Welcome to Owen’s website!

I am Owen Xingjian Zhang, a senior undergrad student studying CS & Math in University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Currently, I am interested in Social Computing and Human Computer Interaction(HCI), working under the supervision of Prof. Karrie Karahalios at Social Space Lab, Prof. Brian Bailey at Orchid Lab, and Prof. Andrés Monroy-Hernández at Princeton HCI. Before coming to US, I studied in The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univeristy and I was born in Guiyang, China.

Research Interest

I am primarily curious about how social technologies form people’s persona and shape their behaviors, how they can enhance the representation of minorities, and how they can improve teamwork efficiency. Specifically, I am interested in

1. Studying people’s behavior as they experience different online social signals
2. Implementing tools and proposing suggestions to enhance the representation of minorities
3. Investigating ways to improve work efficiency and transform the future of work.

Currently, I am searching for HCI PhD positions 2023 Fall.

About my name

Most of people call me Owen, but I would like to introduce my Chinese name: 行健(Xingjian). It means the strong and robust movement as a requirement for gentlemen, which comes from a quote in I Ching, a 3000-year-old ancient Chinese divination. Example: The full sentence: