I am Zhu-Tian Chen, an Assistant Professor in the CSE department at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Prior to that, I spent some great times in the Visual Computing Group at Harvard University with Prof. Hanspeter Pfister and the Design Lab and Creativity Lab at UC San Diego with Prof. Haijun Xia. I received my PhD in CSE from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where I worked with Prof. Qu Huamin in the HKUST VisLab.

My research aims to augment human intelligence in physical environments. I build situated AI systems as a "System 3" for human cognition: an external cognitive layer, mediated through interactive visual interfaces, that complements System 1 (fast, intuitive thinking) and System 2 (slow, deliberative reasoning).

My work has been recognized with multiple paper awards and an NSF CAREER Award. And I love little catsimage and dogsimage.

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Research | Teaching | Diversity @22

Selected Projects

(Full list)

I publish under the name Chen Zhu-Tian

Project - Towards Better Human-AI Teaming in Physical Space
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Can AR-Embedded Visualizations Foster Appropriate Reliance on AI in Spatial Decision Making? A Comparative Study of AR See-Through vs. 2D Minimap

Xianhao Carton Liu, Difan Jia, Tongyu Nie, Evan Suma Rosenberg, Victoria Interrante, and Chen Zhu-Tian

CHI: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026

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Reality Proxy: Fluid Interactions with Real-World Objects in MR via Abstract Representations

Xiaoan Liu, Difan Jia, Xianhao Carton Liu, Mar Gonzalez-Franco, and Chen Zhu-Tian

UIST: ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 2025

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Project - Intelligent AR Systems for Dynamic Scenes
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Sportify: Question Answering with Embedded Visualizations and Personified Narratives for Sports Video

Chunggi Lee, Tica Lin, Hanspeter Pfister, and Chen Zhu-Tian

VIS: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024

PagePDFDOIPreview

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RL-LABEL: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach Intended for AR Label Placement in Dynamic Scenarios

Chen Zhu-Tian, Daniele Chiappalupi, Tica Lin, Yalong Yang, Johanna Beyer, and Hanspeter Pfister

VIS: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2023

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iBall: Augmenting Basketball Videos with Gaze-moderated Embedded Visualizations

Chen Zhu-Tian, Qisen Yang, Jiarui Shan, Tica Lin, Johanna Beyer, Haijun Xia, and Hanspeter Pfister

CHI: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2023

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The Quest for Omnioculars: Embedded Visualization for Augmenting Basketball Game Viewing Experiences

Tica Lin, Chen Zhu-Tian, Yalong Yang, Daniele Chiappalupi, Johanna Beyer, and Hanspeter Pfister

VIS: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2022

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