Yuhui Zhao

Yuhui Zhao

A maker, an engineer and a first year PhD student trying to figure out his place in the world. My research interests include mobile and ubiquitous computing, self sustainable sensing and computing, accessibility technologies, and brain-computer interface. My advisor is Dr.Thad Starner, and I also work with Dr. Gregory Abowd

About me

My name is Yuhui Zhao. I am a first year computer science PhD student at Georgia Institute of Technology. I also got my B.S. and M.S. in computer science at GT. When I first started college, I was an Mechanical Engeering Major. I love physical prototyping and making stuff. In my sophomore year, I became a volunteer prototype instructor at the Invention Studio @ Georgia Tech where I help and teach people to 3D print, laser cut/engrave, make PCBs, and use water jet to make their projects come true. Later on, I found my passion in computer science, switched my major, and got a B.S. and M.S. in it. My main research intersts are in mobile and ubiquitous computing, self sustainable sensing and computing, accessibility technologies, and brain-computer interface.

Currently, I work with my advisor Dr. Thad Starner, Dr. Melody Jackson and my wonderful team of undergrades and Master’s students on the BrainBraille project where we try to develop a Brain-Computer interface for ALS patients like Steven Hawking. ALS patients gradually lose downstream transmission of all muscles control signals from the brain, making them unable to communicate. Leveraging the fact that when they attempt to move, their brain signal is similar to health people, the BrainBraille project maps the activation of muscles in different body part to a Braille-like character, enabling ALS patients to communicate through a touch-typing like interface without requiring intense visual attention.

I also work with Dr. Gregory Abowd and my amazing colleagues at the GT Ubicomp group on the COSMOS project where we develop novel low power/self sustainable sensing and computing technologies that can be embedded into everyday objects.

During my summer interships, I am student researcher at the Google perception - audio accessibility team working on the audio-to-tactile project where we aim to “enable users with hearing loss to ‘feel’ sound and understand speech through vibrotactile interfaces”. I work on the device prototyping and the interface implementation.