Sirui Tao's Crib 🐣

9510 Innovation Ln,

La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

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

I’m a first-year Ph.D. student in the Cognitive Science Department at UC San Diego, advised by Prof. Steven P. Dow (ProtoLab). I build tools that augment human capabilities—especially how people think, design, and make—using human-centered AI and mixed reality. ⚡

Research Focus (2025)

Human–AI for Design 🧠🎨 — Interfaces that keep generative alternatives diverse, legible, and verifiable through structured variation and aligned comparison.
AI & Mixed Reality for Augmentation 🥽📐 — In-situ support for everyday tasks with accessibility focus and spatial intelligence beyond demo rooms.
Method 🧪 — Build → measure: controlled variation, mixed-methods evaluation, and metrics for diversity, verification cost, and appropriate reliance.

Domains I Love Applying This To

Urban design, architecture, interior & product design, fashion, robotics, accessibility, and education tech—places where ideas move from vibes → variables → value. ✨

Additionally Exploring

Embodied systems 🤖 integration into everyday life
Post-deployment iteration 🌍 to maximize benefit and minimize harm
Accessible learning at scale 📚 with learner-centric generative AI
Community-centered tools 🤝 for real-world collaboration

Research Opportunities @ ProtoLab 🧪

Seeking curious, motivated, and kind undergraduate & master’s students to work with! Whether you’re just starting your academic journey or nearing graduation, I’m happy to work with and mentor students from all years and departments.

I broadly categorize potential interns into two bins—though you’re welcome to explore both!

Quant 🧩 (coding/ML/AR-VR/metrics) — Building interfaces (React/TS), XR interactions (Unity/C#), graphics/vision, LLM/VLM pipelines, and data analysis (Python/pandas/matplotlib), plus designing metrics.
Quali ✍️ (UI/UX/interviews/analysis) — Designing user flows and interfaces (Figma), running user studies and interviews, analyzing qualitative data, and creating clear visualizations and reports.

Ready to apply? Email me (s1tao@ucsd.edu) with subject “UCSD Research – Quant / Quali / Both” and include: a 1-page CV/resumé or portfolio link 🔗, plus a 3–5 sentence TL;DR on why you’re a fit (interests, skills, what you want to learn) 📨

I’m happy to chat once I have that quick snapshot!

Advisor Lineage & Past Collaborations

Ph.D.: Steven P. Dow (HCI)
Master’s: Steven P. Dow (HCI) & Tzu-Mao Li (Graphics)
Undergrad: Judith E. Fan (Cognition & Intuitive Physics)

If you’re excited about this space, let’s chat. 🚀

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 Video 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},
}