Hello, welcome to my homepage!

Looking for a full-time job in 2025.

About Me

Hi there, my name is Donghan Hu, a postdoc in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept and the Center for Urban Science + Progress at New York University. I am working with Professor Danny Yuxing Huang at mLab. I received my PhD and Master’s degree in Computer Science in 2019 at Virginia Tech, advised by Dr. Sang Won lee. Before this, I received my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2017 at Northeastern University in Shenyang, China.

My research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Privacy & Security. I am currently working on projects that explore how personal data and network traffic (e.g., digital interactions across cross-platform devices) can be used to support knowledge workers—enhancing productivity, promoting self-awareness in mental and physical health, and enabling more personalized user experiences. A key aspect of my work involves empowering individuals through meaningful use of their own data. I use techniques such as screenshot-based analysis, self-reflection models, and metadata enriched with both visual and textual cues. I am also applying machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to adapt and improve user experiences based on individual needs.

You can learn more about my work through the projects and publications sections. For contact information, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Publications

Unpacking Task Management Tools, Values, and Worker Dynamics (2024 CHIWORK Paper)

Investigating Characteristics of Media Recommendation Solicitation in r/ifyoulikeblank (2024 CSCW Paper)

Exploring the effectiveness of time-lapse screen recording for self-reflection in work context (2023 CHI Paper)

Context-aware sit-stand desk for promoting healthy and productive behaviors (2023 UIST Poster)

Scrapbook: Screenshot-Based Bookmarks for Effective Digital Resource Curation across Applications.(2022 UIST Paper)

Scrapbook: Screenshot-based Bookmark for Effective Curation of Digital Resources.(2020 UIST Poster)

The Effects of Incorrect Occlusion Cues on the Understanding of Barehanded Referencing in Collaborative Augmented Reality.(Frontiers in Virtual Reality)

ScreenTrack: Using a Visual History of a Computer Screen to Retrieve Documents and Web Pages.(2020 CHI Paper)

ScreenTrack: Using Visual History for Self-tracking Computer Activities and Retrieving Working Context. (2019 UIST Poster)

[Using Screenshots as a Medium to Support Knowledge Workers’ Productivity] (https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/items/357d2a31-f760-4471-9d6b-d3c2c636c6a2) (Ph.D. Thesis)

ScreenTrack: Using Visual History for Self-tracking Computer Activities and Retrieving Working Context. (Master Thesis)

Research Projects

(1): ScreenTrack

Computers are used for various purposes, so frequent context-switching is inevitable. Retrieving the documents, files, and web pages used for a task can be challenging. While many applications provide a history of recent documents for users to resume work, this is insufficient to retrieve all the digital resources relevant to a given primary document. The currently available do not consider the complex dependencies among resources across applications. To address this problem, we tested the idea of using a visual history of a computer screen to retrieve digital resources within a few days of their use through the development of Scrapbook. Scrapbook is software that captures screenshots of a computer at regular intervals. It then generates a time-lapse video from the captured screenshots. After recognizing the resource by its appearance, it lets users retrieve a recently opened document or web page from a screenshot. Below is the video about ScreenTrack.

(2): AR Collaboration with Bare Hands

In many collaborative tasks, the need for joint attention arises when one of the users wants to guide others to a specific location or target in space. If the collaborators are co-located, and the target position is in close range, it is almost instinctual for users to refer to the target location by pointing with their bare hands. While such pointing gestures can be efficient and effective in real life, performance will be impacted if the target is in augmented reality (AR), where depth cues like occlusion may be missing if the pointer’s hand is not tracked and modeled in 3D. We present a study utilizing head-worn AR displays to examine the effects of incorrect occlusion cues on spatial target identification in a collaborative barehanded referencing task. Our work also identified mixed results on the impact of spatial relationships between users.

(3): Scrapbook

Modern users typically open multiple software programs, websites, and documents for daily tasks. Retrieving previously used digital resources, such as web pages and documents, for knowledge workers is inevitable but can be time-consuming. People may fail to remember where the resource is. In addition, sometimes, users need to retrieve digital resources across multiple applications to resume a computing task. However, the current methods - bookmarks and file systems - for curating such resources are limited in their capacity and dispersed over multiple applications. To address the above problems, we test the idea of curating digital resources by developing Scrapbook, a software that allows users to curate digital resources with screenshots. Scrapbook enables users to take a screenshot of their computer screen and stores metadata of captured applications in the screenshot. Later, users can utilize multimodal (visual and textual) information to retrieve the information they want to recall or restore the working context of a certain task.

Previous Experience

GTA & GRA Virginia Tech. (2019 Aug - 2024 Aug)
Graduate assistant for Network Architecture Programming (CS 4254), Fundamentals of Information Security (CS 5560), Intro to Programming in Python (CS1064), Intro GUI Programming/Graphics (CS3744), and Software Design & Data Structures (CS2114)
Developed and tested applications to help modern knowledge workers enhance working productivity. Conducted in-lab & field studies to validate research contribution.

Internship: Social Smart IT Company. (2016 June - Aug)
Configured and deployed company servers for the purpose of testing, running, and launching multiple services, as well as maintaining and troubleshooting server-related issues. Implemented data structures and solutions with higher-quality performance on the back end. Guided a team in designing and developing website frameworks tailored to meet company requirements. Scripted and programmed website user interfaces and customized functionalities for a global customer base. New-launched website layout and content in Chinese and English languages contributed to a 13.6 % increase in daily visitors.

SyncSo New York (2024 May - 2025 March)
Designed and prototyped user-centric interfaces and interactive features for a social iOS app using Figma, focusing on Gen Z group dynamics and creating tailored social scenarios that enhanced connection and engagement. Developed robust UI components and interaction logic using React Native and Swift, writing efficient, reusable, and well-documented code that improved performance and maintained cross-platform consistency. Collaborated closely with cross-functional teams, including product managers and designers, to address UX challenges and implement new features; contributed to sprint planning, bug tracking, and feature testing to ensure timely delivery and high-quality releases.

Personal Interests

Badminton, snowboarding, swimming, video games, and pixel art.
By the way, say hi to my cats (Matrix, Mocha, and Vector)!

Support or Contact

E-mail: hudh0827@vt.edu