Helena Qing Huang
Hi/你好! I’m Helena (she/her), an Undergraduate & Human-Computer Interaction Researcher at UW–Madison, advised by Professor Kris Sankaran, Professor Yukang Yan, and Professor Yuhang Zhao.
I study and design AI and AR interfaces to explore how computational tools can become more transparent, malleable, and dynamic, as well as how they relate to the broader environments they inhabit. Recently, I’ve been exploring these questions primarily in the contexts of accessibility, creativity support, and sensemaking, with broader interests in labor and human–robot interaction. I believe in empowering people to engage with and through technology in more embodied, pluralistic, and liberatory ways.
Looking for HCI Ph.D. opportunities (Fall 2027) and research positions or internships (Spring 2027)
citation
4 women at tel. [i.e., telephone] switchboard, between 1898 and 1946. G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-matpc-08799. No known restrictions on publication.
Updates
- Serving as a student volunteer at IEEE VIS 2026 in Boston, where I’ll also present a poster on how people perceive different dimensionality-reduction visualizations.
- Demoing FlowNote at UIST 2026 in Detroit.
- Wrapped up my visit to the BEAR Lab at the University of Rochester and returned to Madison. Many thanks to Yukang for hosting me!
- Led a Feminism Reading Seminars discussion, hosted by Runhua, on women players reimagining gender representation in Chinese video games.
- Helped demo A11yBits toolkit + A11yMaker AI by Kosa et al. in the AI-Assisted Vision Workshop on Intelligent Assistive Technologies for Blind and Low Vision Individuals. Details: UW–Madison Leads Collaborative Effort to Advance Artificial Intelligence for Low Vision.
Research
About
I’m Hakka, born and raised in Meizhou, China. I like writing historical
fantasy inspired by both history and records of anomalies, photography,
sewing
I’m a huge fan of traditional garments, especially Hanfu (汉服). I have been studying and promoting Hanfu since primary school and have organized multiple cultural events that were covered by local newspapers.,
gardening
I spent two years studying Environmental Science. I also led a student gardening group, where we grew vegetables and flowers in the campus garden.
Gardening has always been a big part of my family, especially for my mom. This is an olive tree she planted., visiting
historical sites
My most recent trip is to Machu Picchu, Peru!, creating fandom artifacts (collage/video…), and playing visual novels.
Before transferring to UW–Madison, I spent two years in Ningbo, China studying Environmental Science When I first started college, I thought that knowing the names and histories of every species in the world (Homo sapiens included) was the coolest thing ever. Some of my friends started a natural history blog on WeChat called 自然青年, where we wrote about different species and environmental topics. They definitely did most of the writing, though. with research around planetary science.