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Peizhu (Pam) Qian, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence Visual Computing and HCI

 

路 Ph.D., Computer Science, Rice University 2025

路 B.S., Computer Science and Mathematics, Simmons College 2019

Dr. Peizhu "Pam" Qian is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the 91破解版, where she leads the Qian Group focused on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Human-AI Interaction (HAI). Her lab develops algorithms to model human behavior, mental processes, and collaborative tasks between humans and intelligent systems. These interactive systems have been deployed in healthcare and educational settings, where robots help students and professionals learn new skills. Her work has been recognized with the Best Video Demonstration Award at AAMAS (International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems), Best Student Paper Runner-up with Special Recognition at SciP (Society for Computers in Psychology), and selection as an RSS Pioneer (Robotics Science and Systems).

Before joining , Qian received her B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Simmons College (Boston, MA) in 2019 and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice University (Houston, TX) in 2025. While in Boston, she began rowing competitively and was named Student-Athlete of the Year. She has competed in regional and international regattas, including the Head of the Charles. After moving to Houston, she continued rowing and has won several state titles. Outside of the lab, she remains passionate about team sports, resilience, and inclusive mentorship.

  • ASTRID: A Robotic Tutor for Nurse Training to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections. Peizhu Qian, Filip Bajraktari, Carlos Quintero-Pe帽a, Qingxi Meng, Shannan Hamlin, Lydia E. Kavraki, and Vaibhav Unhelkar. Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems (R:SS). 2025.
  • PPS: Personalized Policy Summarization for Explaining Sequential Behavior of Autonomous Agents. Peizhu Qian, Harrison Huang, and Vaibhav Unhelkar. Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (AIES). 2024.
  • Interactively Explaining Robot Policies to Humans in Virtual and Physical Training Environments. Peizhu Qian and Vaibhav Unhelkar. Companion of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). 2024.
  • Evaluating the Role of Interactivity on Improving Transparency in Autonomous Agents. Peizhu Qian and Vaibhav Unhelkar. Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS). 2022