Erzhen Hu

I am a final-year PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Virginia, advised by Prof. Seongkook Heo. Before that, I obtained M.S. in Statistics from University of Virginia, and B.A. in Sociology from Shanghai University.

My work has been recognized and supported by a Google PhD Fellowship, and I've interned at Microsoft Research, Google, and Autodesk Research.

Updates

Oct 2025: I will be attending the EECS Rising Stars 2025 workshop hosted by MIT and BU.
Sep 2025: Passed thesis proposal!
Aug 2025: Two first-author papers, DialogLab, and Thing2Reality has been accepted by UIST 2025.
Feb 2025: One first-author paper accepted by CSCW 2025.
Oct 2024: Demoed Thing2Reality at UIST 2024.
Jun 2024: I have passed the Qualifying Exam and have become a Ph.D. candidate!
Mar 2023: Presented OpenMic and ThingShare on Apr 25th (Tue). Check out the CHI 2023 program!
Jan 2023: Two first-author papers accepted at CHI 2023.
Nov 2022: Serving as CHI 2023 Late-Breaking Work (LBW) Program Committee member.
Oct 2022: Reviewed CHI 2023 papers (1*special recognition) and SVed at UIST 2022.
May 2022: Presented FluidMeet paper at CHI 2022 in New Orleans.
Mar 2022: Presented FluidMeet at the Virtual Social Presence Seminar. You can watch the recorded 40-min talk here.

Publications

DialogLab: Authoring, Simulating, and Testing Dynamic Human-AI Group Conversations

Erzhen Hu, Yanhe Chen, Mingyi Li, Vrushank Phadnis, Pingmei Xu, Xun Qian, Alex Olwal, David Kim, Seongkook Heo, Ruofei Du

UIST 2025

DialogLab provides a unified interface to configure conversational scenes, define agent personas, manage group structures, specify turn-taking rules, and orchestrate transitions between scripted narratives and improvisation.

[DOI] [pdf] [30s Preview] [Video Figure] [Github]

Thing2Reality: Enabling Spontaneous Creation of 3D Objects from 2D Content using Generative AI in XR Meetings

Erzhen Hu, Mingyi Li, Jungtaek Hong, Xun Qian, Alex Olwal, David Kim, Seongkook Heo, Ruofei Du

UIST 2025

Leverage multi-view diffusion models and 3D Gaussian Splatting to enhance XR communication and collaboration around objects.

[DOI] [pdf] [30s Preview] [Video Figure] [Project Page]

ThingMoji: User-Captured Cut-Outs For In-Stream Visual Communication

CSCW 2025

ThingMoji is a type of user-captured cut-outs to enhance user expression and foster more effective communication between streamers and their audience in the comment section

[Preprint]

ThingShare: Ad-Hoc Digital Copies of Physical Objects for Sharing Things in Video Meetings

Erzhen Hu, Jens Emil Grønbæk, Wen Ying, Ruofei Du, Seongkook Heo

CHI 2023

Leverage instance segmentation approaches to enrich communication centered around objects and elevate real-time collaboration in remote settings.

[Paper] [30s Preview] [Video Figure] [Talk] [Project Page]

OpenMic: Utilizing Proxemic Metaphors for Conversational Floor Transitions in Multiparty Video Meetings

Erzhen Hu, Jens Emil Grønbæk, Austin Houck, Seongkook Heo

CHI 2023

Employ proxemic metaphors within the virtual conversational space to enhance turn-taking dynamics in groups of varying sizes (small to medium-sized groups) with Virtual Floor and Mallable Mirrors.

[Paper] [30s Preview] [Video Figure] [Talk] [Project Page]

FluidMeet: Enabling Frictionless Transitions Between In-Group, Between-Group, and Private Conversations During Virtual Breakout Meetings

Erzhen Hu, Md Aashikur Rahman Azim, Seongkook Heo

CHI 2022

Enhance awareness with in-group and between-group dimensions and flexible boundaries for breakout group conversations.

[Paper] [30s Preview] [Video Figure] [Talk] [Seminar Talk]

Service

Program Committee Member: CHI 2023-2024 LBW, CSCW 2024 Demo and Poster

Reviewer for CHI 2023(*)-2025(*4), CSCW 2022 & 2024 (*), UIST 2023-2024(*), C&C 2024 (*), MobileHCI 2022(*), Auto UI 2022, NordiCHI 2022(*)

(*) Special Recognitions for Outstanding Reviews

Student Volunteer for ACM CSCW 2022, ACM UIST 2022, ACM IUI 2022, IEEE VR 2022, ACM ISS 2021

Design and source code from Link