I’m a second-year 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 in 2021. 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 leveraging implicit communication to enhance grounding between humans and robots during physical collaboration. By integrating multi-agentic LLMs, I aim to enable collaborative robots to interpret and generate context-enriched, human-like communication. I strive to make actionable information exchange between humans and robots intuitive, contributing to more natural, effective, and inclusive interactions for daily activities in the future.

Beyond human-robot collaboration, I am also interested in designing user-centric guiding robots for visually impaired individuals.

My previous research has also explored autonomous driving.

Outside of research, I am a knitter and a cat lover.

Please reach out to me via email if you’d like to chat! ☕

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

From Conversation to Orchestration: HCI Challenges and Opportunities in Interactive Multi-Agentic Systems.
Sarah Schoembs*, Yan Zhang*, Jorge Goncalves, and Wafa Johal.
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI)

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 (HRI)

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

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

Exploring Deictic Interface Referencing Outside-Vehicle Landmarks: Study of In-cabin Multimodal Interaction.
Yueteng Yu, Yan Zhang, Wafa Johal, Gary Burnett.
In Adjunct Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutoUI)

AI system facilitates people with blindness and low vision in interpreting and experiencing unfamiliar environments.
Haozhe Lin, Jiangtao Gong, Yu Wang, Jinsong Zhang, Bing Bai, Yan Zhang, Luyao Wang, Chenyu Wei, Yancheng Cao, Kun Li, Ruqi Huang, and Guyue Zhou.
In npj Artificial Intelligence

2024

FaceVis: Exploring a Robot’s Face for Affective Visualisation Design.
Sarah Schoembs, Jiahe Pan, Yan Zhang, Jorge Goncalves, and Wafa Johal.
In the 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

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)

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)

2021

Non-Driving-Related Tasks Influencing Drivers’ Takeover Time: A Meta-Analysis.
Yan Zhang
Undergraduate thesis, published in 2024 Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour

*: Equal Contribution

Workshop Organisation

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

Master Supervision

• 2025, Haoqi Li, A Memory-Centric Multi-Agentic Cognitive Architecture for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction
• 2024, Shaoxuan Yan, Integrating Large Language Models (LLM) with Physical Affordances for Enhanced Manipulation Tasks in Tiago Robot
• 2024, Haoqi Li, Web Application for ROSBag Data Analysis in Human-Robot Interaction

Teaching

Graduate Researcher Academic Associate (GRAA), Education-focused

• 2025 INFO10003 Fundamentals of Interaction Design

Services

• Reviewer: RA-L, RO-MAN’25, IROS’25, UIST’25, CHI’23-25, HRI’25, OzCHI’24, ITSC’24
• Conference Organisor: HRI2026 Student Volunteer Chair, HRI2026 Pioneer Program Chair, AutoUI2025 Web & Design Chair
• Student Volunteer: HRI2025, UbiComp2024 (Day Captain), CHI2024
• University Services
  • 2017-2021 Student Representative
  • 2018 - 2019 Vice-President of CityU Chinese Orchestra

Scholarship/Awards

• 2025 Diane Lemaire Scholarship
• 2025 Google Conference Scholarship (APAC)
• 2025 The University of Melbourne Engineering and IT Conference Travel Grant
• 2025 Selected Pioneer of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
• 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Robot Competition Winner
• 2023 Melbourne Research Scholarship
• 2020 CityU Outbound Exchange Awards
• 2019 – 2021 CityU Annual Scholarship
• 2018 - 2021 Dean’s List
• 2017 – 2021 CityU Mainland Student Full Scholarship