Hi! I'm Zi Qi ("zee-chee"). I graduated summa cum laude from Columbia with a B.A. in Neuroscience & Behavior. Currently, I'm a Staff Research Associate at Columbia's Computer-Enabled Abilities Lab (advised by Dr. Brian A. Smith), working on an NSF-funded project with the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Institute. There, I’m exploring how multi-modal interfaces and generative AI can personalise the artwork experience for the blind and low-vision community.
In parallel, I am a Research Fellow at Columbia's Trust Collaboratory on the NSF-funded CitizenAI project. There, I facilitate participatory co-design workshops to build conversational AI systems that better aligns with community needs and human values.
I study how interactive technologies and AI can be designed to support human flourishing, particularly across health, well-being, and social agency. At the intersection of behavioral science and HCI, I’m curious about two questions as technology becomes more intimate in our everyday life: (1) how can interactive systems grant people new abilities, and (2) how can we ensure these technologies remain aligned with human values?
