Sirui Tao's Crib 🐣

9510 Innovation Ln,

La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Hello visitor, Sirui (pronounced as “three”) here!👋 I am a HCI graduate student researcher in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California San Diego. My broad research interest lies in leveraging technological advancements to better augment human capabilities in all areas.

Currently, my four main research interests are (listed in order of my passion for each topic):

HAI and Design
AI and Mixed Reality for User Experience Augmentation
Embodied (semi-)Autonomous Systems in the Wild
Human-in-the-loop AI Solutions in Real World

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 😎.
Studying how to smoothly incorporate embodied (semi-)autonomous systems 🤖 into people’s everyday lives.
Iteratively improving the above mentioned AI solutions post-deployment in real world 🌍 to maximize benefits while minimizing harm.

Additionally, I am open to explore:

Scaling affordable and accessible learning resources for all with customized 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.

Currently, I am working with Prof. Steven Dow on HCI and Prof. Tzu-Mao Li on Graphics. During my undergraduate studies, I had the great fortune to work with Prof. Judith E. Fan on Intuitive Physics.

news

Feb 26, 2025	HotSpot got into CVPR 25!
Jan 16, 2025	DesignWeaver got into CHI 25! Will go to Japan!

selected publications

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

PDF Video Code
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, 2025

PDF Code Website

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},
}