About Me
Howdy! I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I lead the Information Technology Ethics and Accessibility (iTEA) Lab where we explore and address emerging ethics and accessibility challenges of information technologies, particularly software and AI systems.
I received my PhD degree from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During my PhD, I was fortunately advised by Dr. Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo and Dr. Rachel F. Adler. I also worked closely with Dr. Ted Underwood at UIUC, Dr. Xin Tong at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), and Dr. Jinjun Xiong at the University at Buffalo.
I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Technology from Hongyi Honor College at Wuhan University, China. During my undergrad years, I was a visiting researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, advised by Dr. Justin Hsu, Fudan University, advised by Dr. Xianghua (Sharon) Ding, Westlake University, advised by Dr. Yue Zhang, and the University of Maryland-College Park, advised by Dr. Furong Huang. I was also a research intern at Tencent, Bytedance, and Zall Research Institute of Smart Commerce.
My research interests are broadly in Human-centered AI, AI Ethics, Computer Accessibility, and Human-Computer Interaction. I aspire to promote software and AI experience of vulnerable populations through a situated understanding as well as design, education, and governance interventions.
Recent News
[Old News]
- [08/2025] Two papers accepted to HICSS! See you in Hawaii!
- [07/2025] One paper accepted to Social Simulation with LLMs @ COLM. See you in Montreal, Canada!
- [07/2025] One workshop proposal accepted to ASSETS! The website is up. Submit your best papers!
- [07/2025] One poster accepted to ASIS&T! See you in Washington, D.C.!
- [06/2025] One presentation accepted to INFORMS! See you in Atlanta!
- [06/2025] One/Second paper accepted to CSCW! See you in Bergen, Norway!
- [06/2025] Two presentations accepted to Forging Ahead Symposium @ ASIS&T. See you in Washington D.C.!
- [05/2025] One paper accepted to ASIS&T! See you in Washington, D.C.!
- [05/2025] I will present our forthcoming book chapter on Coproducing Community and Research Strategies in EdTech Research at 2025 GKC Convergence Conference. See you in Philadelphia!
- [05/2025] I received a Yingbo Zhou Memorial Award from the UIUC iSchool! "This award is presented to an iSchool student who demonstrates excellence and high standards in his or her work, has a passion for life, inspires others, and makes a long-lasting, positive impact on the iSchool community."
Award-Winning Papers
1. [iConference ’25 Poster Adjunct Proceeding] Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo. 2025.
A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Software Accessibility Laws, Policies, and Guidelines.
In 20th iConference. 🏆 Finalist for Best Research Poster Award (5/38, 13%)
2. [ASIS&T ’24 Proceeding] Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, Chunyu Liu, Jingwen Shan, Devorah Kletenik, and Rachel F. Adler. 2024.
Accessible Adventures: Teaching Accessibility to High School Students Through Games.
In 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T).
🏆 Honorable Mention Best Long Paper Award (2nd of all 46 papers, 4.3%)
3. [HICSS ’23 Proceeding]
Mengyi Wei and Zhixuan Zhou. 2023.
AI Ethics Issues in Real World: Evidence from AI Incident Database.
In 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).
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🏆 Best Paper Award (11/678, 1.6%)
4. [CSCW ’23 Proceeding]
Xinru Tang, Xianghua Ding, and Zhixuan Zhou. 2023.
Towards Equitable Online Participation: A Case of Older Adult Content Creators' Role Transition on Short-form Video Sharing Platforms.
In 26th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW).
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🏆 Recognition for Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion (15/263, 5.7%)