
I conduct research in human-data interaction, developing interactive systems that integrate visualization and machine learning techniques to support efficient and effective data engineering and data analysis. My current research focuses on 1. data engineering systems and corpora for studying the history of visual data communication, and 2. design patterns and guidelines of human-centered AI for future AI-infused data analysis systems.
I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, where I worked with Professor Min Chen and Professor Bob Coecke, and completed my bachelor's degree at Peking University, where I worked with Professor Xiaoru Yuan.
Email: yuzhang94 [at] outlook [dot] com
OldVis
OldVisOnline is a collection of old visualizations published before 1950. We have been studying a variety of usage scenarios of OldVisOnline.
ZuantuSet: A Collection of Historical Chinese Visualizations and Illustrations
Xiyao Mei, Yu Zhang, Chaofan Yang, Rui Shi, Xiaoru YuanProceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2025
VisTaxa: Developing a Taxonomy of Historical Visualizations
Yu Zhang, Xinyue Chen, Weili Zheng, Yuhan Guo, Guozheng Li, Siming Chen, Xiaoru YuanIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings of IEEE PacificVis), 2025
BiaSeer: A Visual Analytics System for Identifying and Understanding Media Bias
Guozheng Li, Shiyu Han, Jihe Wu, Jiale Hu, Yu Zhang, Chi Harold LiuACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 2025
LightVA: Lightweight Visual Analytics with LLM Agent-Based Task Planning and Execution
Yuheng Zhao, Junjie Wang, Linbing Xiang, Xiaowen Zhang, Zifei Guo, Cagatay Turkay, Yu Zhang, Siming ChenIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024
LEVA: Using Large Language Models to Enhance Visual Analytics
Yuheng Zhao, Yixing Zhang, Yu Zhang, Xinyi Zhao, Junjie Wang, Zekai Shao, Cagatay Turkay, Siming ChenIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Presented at IEEE VIS), 2024
A Spatial Constraint Model for Manipulating Static Visualizations
Can Liu, Yu Zhang, Cong Wu, Chen Li, Xiaoru YuanACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems, 2024
CoInsight: Visual Storytelling for Hierarchical Tables with Connected Insights
Guozheng Li, Runfei Li, Yunshan Feng, Yu Zhang, Yuyu Luo, Chi Harold LiuIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings of IEEE PacificVis), 2024
Visualization Generation with Large Language Models: An Evaluation
Guozheng Li, Xinyu Wang, Gerile Aodeng, Shunyuan Zheng, Yu Zhang, Yuwei Hu, Chuangxin Ou, Song Wang, Chi Harold Liumanuscript, 2024
Viewpoint Recommendation for Point Cloud Labeling through Interaction Cost Modeling
Yu Zhang*, Xinyi Zhao*, Chongke Bi, Siming ChenIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024
OldVisOnline: Curating a Dataset of Historical Visualizations
Yu Zhang, Ruike Jiang, Liwenhan Xie, Yuheng Zhao, Can Liu, Tianhong Ding, Siming Chen, Xiaoru YuanIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings of IEEE VIS), 2023
- Yu Zhang, Martijn Tennekes, Tim de Jong, Lyana Curier, Bob Coecke, Min Chen
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems, 2023
OneLabeler: A Flexible System for Building Data Labeling Tools
Yu Zhang, Yun Wang, Haidong Zhang, Bin Zhu, Siming Chen, Dongmei ZhangProceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2022
- Yu Zhang, Bob Coecke, Min Chen
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (Presented at ACM IUI), 2021
BarcodeTree: Scalable Comparison of Multiple Hierarchies
Guozheng Li, Yu Zhang, Yu Dong, Jie Liang, Jinson Zhang, Jinsong Wang, Michael McGuffin, Xiaoru YuanIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings of IEEE InfoVis), 2020
On the Cost of Interactions in Interactive Visual Machine Learning
Yu Zhang, Bob Coecke, Min ChenProceedings of IEEE VIS Workshop on Evaluation of Interactive Visual Machine Learning Systems, 2019
Interaction+: Interaction Enhancement for Web-based Visualizations
Min Lu, Jie Liang, Yu Zhang, Guozheng Li, Siming Chen, Zongru Li, Xiaoru YuanProceedings of IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium, 2017