About
Lei Zhang is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Informatics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), starting Spring 2025. He was recently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University, working with Andrés Monroy-Hernández. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, where he was advised by Steve Oney and Anhong Guo. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, particularly in designing and building creativity support tools that enable end-users to craft immersive experiences in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). He invents novel content creation techniques and systems, and studies how they can enhance people's creativity, collaboration, and communication.
Lei’s work has been published at top-tier HCI venues including CHI, UIST, and CSCW. His first-authored papers have received a best paper award at CSCW 2022 and a best short paper award at VL/HCC 2019. Lei interned at Snap Research twice (Summer 2021 & 2022), working with Dr. Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Dr. Rajan Vaish, and Dr. Fannie Liu. He holds a BE in Software Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Outside of work, Lei is passionate about music production, skateboards, and 35mm film photography.
📢 Lei is starting a new lab and recruiting students at all levels (post-docs, PhDs, masters, undergrads) to work on exciting research projects! Please check out the join-us page for more details.
📩 lei.zhang[at]njit.edu
Publications

VRCopilot: Authoring 3D Layouts with Generative AI Models in VR

Jigsaw: Authoring Immersive Storytelling Experiences with Augmented Reality and Internet of Things

VRGit: A Version Control System for Collaborative Content Creation in Virtual Reality

Auggie: Encouraging Effortful Communication through Handcrafted Digital Experiences


Studying the Benefits and Challenges of Immersive Dataflow Programming

Cubicle: An Adaptive Educational Gaming Platform for Training Spatial Visualization Skills
News
12/2024: Invited talk at the Affinity Event of Neurodiversity Workshop in NeurIPS 2024.
11/2024: Guest lectures at Princeton University and University of Rochester.
10/2024: Presented VRCopilot at UIST 2024.
08/2024: Relocated to New Jersey. 🏠
06/2024: Officially Dr. Zhang! 🎓
05/2024: Presented Jigsaw at CHI 2024. 🏄🏻♂️
04/2024: I'm joining NJIT as an Assistant Professor in Spring 2025, after a one-term postdoc at Princeton's Computer Science.