personal photo

Contact

liu.ho at utexas dot edu
1616 Guadalupe St., 5.520, Austin, TX, 78701

Lab & Affiliation

Research group:
AI & Human-Centered Computing
Associated research community:
UT NLP | UT Good System Mis/disinformation |
NSF-Simons CosmicAI Institute

Google Scholar | CV

Updates

[09.2026] Honored to receive the Cosmos Institute Grant to support my research on computational research ideation.

[05.2026] Led by Sanjana, our collaborative work on Researchers' Accountability, Transparency, and Trust of using AI tools in research is accepted to ACM FAccT 2026.

[04.2026] Our research poster on Human-in-the-loop Research Ideation is featured at Amazon Research Day 2026, Palo Alto, California, April 30-May 1.

[02.2026] Present our recent work on Trade-offs in LLM-supported Research Ideation at CosmicAI Hybrid Seminar.

[11.2025] Led by Yinan from MIT SCL, our data visualization Biophilia: Mapping the Emotional Pulse of Urban Nature will be exhibited in the Biennial Information + Conference 2025. Location: MIT Media Lab East Lobby, November 14-16.

[03.2025] Honored to receive the UT Outstanding Graduate Research Fellowship.

[02.2025] Our work on Exploring Multidimensional Checkworthiness is accepted at CSCW25. I will present the work at iSchools Doctoral Seminar Series in August and attend this year CSCW in October.

[01.2025] Successfully pass qualifying procedure and enter candidacy. Paper about Rhetorical XAI is accessible at arXiv.

Houjiang Liu ("Whole-jyahng Lyoo")

I'm a doctoral candidate (2021 to present) at iSchool, UT Austin. I'm currently advised by Professor Matthew Lease in the AI & Human-Centered Computing research group and as part of the UT NLP community. Previously, I was a Design Researcher in CfD at the Northeastern University, advised by professor Miso Kim and collaborated with professor Paolo Ciuccarelli. I was also a part-time lecturer teaching Interaction Design in CAMD at Northeastern. Before my academic career, I was an Interaction Designer, working at JD.com and SeetaTech AI.

I design responsible AI that strengthens human expertise rather than replacing it. As AI takes on more of the thinking in expert work (from journalism to science), I build and study systems that keep people's judgment, skill, and agency at the center of the work.

SELECTED WORK

Designing AI around how experts exercise judgment — in journalism & fact-checking

Exploring Multidimensional Checkworthiness: Designing AI-assisted Claim Prioritization for Human Fact-checkers | CSCW 2025 | DOI | Code | Slides | Video

Human-centered NLP Fact-checking: Co-Designing with Fact-checkers using Matchmaking for AI | Best Paper Honorable Mention | CSCW 2024 | DOI | Slides

Reducing Confirmation Bias on Controversial Issues through LLM-generated Multi-persona Debates | Preprint 2024 | arXiv | Slides

The State of Human-centered NLP Technology for Fact-checking | Information Processing & Management 2023 | DOI

Keeping human expertise strong as AI automates — in scientific research

Who Owns Creativity and Who Does the Work? Trade-offs in LLM-Supported Research Ideation | Preprint 2026 | arXiv | Slides | Video | Amazon Research Day

How Researchers Navigate Accountability, Transparency, and Trust When Using AI Tools in Early-Stage Research: A Think-Aloud Study | FAccT 2026 | DOI

DESIGN & DATA VISUALIZATION

Selected design and data-visualization projects I pursue out of personal interest.

Biophilia
Biophilia
Mapping the emotional pulse of urban nature
Shifting Winds
Shifting Winds
Gendered structures of academic mentorship
DataViz for E-learning
DataViz for E-learning
Visualizing knowledge networks
Data Sonification Archive
Data Sonification Archive
The potential of sound in data representation
Design for Emergency
Design for Emergency
An open design platform for emerging issues
Dignity Guidelines for Design
Dignity Guidelines for Design
Evaluating design through human dignity

View All Work