Biography
Zhi Tan is an assistant professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston.
Tan’s research explores human–robot interaction, specifically how robots interact with the world and how to integrate multiple robots and intelligent systems. His doctoral thesis work began with the assumption that a single robot would likely be unable to complete all given tasks, then explored how a robot should transfer its user to another robot with different capacities. Then, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Tan developed and evaluated AI technologies to help adults with mild cognitive impairments and their care partners to live independently at home. He has published with — or presented at — ACM/IEEE HRI, ACM ASSETS, ACM ICMI, IEEE IROS, and IEEE RO-MAN.
Tan joined Khoury College in 2023, drawn by the school’s collaborative, hands-on ethos. He is excited to help graduate and undergraduate students gain practical experience designing algorithms and systems that enable robots to work with users and other intelligent systems. He is also interested in collaborating with colleagues at and beyond Northeastern on machine learning and large language models.
When he’s not working, Tan enjoys visiting national parks and collecting National Park Service cancellation stamps.
