Qiaosi (Chelsea) Wang
Carnegie Bosch Postdoctoral Fellow
HCII, School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Email: qiaosiw at andrew.cmu.edu
I am a Carnegie Bosch Postdoctoral Fellow at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), Carnegie Mellon University, working with Dr. Hong Shen and Dr. Jodi Forlizzi. My research broadly lies in Human-AI Interaction, Cognitive Science, Social Computing, Responsible AI, and Design. I study the design and development of AI systems that can responsibly engage with humans in complex social exchanges. My work applies and extends core human socio-cognitive processes such as Theory of Mind to design adaptive and socially aligned interactions as AI takes on social roles such as teaching assistant, social facilitator, and everyday companion. I leverage computational, qualitative, experimental, and design approaches such as interviews, surveys, co-design, lab experiments, and NLP modeling to study these problems.
My research has been published and awarded at top-tier HCI venues such as ACM CHI, CSCW, and DIS. I am currently supported by the highly-competitive Carnegie Bosch Institute (CBI) Postdoc Fellowship. In 2021, I was recognized with the GVU Foley Scholar award, the highest award for student excellence in research contributions to computing at Georgia Tech. I received my Ph.D. degree in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech in 2024 and my bachelor of science degrees from University of Washington, Seattle in informatics and psychology.
In my free time, I enjoy pilates, bouldering, hiking, and playing with my cat Gouda.
I am currently on the job market for academic tenure-track and industry research positions! If you think my work aligns with your department/team or know of opportunities, I'd love to connect!
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Mutual Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction
Overview: Inspired by how humans adjust social expectations of each other through communicating social cues, I study human-AI interaction through the lens of Mutual Theory of Mind (MToM), where both parties continuously infer and respond to each others' evolving social perceptions. I introduced MToM by breaking down the human-AI communication process into three stages as shown on the left: ToM construction, ToM recognition, and ToM revision. Based on the MToM framework, much of my Ph.D. thesis work empirically explores the design and development of socially nuanced and mutually adaptive human-AI communication, while foregrounding people's evolving perceptions of AI.
Related Publications:
Towards Mutual Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction: How Language Reflects What Students Perceive About a Virtual Teaching Assistant. [PDF] [Talk]Qiaosi Wang, Koustuv Saha, Eric Gregori, David Joyner, Ashok Goel
CHI 2021: the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Mutual Theory of Mind for Human-AI Communication.[PDF]
Qiaosi Wang, Ashok K. Goel
IJCAI Workshop on Communication in Human-AI Interaction (CHAI) Rethinking Theory of Mind Benchmarks for LLMs: Towards A User-Centered Perspective. [PDF]
Qiaosi Wang, Xuhui Zhou, Maarten Sap, Jodi Forlizzi, Hong Shen
Presented at the HEAL@CHI'25 Workshop and the Theory of Mind Workshop at IJCAI'25 Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction. [PDF]
Qiaosi Wang, Sarah E. Walsh, Mei Si, Jeffrey O. Kephart, Justin D. Weisz, Ashok K. Goel
CHI 2024 Workshops: the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Mutual Theory of Mind for Human-AI Communication in AI-Mediated Social Interaction. [PDF]
Qiaosi Wang. Ph.D. Thesis. 2024. Georgia Institute of Technology.
Designing Responsible AI
Illustration from adamfard.com
Overview: My work provides design implications for human-centered and responsible AI through empirically understanding different stakeholders' experiences and perspectives of AI. I have studied how UX practitioners and responsible AI experts in industry are adapting their practices to meet responsible AI challenges, especially when working with large scale models (e.g., large language models). I have also studied students' perspectives on emotion recognition technology being used in the classroom to assess their engagement levels during classes.
Related Publications:
Designing Responsible AI: Adaptations of UX Practice to Meet Responsible AI Challenges. [PDF] [Talk]Qiaosi Wang, Michael Madaio, Shaun Kane, Shivani Kapania, Michael Terry, Lauren Wilcox
CHI 2023: the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Sensing Affect to Empower Students: Learner Perspectives on Affect-Sensitive Technology in Large Educational Contexts. [PDF] [Talk]
Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, David Joyner, Lauren Wilcox, Hong Li, Thomas Ploetz, Betsy DiSalvo
L@S 2020: the ACM Conference on Learning at Scale.
AI-Mediated Social Interaction in Online Learning
Overview: I study the design of AI-mediated social interaction, the AI facilitated process of building and maintaining social connections between two or more individuals based on explicit and implicit personal information embedded in people's digital footprint. My research in this topic has been in the context of online learning, where I study the design and deployment of AI agents that can make social connections between online learners who often feel socially isolated.
Related Publications:
Understanding the Design Space of AI-Mediated Social Interaction in Online Learning: Challenges and Opportunities. [PDF]Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, Ida Camacho, Ashok K. Goel
CSCW 2022: Proceedings of ACM Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW) Co-Designing AI Agents to Support Social Connectedness Among Online Learners: Functionalities, Social Characteristics, and Ethical Challenges. [PDF] [Talk]
Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, Ashok K. Goel.
DIS 2022: the ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems
SELECTED PUBLICATION
Please see the complete list on my Google Scholar.
