Aaron Pengyu Zhu
💡🌲🌀🔧🖌️
[May 2026] A co-organized workshop was accepted for NordiCHI ‘26 🇫🇮. My first workshop!
[Apr 2026] My first solo-authored paper has been conditionally accepted to DIS ’26! Although it’s a PWiP, it means a lot to me! I am also happy to serve this community again as an SV! See you at NUS 🇸🇬!
[Mar 2026] I was invited as a guest speaker to share in NUS ID 5357 Interdisciplinary Ways of Knowing about More-than-Human research in HCI and our latest research on Daoism & Reflection! Slides are Here:)
[Mar 2026] One short paper was accepted by ACM Interactive Health’ 26!🇵🇹
[Jan 2026] My first first-authored full paper is accepted by CHI’26, see you in Barcelona 🇪🇸!
[Nov 2025] Our research received the Excellent Poster Award at the Tech for Good: Driving Social Impact conference hosted by NUS and Tencent!
[Sep 2025] I was invited by Tencent’s Tech for Good Programme to visit its headquarters in Shenzhen for three days of tours and exchanges (it was also my first time experiencing a typhoon).
[Jul 2025] I showed a poster and volunteered at DIS'25 in Madeira 🇵🇹! Also, I made a zine!
[Apr 2025] I attended CHI'25 in Yokohama 🇯🇵 (Attended a workshop)!
[Jan 2025] I joined the JEDI Lab at the Department of Design, National University of Singapore
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers
Toward Pluralizing Reflection in HCI through Daoism. (CHI’ 26) [PDF] [Website]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu, Kristina Mah, and Janghee Cho.
Text Readability of Smartphone in Dark Mode: Effects of Font Type, Font Weight, and Color. (HCII 2023) [PDF]
Junxiang Chen, Aaron Pengyu Zhu, Jing Yun, Baixuan Tian, Yalan Yang, and Na Liu.
Extended Abstract
Design Without Goal: Listening, Silence, and Emergence in Practice (NordiCHI’ 26 Adjunct) [PDF]
Kristina Mah, Janghee Cho, Aaron Pengyu Zhu, Wendy Qi Zhang, Tse Pei Ng, Angella Mackey, Jonas Fritsch, Claudia Núñez-Pacheco, and Yoko Akama.
Whose Innovation? Whose Heritage?: Postcolonial Tensions and Meta-Research Agendas about Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Research in HCI (DIS’ 26 Companion) [PDF]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu.
Designing for Youth Digital Wellbeing Through an Ethics of Care Lens (ACM Interactive Health 2026) [PDF]
Janghee Cho, Aaron Pengyu Zhu, and Mengyuan Zhu.
Unveiling the Invisible Work of Migrant Care Workers in Aged Care Homes: Implications for Future Care Technologies. (DIS’ 25 Companion) [PDF]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu, Yiming Yao, Haiyue Lu, Tse Pei Ng, Celeste Seah, Janghee Cho, Yiying Wu, and Jung-Joo Lee.
Workshop Position Papers (lightly peer-reviewed)
Wu-Wei(無為) as Liquid Resistance: A Daoist Perspective on Critical Design (DIS’ 26 Workshop on Relating Otherwise: Pluriversal Pathways for Reworlding More-than-Human Design) [PDF]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu and Janghee Cho.
Hacking the Forest: Displacement, Care and More-than-human Infrastructure (CHI’ 26 Workshop on Designing with Forest Stories) [PDF]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu, Yuanning Han, and Janghee Cho.
Tao-Technology for Teen Mobile Use: Harmonizing Adaptation, Autonomy, and Reflection (CHI’ 25 Workshop on Mobile Technology and Teens) [PDF]
Aaron Pengyu Zhu and Janghee Cho.
Service
* For Special Recognition for Outstanding Reviews
Program Committee: ICHEC (2025)
Reviewer: ACM TEI (2027), ACM DIS (2026*), ACM CHI LBW (2026*), ACM DIS PWiP (2026)
Volunteer: ACM DIS (2025, 2026)
Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant: ID5001 Integrated Design Studio (NUS, 2025 Fall)
Guest Lectures: ID5357 Interdisciplinary Ways of Knowing (NUS, 2026 Spring)