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 of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida. He leads the Reality, Autonomy, and Robot Experience (RARE) Lab.
Dr. Han’s research lies broadly in human-robot interaction (HRI), augmented reality (AR), robotics, and AI. He focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating novel robotic systems and interactions, for embodied robots to be more capable and understandable 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, collaborating across universities like CMU and disciplines like Psychology. 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, program committee member of HRI 2023 & 2024, and general co-chair of AI-HRI 2022. He also co-organizes multiple workshops, chairs paper sessions, and edits journal special issues.
Recognized with two university-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) awards, Dr. Han founded Mines Asian Community Alliance and co-organized the Inclusive HRI Workshop. He is also active in outreach to engage under-represented groups.
Valuing inclusive excellence, Dr. Han’s Augmented Reality course was rated 4.72/5.0, confirming his real-world and student-focused approach. He has also mentored over 27 students, including 13 underrepresented and 12 female students.
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 →
Nov 28, 2023
[Workshop] Two workshops I help co-organize were accepted to HRI 2024!
Nov 22, 2023
[HRI ’24] We just had 2 papers accepted to HRI 2024, the top HRI conference. See you in Boulder, CO in March 2024!
Oct 27, 2023
[AI-HRI ’23] We successfully hosted the tenth Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) symposium!
Oct 24, 2023
[ACM Student Magzine] Our article “The Importance of Memory for Language-Capable Robots” was just published at the XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students!
Oct 2, 2023
[HRI ’24] I am on the program committee of HRI 2024 to help our community grow!
Sep 14, 2023
[Special Issue] Our proposal for the special issue on “Human-mediated Robot Autonomy” was just accepted for the International Journal of Social Robotics!
His Research
Human-Robot Interaction
(HRI)
Augmented Reality
(AR)
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
(AI)
Recent Publications
