About Me
I'm a PhD candidate in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (my "official" webpage). I'm fortunately advised by Dr. Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo and Dr. Rachel F. Adler. I also work 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'm affiliated with the Governance Lab on Sociotechnical Systems (GLOSS), the Information Experience and Accessibility Lab, and AI & Art for Knowledge & Creativity (ARK) Lab.
I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Technology from Hongyi Honor College at Wuhan University, China. Previously, 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 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. More recently, my research has focused on generative AI ethics and accessibility design and education.
Recent News
[Old News]
- [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."
- [05/2025] Two papers accepted to TPRC! See you in Washington, D.C.!
- [04/2025] I was nominated to become a member of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library and information science!
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%)