Cheng Zhang (张铖)| SciFi Lab| Cornell
Cheng Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Information Science and Computer Science (Field Member) at Cornell University, where he directs the Smart Computer Interfaces for Future Interaction (SciFi) Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Ubicomp Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was advised by Dr. Gregory Abowd (CS) and Dr.Omer Inan(ECE).
His research focuses on integrating human-centered AI with advanced sensing technologies to empower everyday wearables in comprehending human behavior in real-world environments, with the goal of better supporting users. This work involves: (1) Creating low-power, minimally intrusive, and privacy-conscious everyday wearables that significantly lower the barrier to collecting high-quality human behavior data in natural settings; (2) Designing AI-powered sensing algorithms and systems that prioritize a human-centered understanding of behavior in everyday contexts; and (3) Advancing high-impact applications in areas like accessibility and health to better support users in their daily lives.
His work has been recognized with awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, Ubicomp 10-year Impact Award as well as several Best Paper Awards and Honorable Mentions. His research is regularly featured by global media outlets including BBC, Forbes, Engadget, Fast Company, CNET, Gizmodo, New Scientist, and Mashable.
Recent Professional Activities:
Steering Committee (Co-)Chair: ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) (24-now)
Steering Committee: ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing(Ubicomp) (24-now)
Technical Program Committee (Co-)Chair: ISWC’23, Ubicomp’24
Associate Chair/ Associate Editor: IMWUT(19-now), CHI(20,23,24,25)
news
| Jan 16, 2025 |  SpellRing was accepted with minor revision to CHI’25. A single ring that can recognize fingerspelling in ASL performed by native signers continously in real-time. |
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| Jan 01, 2025 | SeamFit was directly accepted with minor revision to IMWUT. Your smart shirt can now recognize your exercise. |
| Oct 10, 2024 |  EchoGuide received ISWC’24 Best Paper Honorable Mention award. |
| Sep 26, 2024 | SonicID and ActSonic are both accepted with minor revision to IMWUT. Smart glasses now can understand you activiites in the wild and know who you are with just 2 mic+speakers. |
| Sep 20, 2024 | Ring-A-Pose is accepted with minor revision to IMWUT. The future of smart ring sensing. |
| Sep 12, 2024 | Talked to WIRED on the potential privacy challenge for the future of wearables. |
| Sep 09, 2024 |  PhD Students Ruidong Zhang and Ke Li in my lab were featured by Cornell Chronicle on their Qualcomm Fellowship and highlighed as Cornell Graduate Student Spotlights. |
| Sep 01, 2024 | We received a generous donation for our research on developing AI-powered wearables for Parkinson’s disease management, in collaboration with Dr. Harini Sarva and Dr. Hwai Ooi at Weill Cornell Medicine. |
| Jun 30, 2024 | SeamPose is accepted to UIST’24. |
| Jun 28, 2024 | MunchSonic and EchoGuide are conditionally accepted to ISWC’24. |
| May 17, 2024 | IPSN’24 paper Beyond-Voice, received Best Poster Award for the accompanying poster presentation at IPSN’24. Congrats to the leading PhD student Yin Li (Advised by Rajalakshmi) and co-authors. |
| Apr 27, 2024 | Proud Advisor Moment: Two Cornell IS PhD students: Ruidong Zhang and Ke Li from SciFi Lab won the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship 2024. This will support their research in developing AI-powered wearables to assist individuals with speech impairments, enhancing their communication experience during daily activities. |
| Apr 10, 2024 | GazeTrak(MobiCom’24) and EyeEcho(CHI’24) were reported by media outlets such as New Scientist, Forbes, Cornell Chronicle, Hackster, New Atlas, Tech Xplore, Inceptive Mind |
| Apr 02, 2024 | EchoWrist(CHI’24) was covered by Cornell Chronicle, Hackster, Tech Explore, Tech Times |
| Feb 01, 2024 | Thanks to Kristof and Kai for leading ISWC in the past few years. Honored to (co-)chair the ISWC Steering Committee with Bo Zhou for the coming years. Pls ping me if you have any idea on ISWC  |
| Nov 22, 2023 | PoseSonic IMWUT’23 was covered by Cornell Chronicle, Engadget, Hackster, Tech Explorist. |
| Oct 17, 2023 | HPSpeech received ISWC’23 Best Paper Honorable Mention award (also the highest review score among all submissions). |
| Oct 17, 2023 | Received Ubicomp 10-year Impact Award at Ubicomp/ISWC’23. |
| Aug 15, 2023 | Glad to serve as Program Committee(PC) (Co-)Chair with Jorge Goncalves and Sarah Clinch for Ubicomp’24 in Australia. |
| Apr 15, 2023 | EchoSpeech CHI’23 was covered by Fast Company, Engadget, PopularScience, Cornell Chronicle, NeuroScience News, Hackster, NewsAtlas, TechXplore,Interesting Engineering. |