment. In Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026).

Yiren Liu, Vedant N. Shah, Seongmin Suh, Panachai Siangliulue, Tal August, Yun Huang. Perspectra: Choosing Your Experts Enhances Critical Thinking in Multi-Agent Research Ideation. In Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026). *Honorable Mention Award in the Best Paper Contest

Si Chen, Haocong Cheng, Suzy Su, Ming Lu, Safa Masud, Qi Wang, Yun Huang. Redesigning Educational Videos for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Learners. In Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026).

Hyanghee Park, Daehwan Ahn, Jae Eun Kim, Yun Huang. Envisioning an Ethical and Sustainable Metaverse Workplace: Beyond AI-Driven Surveillance. In Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026). *Honorable Mention Award in the Best Paper Contest

Zheng Wei, Jingchen Gao, Zhe Yan, Yihan Liu, Linjie Qiu, Xian Xu, Yun Huang, Huamin Qu. Follow the signs or the crowd? Effects of environmental load and crowd dynamics in VR evacuation. In Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR 2026)

Si Chen, Jingyi Xie, Ge Wang, Haizhou Wang, Haocong Cheng, Yun Huang (2025). From Scores to Careers: Understanding AI’s Role in Supporting Collaborative Family Decision-Making in Chinese College Applications. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025.

Qingxiao Zheng,  Abhinav Choudhry, Zihan Liu, Parisa Rabbani, Yuting Hu, Abbie Olszewski, Yun Huang, Jinjun Xiong (2025).  AI-Enhanced Speech-Language Intervention Documentation: Opportunities and Design Goals. In the Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), 2025

Yiren Liu, Pranav Sharma, Mehul Oswal, Haijun Xia, Yun Huang (2025). PersonaFlow: Designing LLM-Simulated Expert Perspectives for Enhanced Research Ideation. In the Proceedings of the ACM Designing Interactive Systems.

Yun Huang, Towards Building the Mobile Crowdsourcing Genome, School of Information, University of Michigan, 2019.

Yun Huang, Qunfang Wu, Yaxing Yao: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons Alone Didn't Work!, the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Ubicomp 2018).

Qunfang Wu, Yisi Sang, Shan Zhang, Yun Huang: Danmaku vs. Forum Comments: Understanding User Participation and Knowledge Sharing in Online Videos, the 25th ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP), 2018.

Yun Huang, Yifeng Huang, Na Xue, Jeffery Bigham (2017): Leveraging Complementary Contributions of Different Workers for Efficient Crowdsourcing of Video Captions. the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems (CHI 2017).

Yun Huang, Crowdsourcing for Community Engagement, School of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing China, 2017.

Yun Huang, Brian Dobreski, Huichuan Xia: Human Library: Understanding Experience Sharing as a Participatory Service. the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2017).

Yun Huang, Data-Driven Approaches to Understanding Community Policing on Social Media Platforms, the 2nd International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2 2016) Conference, Chicago, IL.

Yun Huangm, Municipal Police Departments on Facebook: What Are They Posting and Are People Engaging?, The 17th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Society (DG.O 2016) Conference, Shanghai, China.

Yun Huang, Modeling Sharing Decision of Campus Safety Reports and Its Design Implications to Mobile Crowdsourcing for Safety, the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Copenhagen (MobileHCI), Denmark.

Yun Huang, Emotion Map: A Mobile Social System for Improving Emotion Awareness and Regulation, CSCW 2015 Conference, Vancouver, Canada.