I’m a Ph.D. candidate from the School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne. I’m supervised by A/Prof.Wafa Johal, A/Prof.Jorge Goncalves, and Dr.Jarrod Knibbe from the Human-Computer Interaction Group and Human-Robot Interaction Lab. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. After that, I worked as a Research Engineer for two years at the Institute for AI Industry Research at Tsinghua University. My current research focuses on Human-Robot Collaboration, following my previous work on Accessibility Robots and Automated Vehicles.

Publications

For more details, please visit my Google Scholar profile.

2025

Can you pass that tool?: Implications of Indirect Speech in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration.
Yan Zhang, Tharaka Sachintha Ratnayake, Cherie Sew, Jarrod Knibbe, Jorge Goncalves, and Wafa Johal.
In the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Accepted)

ROSAnnotator: A Web Application for ROSBag Data Analysis in Human-Robot Interaction.
Yan Zhang, Haoqi Li, Ramtin Tabatabaei, and Wafa Johal.
In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Accepted, Short Contribution)

Implicit Communication of Contextual Information in Human-Robot Collaboration.
Yan Zhang.
In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Accepted, Doctoral Consortium)

OfficeMate: Pilot Evaluation of an Office Assistant Robot.
Jiahe Pan, Sarah Schombs, Yan Zhang, Ramtin Tabatabaei, Muhammad Bila, and Wafa Johal.
In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Accepted, Late-breaking Report)

2024

FaceVis: Exploring a Robot’s Face for Affective Visualisation Design.
Sarah Schombs, Jiahe Pan, Yan Zhang, Jorge Goncalves, and Wafa Johal.
In Extended abstracts of the 2024 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems

More Than Routing: Joint GPS and Route Modeling for Refine Trajectory Representation Learning.
Zhipeng Ma, Zheyan Tu, Xinhai Chen, Yan Zhang, Deguo Xia, Guyue Zhou, Yilun Chen, Yu Zheng, Jiangtao Gong.
In Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference (WWW) 2024

Non-driving-related tasks and drivers’ takeover time: A meta-analysis^.
Wenbo Hu, Tingru Zhang, Yan Zhang, Alan Hoi Shou Chan.
In Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour

Evaluation of Pedestrian Safety in a High-Fidelity Simulation Environment Framework.
Lin Ma*, Longrui Chen*, Yan Zhang*, Mengdi Chu, Wenjie Jiang, Jiahao Shen, Chuxuan Li, Yifeng Shi, Nairui Luo, Jirui Yuan, Guyue Zhou, Jiangtao Gong.
In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)

^: This publication was my solo-authored thesis.

2023

” I am the follower, also the boss”: Exploring Different Levels of Autonomy and Machine Forms of Guiding Robots for the Visually Impaired.
Yan Zhang, Ziang Li, Haole Guo, Luyao Wang, Qihe Chen, Wenjie Jiang, Mingming Fan, Guyue Zhou, and Jiangtao Gong.
In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Can Quadruped Guide Robots be Used as Guide Dogs?.
Luyao Wang*, Qihe Chen*, Yan Zhang, Ziang Li, Tingmin Yan, Fan Wang, Guyue Zhou, and Jiangtao Gong.
In 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

Annotating Covert Hazardous Driving Scenarios Online: Utilizing Drivers’ Electroencephalography (EEG) Signals.
Chen Zheng, Muxiao Zi, Wenjie Jiang, Mengdi Chu, Yan Zhang, Jirui Yuan, Guyue Zhou, and Jiangtao Gong.
In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Workshop Organisation

2025, 3rd Workshop on Explainability in Human-Robot Collaboration: Real-World Concerns, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Master Supervision

• 2024, Integrating Large Language Models with Physical Affordances for Enhanced Manipulation Tasks in Tiago Robot
• 2024, ROSAnnotator: A Web Application for ROSBag Data Analysis in Human-Robot Interaction

Services

• Reviewing: CHI2025, HRI2025, CHI2024, OzCHI2024, ITSC2024
• Conference Organisation: AutoUI2025 Web & Design Chair
• Student Volunteer: UbiComp2024 (Day Captain), CHI2024
• University Services
  • 2017-2021 Student Representative
  • 2018 - 2019 Vice-President of CityU Chinese Orchestra

Awards

• 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Robot Competition Winner
• 2019 – 2021 CityU Scholarship
• 2018 - 2021 Dean’s List
• 2017 – 2021 CityU Mainland Student Full Scholarship
• 2020 Outbound Exchange Awards