Hello and welcome! I’m Xin, a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan School of Information advised by Prof. Lionel Robert.
My research focuses on robots deployed in public security and law enforcement, exploring how people perceive, respond to, and interact with security robots, and how these systems can be designed and deployed in service of the public good.
My work has been published or accepted in premier conferences and journals, such as Science Robotics, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (HFES). Prior to my Ph.D., I earned an M.S. in Information Science from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Psychology from Zhejiang University.
🔥 News
- Aug 20, 2026: My paper “Mitigating Human–Security Robot Conflict through Fairness” has been accepted by the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction!
- Aug 1, 2026: My paper “Trusting Security Robotic Authority: The Impact of Interactional and Distributive Fairness” was accepted and published online in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. I will attend ASPIRE 2026, the HFES 70th International Annual Meeting, in Reno, Nevada this October.
- Dec 22, 2025: My paper “The Roles of Fairness and Effectiveness in Promoting Legitimacy and Cooperation with Security Robotic Authority” has been accepted as a full paper at HRI 2026 (23% acceptance rate)! 🎉🎉
📝 Selected Publications
Embodied or Virtually Represented: Navigating the Embodiment Debate in Human-Robot Interaction
Science Robotics
🎖 Honors and Awards
- 03/2025: Best Late Breaking Report Award, Honorable Mention, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
- 08/2024: Top 25% Paper, Winner, Americas Conference on Information Systems.
- 08/2024: Best Paper Award, Nominated, Americas Conference on Information Systems.
- 06/2024: Ph.D. Pre-candidacy Paper Passed with Distinction, University of Michigan.
- 2023, 2024, 2025: School of Information Travel Grant, 1,500.
- 2023, 2024, 2025: Rackham Conference Travel Grant, 900 and 1,100.
- 02/2024: Rackham Pre-candidate Research Grant, 1,500, University of Michigan.
- 09/2022: School of Information Master Student Research Grant, 1,500.
📖 Education
- 2023 - Present, Ph.D. in Information, University of Michigan.
- 2021 - 2023, M.S. in Information Science, Data Science and Big Data Analytics, University of Michigan.
- 2017 - 2021, B.S. in Psychology, Zhejiang University.