Sirui Tao's Crib 🐣

9510 Innovation Ln,

La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Hello visitor, Sirui here!👋 (pronounced as “three”)

I am an incoming Ph.D. student in Cognitive Science Department at the UC San Diego. My broad research interest lies in leveraging technological advancements to better augment human capabilities.

Currently, my main research interests are:

HAI and Design
AI and Mixed Reality for User Experience Augmentation

More specifically:

Enabling creative professionals 👨‍🎨 to leverage AI tools 🧠 for their design tasks 🖼️, from both HCI and Graphics perspectives.
Using spatial intelligence and Mixed Reality to augment individuals both in their everyday experience and professional workflow 😎.

Additionally, I am open to explore (listed in order of my passion for each topic):

Studying how to smoothly incorporate embodied (semi-)autonomous systems 🤖 into people’s everyday lives.
Iteratively improving AI solutions post-deployments in real world 🌍 to maximize benefits while minimizing harm.
Scaling affordable and accessible learning resources 📚 for all, with perosnalized and engaging interactions enabled by learner-centric generative AI ✨.
Creating more inclusive 🤝 and effective support for community-centered work 🏘️, enabled by the emergence of AI advancements.

During my Ph.D., I will continue my research in HCI under the guidance of Prof. Steven Dow. Throughout my Master’s program, I collaborated with Prof. Steven Dow on HCI and Prof. Tzu-Mao Li on Graphics. In my undergraduate studies, I had the great fortune to work with Prof. Judith E. Fan on Intuitive Physics.

If you want to chat, free to contact me via any of the social links at the bottom of the page.

news

Apr 04, 2025	HotSpot got selected as a CVPR 25 Highlight!
Feb 26, 2025	HotSpot got into CVPR 25!
Jan 16, 2025	DesignWeaver got into CHI 25! Will go to Japan!

selected publications

CVPR

HotSpot: Signed Distance Function Optimization with an Asymptotically Sufficient Condition

Zimo Wang, Cheng Wang, Taiki Yoshino, Sirui Tao, Ziyang Fu, and Tzu-Mao Li

In Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Highlight), 2025

Bib PDF Code Website

@inproceedings{wang2025hotspot,
  title = {HotSpot: Signed Distance Function Optimization with an Asymptotically Sufficient Condition},
  author = {Wang, Zimo and Wang, Cheng and Yoshino, Taiki and Tao, Sirui and Fu, Ziyang and Li, Tzu-Mao},
  booktitle = {Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Highlight)},
  year = {2025},
}

CHI

DesignWeaver: Dimensional Scaffolding for Text-to-Image Product Design

Sirui Tao, Ivan Liang, Cindy Peng, Zhiqing Wang, Srishti Palani, and Steven Dow

In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2025

Bib PDF Video Code Website

@inproceedings{tao2024designweaver,
  title = {DesignWeaver: Dimensional Scaffolding for Text-to-Image Product Design},
  author = {Tao, Sirui and Liang, Ivan and Peng, Cindy and Wang, Zhiqing and Palani, Srishti and Dow, Steven},
  booktitle = {Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  year = {2025},
}

NeurIPS

Physion: Evaluating Physical Prediction from Vision in Humans and Machines

Daniel Bear, Elias Wang, Damian Mrowca, Felix Binder, Hsiao-Yu Tung, Pramod RT, Cameron Holdaway, Sirui Tao, Kevin Smith, Fan-Yun Sun, Fei-Fei Li, Nancy Kanwisher, Josh Tenenbaum, Dan Yamins, and Judith Fan

In Proceedings of the Neural Information Processing Systems Track on Datasets and Benchmarks, 2021

Bib PDF Video Code Website

@inproceedings{NEURIPS DATASETS AND BENCHMARKS2021_d09bf415,
  author = {Bear, Daniel and Wang, Elias and Mrowca, Damian and Binder, Felix and Tung, Hsiao-Yu and RT, Pramod and Holdaway, Cameron and Tao, Sirui and Smith, Kevin and Sun, Fan-Yun and Li, Fei-Fei and Kanwisher, Nancy and Tenenbaum, Josh and Yamins, Dan and Fan, Judith},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Neural Information Processing Systems Track on Datasets and Benchmarks},
  editor = {Vanschoren, J. and Yeung, S.},
  url = {https://datasets-benchmarks-proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/hash/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3-Abstract-round1.html},
  title = {Physion: Evaluating Physical Prediction from Vision in Humans and Machines},
  volume = {1},
  year = {2021},
}