Renate Zhang

Hi, there!

I am Renate "Nana" Zhang.

I am a PhD Student in the Human-Centered Computing Section at Aarhus University, advised by Prof. Jens Emil Grønbæk.

My research focuses on designing better and more intuitive interaction systems for Mixed Reality (MR) environments. I have explored how people interact with the system and with each other in MR through empirical methods. In my future work, I aim curious to find out how Mixed Reality can help us to better communicate, iterate and modify ideas in collaborative settings.

I have received my Master of Science degree in Media and Human-Centered Computing at the Technical University of Vienna. Previously, I have worked as a research assistant at Aalto University in Helsinki, within the Computational Behavior Lab.

news

August 2026
🇩🇰 Starting my PhD at Aarhus University with Prof. Jens Emil Grønbæk
June 2026
🇦🇹 First time served as student volunteer at CHIWORK 2026, Linz and presented my PhD proposal to the student consortium
June 2026
👩🏻‍🎓 Completed my Master's in Media and Human-Centered Computing at TU Vienna
June 2026
🎉 Successfully defended my Master's Thesis "LLM-Based Real-Time Multilingual Communication Through Augmented Reality Glasses"
March 2026
🏅 Our paper "Cost-Aware Bayesian Optimization for Prototyping Interactive Devices", led by Dr. Thomas Langerak, got accepted at CHI 2026 and received an Honourable Mention Best Paper Award
February 2026
👾 Participated in the Global Game Jam 2026, TU Vienna
November 2025
👾 Participated in the Hackathon Junction 2025, Helsinki
July 2025
🇫🇮 Started my research internship with Dr. Thomas Langerak and Prof. Antti Oulasvirta at Aalto University, Helsinki
March 2025
👩‍💻 Started as a Student AR Lab Technician at Snap Inc., Vienna

publications

Conference and Journal Papers

Bayesian Optimization vs. Cost-Aware Bayesian Optimization
Cost-Aware Bayesian Optimization for Prototyping Interactive Devices
Thomas Langerak, Renate Zhang, Ziyuan Wang, Per Ola Kristensson and Antti Oulasvirta
CHI 2026: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Honorable Mention
Virtual Reality Locomotion Pilot Study
Influence of Virtual Reality Setup on Locomotion Technique Usage during Navigation with Walking, Steering and Teleportation
Hugo Brument, Renate Zhang and Hannes Kaufmann
ICAT-EGVE 2024: International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments

Theses

Augmented Reality Translation User Study
LLM-Based Real-Time Multilingual Communication Through Augmented Reality Glasses: Effects of Translation Modalities
Renate Zhang
Master's Thesis, TU Vienna, 2026 · Supervised by Hannes Kaufmann and Matteo Bosco
User Navigation Behaviour Using Simultaneous Different Locomotion Techniques in Virtual Reality: Development of an Experimental Platform
Renate Zhang
Bachelor's Thesis, TU Vienna, 2023 · Supervised by Hannes Kaufmann and Hugo Brument