I am Runze Cai, a 2nd year Ph.D. Student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Synteraction Lab (formerly NUS-HCI Lab), and advised by Prof. David Hsu and Prof. Shengdong Zhao.
My research interests focus on Wearable Devices, Augmented Reality (AR), and Human-AI Collaboration within a Multimodal & Multitask Context. My recent work centers around the following question:
How can we utilize AR Smart Glasses 🥽, alongside AI, to help users process, manipulate, and document information in daily activities with minimal effort and distraction?
I hope that through my efforts, technology can assist us in a seamless and friendly way, making our daily lives more convenient rather than invading them.
Education
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, National University of Singapore. 2023 - Present
- Master of Computing, National University of Singapore. 2021 - 2023
- Bachelor in Computer Science and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2017 - 2021
Publication (Full Paper)
- PANDALens: Towards AI-Assisted In-Context Writing on OHMD During Travels
- Runze Cai, Nuwan Janaka, Yang Chen, Lucia Wang, Shengdong Zhao, Can Liu. 2024. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24).
- PilotAR: Streamlining Pilot Studies with OHMDs from Concept to Insight
- Nuwan Janaka, Runze Cai, Ashwin Ram, Lin Zhu, Shengdong Zhao, and Kai Qi Yong. 2024. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. (IMWUT ’24, Sept).
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ParaGlassMenu: Towards Social-Friendly Subtle Interactions in Conversations
- Runze Cai, Nuwan Nanayakkarawasam Peru Kandage Janaka, Shengdong Zhao, and Minghui Sun. 2023. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23).
News
- 2024/06: Passed my Qualifying Exam recently, now a Ph.D. Candidate! I also onboard as CHI2025 Social Media Co-Chair. Excited for the journey ahead!
- 2024/05: Aloha! Thrilled to fly to Hawaii to present the PANDALens Paper and its demo at CHI24. Also great to have the opportunity to host the ‘Attention: multitasking and Interruptions‘ session as a chair 🙂
- 2024/01: Thrilled to have my first-author paper, PANDALens: Towards AI-Assisted In-Context Writing on OHMD During Travels, conditionally accepted at CHI 2024 – a wonderful birthday gift 🎉!
- 2023/04: Memorable first CHI travel and presentation for the ParaGlassMenu paper.
- 2023/01: My first research paper as first author, ParaGlassMenu: Towards Social-Friendly Subtle Interactions in Conversations, was conditionally accepted at CHI 2023.
Academic Services
- Organizing Committee
- CHI 2025 Social Media Co-Chair
- Reviewer
- CHI (2023-2024), UIST (2024), DIS (2024), MobileHCI (2024)
- Session Chair
- CHI 2024 – “Attention: multitasking and Interruptions”.