Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · Augmented Reality (AR) · Robotics · AI
Developing capable robotic systems & understandable robot interactions
*Shown is a mobile manipulation testbed to evaluate my research
Zhao Han is an Assistant Professor in the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing at the University of South Florida (USF).
He leads the Reality, Autonomy, and Robot Experience (RARE) Lab. Dr. Han also co-directs the USF Human-Centered AI and Robotics Consortium (HARC) and is affiliated with the Center for Innovation, Technology, and Aging (CITA) at USF.
Dr. Han’s research lies broadly in human-robot interaction (HRI), AI, augmented reality (AR), and robotics. He focuses on designing and developing novel, AI-powered robotic systems and interactions, for them to be more capable and preferred while interacting, collaborating, and teaming up with humans.
To advance this work, Dr. Han takes an interdisciplinary and human-centered approach, developing broad expertise in robot explanations for trust, projector-based and head-worn AR for communication, mobile manipulation for real-world evaluation, cognitive status-informed references, robot failures for robustness, and more.
Dr. Han has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers. He received the best long-paper award at INLG 2022, the best late-breaking report third prize at HRI 2022, and a best late-breaking report nominee at HRI 2023. He also led teams to win multiple international and national robot competitions.
He believes professional service benefits academic life by fostering friendship, collaboration, leadership, and communities, serving as publications co-chair of HRI 2024 and 2026, program committee member of HRI 2023–2025, and general co-chair of AI-HRI 2022. He also co-organizes multiple workshops, chairs paper sessions, and edits journal special issues.
For mentorship, Dr. Han received the university-wide Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research Award (Faculty) at USF in 2024. For teaching, Dr. Han’s Augmented Reality course was rated 4.72/5.0, confirming his real-world and student-focused approach. He and his lab are also active in outreach to promote equal access and opportunities.
Prior to USF, Dr. Han was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Colorado School of Mines, mentored by Dr. Tom Williams, and received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMass Lowell, advised by AAAI Fellow Dr. Holly Yanco. He holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba in Canada.
News
from Zhao Han
Read recent news on the RARE Lab website →
Sep 14, 2024
[HRI ’25] I will serve on the program committee of HRI 2025 to help the community grow!
Jun 13, 2024
I will serve as an associate editor (AE) for RO-MAN 2024!
May 1, 2024
I received the university-wide Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research Award – Faculty today!
Mar 16, 2024
I gave a keynote talk at the VAM-HRI workshop at HRI ’24!
Feb 5, 2024
We had two papers [1, 2] accepted to the VAM-HRI 2024 workshop!
Dec 1, 2023
We had a short contribution paper accepted to HRI 2024!
His Research
Human-Robot Interaction
(HRI)
Augmented Reality
(AR)
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
(AI)
Recent Publications
