Ran Zhou （周然） is a designer and researcher interested in tangible interfaces, expressive haptics, human-robot interaction, and soma design. She is currently a 4th-year PhD student in Interaction Design Team at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, supervised by Prof. Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, and Anna Ståhl. Before transferring to KTH, she was a PhD student advised by Prof. Daniel Leithinger in THING Lab at ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder. Previously, she was a visiting PhD student at University of Chicago, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and University of Calgary. She graduated with an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, advised by Prof. Harpreet Sareen. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Ran’s research focuses on designing expressive robotic touch using wearable and shape-changing technology. She is particularly interested in developing novel haptic interfaces and toolkits to empower touch ideation while exploring diverse perceptions and alternative interpretations. Through conducting design experiments, she aims to understand touch meaning-making and uncover creative design opportunities for expressive haptics. In her design practice, she is passionate about enhancing digital interactions through tangible interfaces and recreating the traditional human-object ritual with emerging technologies, which she calls "High-tech Nostalgia."

 
 

education

KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Nov. 2024 - May. 2027 (expected)
Ph.D in Media Technology and Interaction Design
Advisors: Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, Anna Ståhl
(Jan. 2021 - Jun. 2024: PhD student at University of Colorado Boulder, Advisor: Daniel Leithinger)

Parsons School of Design NYC, NY, USA
Aug. 2018 - May. 2020
MFA Design and Technology
Advisor: Harpreet Sareen

Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, Hubei, China
Sep. 2013 - Jun. 2018
B.Eng in Urban and Rural Planning
School of Architecture and Urban Planning

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Doctoral Researcher, Interaction Design Team
July. 2024 - present
Advisors: Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, Anna Ståhl

ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, CO, USA
Research Assistant & Research Affiliate, THING Lab
Jan. 2021 - Jun. 2024
Advisor: Daniel Leithinger

University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, AxLab
Jan. 2024 - Jun. 2024
Host Professor: Ken Nakagaki

KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Interaction Design Team
Sep. 2023 - Dec. 2023
Host Professor: Madeline Balaam

University of Calgary Calgary, AB, Canada
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Programmable Reality Lab
Feb. 2023 - Mar. 2023
Host Professor: Ryo Suzuki

Parsons School of Design New York, NY, USA
Research Assistant
Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2020
Advisor: Harpreet Sareen

 

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-Reviewed CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

[C3] Yuzhen Zhang*, Ruixiang Han*, Ran Zhou*, Peter Gyory, Clement Zheng, Patrick C. Shih, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Malte F Jung, Wendy Ju, Daniel Leithinger. 2024. Wizard of Props: Mixed Reality Prototyping with Physical Props to Design Responsive Environments. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI’24) (*equal contribution)

[C2] Ran Zhou, Zachary Schwemler, Akshay Baweja, Harpreet Sareen, Casey Lee Hunt, and Daniel Leithinger. 2023. TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Out-of-lab Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23)

[C1] Ran Zhou, Harpreet Sareen, Yufei Zhang and Daniel Leithinger. 2022. EmotiTactor: Exploring How Designers Approach Emotional Robotic Touch. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '22) Best Pictorial Award Honorable Mention

Peer-Reviewed JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

[J1] Sandra Bae, Rishi Vanukuru, Ruhan Yang, Peter Gyory, Ran Zhou, Ellen Do and Danielle Szafir. 2022. Cultivating Visualization Literacy for Children Through Curiosity and Play. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE VIS’22)

Peer-Reviewed DEMO AND WIP PUBLICATIONS

[D3] Ran Zhou, Zachary Schwemler, Akshay Baweja, Harpreet Sareen, Casey Hunt, and Daniel Leithinger. 2023. Demonstrating TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23) Best Demo Award Runner Up

[D2] Ran Zhou, Yanzhe Wu and Harpreet Sareen. 2020. HexTouch: A Wearable Haptic Robot for Complementary Interactions to Companion Agents in Virtual Reality. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2020 Emerging Technologies (SA ’20)

[D1] Ran Zhou, Yanzhe Wu and Harpreet Sareen. 2020. HexTouch: Affective Robot Touch for Complementary Interactions to Companion Agents in Virtual Reality. In 26th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST '20) Best Demo Award

[WIP 1] Ran Zhou and Harpreet Sareen. 2020. EmotiTactor: Emotional Expression of Robotic Physical Contact. In Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS’ 20 Companion)

WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION

[W2] Pragathi Praveena, Arissa J. Sato, Amy Koike, Ran Zhou, Nathan Thomas White, and Ken Nakagaki. 2024. HRI and UIST: Designing Socially Engaging Robot Interfaces. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST Adjunct '24).

[W1] Daniel Leithinger, Ran Zhou, Eric Acome, Ahad Mujtaba Rauf, Teng Han, Craig Shultz, Joe Mullenbach. 2023. Electro-actuated Materials for Future Haptic Interfaces. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’23 Adjunct)


Awards

Design Awards

Research Awards

  • Best Demo Award Runner Up - CHI 2023 (TactorBots)

  • Best Pictorial Award Honorable Mention - DIS 2022 (EmotiTactor)

  • Best Demo Award - VRST 2020 (HexTouch)


SELECTED PRESS

  • Arduino - TactorBots is a complete toolkit for robotic touch. May. 2023

  • Geeky Gadgets - TactorBots robotic touch haptic design toolkit. May. 2023

  • IxDA Awards - TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch. Mar. 2023

  • Fast Company - TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch. Sept. 2022

  • NYC Media Lab - "Pat Me" Robot, Emotional Robot Comes To Heal Loneliness. Sept. 2019


Contact

zhou.ran09@gmail.com



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