Conference Proceedings
 |
Designing Responsible AI: Adaptations of UX Practice to Meet Responsible AI Challenges [PDF] [Talk]
Qiaosi Wang, Michael Madaio, Shaun Kane, Shivani Kapania, Michael Terry, Lauren Wilcox. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 16 pages. https: //doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581278 (Acceptance rate: 28.4%) |
|---|---|
|
Co-Designing AI Agents to Support Social Connectedness Among Online Learners: Functionalities, Social Characteristics, and Ethical Challenges [PDF] [Talk]
Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, Ashok K. Goel. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ‘22). ACM, Virtual Event, USA. (Acceptance rate: 21.5%) |
|
Towards Mutual Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction: How Language Reflects What Students Perceive About a Virtual Teaching Assistant. [PDF] [Talk]
Qiaosi Wang, Koustuv Saha, Eric Gregori, David Joyner, Ashok K. Goel. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 384, 1–14. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445645 (Acceptance rate: 26.3%) |
|
Sensing Affect to Empower Students: Learner Perspectives on Affect-Sensitive Technology in Large Educational Contexts. [PDF] [Talk] Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, David Joyner, Lauren Wilcox, Hong Li, Thomas Ploetz, Betsy Disalvo. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Learning at Scale 2020 (L@S ‘20). ACM, Virtual Conference, USA. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/10.1145/3386527.3405917. (Acceptance rate: 25%) Best Student Paper Award |
|
The Synchronicity Paradox in Online Education. [PDF] David Joyner, Qiaosi Wang, Suyash Thakare, Shan Jing, Ashok K. Goel, Blair MacIntyre. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Learning at Scale 2020 (L@S ‘20). ACM, Virtual Conference, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3386527.3405922. (Acceptance rate: 25%) |
|
Design in the HCI Classroom: Setting a Research Agenda. [PDF] Lauren Wilcox, Betsy Disalvo, Dick Henneman, Qiaosi Wang. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ‘19). ACM, San Diego, CA, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3322381. (Acceptance rate: 25%) Best Paper Award |
Journal Articles
|
Reading the Room: Automated, Momentary Assessment of Student Engagement in the Classroom: Are We There Yet? [PDF] Betsy DiSalvo, Dheeraj Bandaru, Qiaosi Wang, Hong Li, Thomas Ploetz. PACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 6, 3, Article 112 (September 2022), 26 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3550328 |
|---|---|
|
Understanding the Design Space of AI-Mediated Social Interaction in Online Learning: Challenges and Opportunities. [PDF] Qiaosi Wang, Ida Camacho, Shan Jing, Ashok K. Goel. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 6, CSCW1, Article 130 (April 2022), 26 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3512977. Presented at CSCW 2022. |
|
Identifying and Planning for Change: Patient-provider Collaboration Using Lightweight Food Diaries in Healthy Eating and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. [PDF] Chia-Fang Chung, Qiaosi Wang, Jessica Schroeder, Allison Cole, Jasmine Zia, James Fogarty, Sean A. Munson. PACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 3, 1, Article 7 (March 2019), 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3314394 |
Invited Book Chapter
 |
Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction.
Sarah E. Walsh, Qiaosi Wang*, Lance Ying*. To Appear in the Handbook of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. SPringer, 2025. *Equal contribution. |
|---|---|
|
Investigating the Potential of AI-Based Social Matching Systems to Facilitate Social Interaction Among Online Learners.
Qiaosi Wang, Ida Camacho, Ashok K. Goel. In Social and Emotional Learning and Complex Skills Assessment. Springer, Cham, 2022. Pages 279-298. |
Abstracts & Extended Abstracts
|
Jill Watson SA: Design and Evaluation of a Virtual Agent to Build Communities Among Online Learners.
[PDF]
Qiaosi Wang, Shan Jing, Ida Camacho, David Joyner, Ashok Goel. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, Honolulu, HI, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3382878. (Acceptance rate: 41.8%) |
|---|
Workshop Papers, Posters and Presentations
 |
Mutual Theory of Mind for Human-AI Communication. [PDF] Qiaosi Wang, Ashok K. Goel. IJCAI Workshop on Communication in Human-AI Interaction (CHAI). July, 2022. |
|---|---|
|
Designing for Agent-Mediated Online Social Connections: Lessons Learned and Potential Challenges. [PDF] Qiaosi Wang, Ida Camacho, Ashok Goel. CSCW2020 Workshop on CUI@CSCW: Collaborating through Conversational User Interfaces. October, 2020. |
NEWS
| Workshop | July 8, 2025 | Virtually led and attended our workshop on Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction at the ACM CUI conference. |
|---|---|---|
| Travel | Jun 15-19, 2025 | Attended the HCIC Annual Meeting in Lake Delavan, Wisconsin. |
| Travel | Apr 26-30, 2025 | Attended the CHI conference in Yokohama, Japan and presented at the HEAL Workshop on our position paper on Rethinking Theory of Mind Benchmarks! |
| Travel | Nov 9-13, 2024 | Attended the CSCW conference in San José, Costa Rica. |
| Travel | Oct 16, 2024 | Attended the HCOMP conference in Pittsburgh, USA. |
| Job | Oct 14, 2024 | I started my new position at the human-computer interaction institute at Carnegie Mellon University today as a Carnegie Bosch Postdoctoral Fellow! I will be working with Hong Shen and Jodi Forlizzi on responsible AI design and Theory of Mind. |
| Ph.D. Milestone | Sep 12, 2024 | I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis on "Mutual Theory of Mind for Human-AI Communication in AI-Mediated Social Interaction"! I am so grateful for the guidance and feedback from my advisor Dr. Ashok Goel and my committee Dr. Munmun De Choudhury, Dr. Betsy Disalvo, Dr. Q. Vera Liao, and Dr. Lauren Wilcox. |
| Travel | May 11, 2024 | Attended the CHI conference in Hawaii to lead our first workshop on Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction. |
| Workshop | Dec 1, 2023 | Excited to share that our workshop proposal on "Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction" has been accepted to CHI'24 workshops. Call for papers can be found on our workshop website. |