Kexin Quan

kq4@illinois.edu

School of Information Sciences

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

I am a 3rd-year PhD student in Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Jessie Chin.

My current research develops brain-inspired, affective, and agentic AI systems that augment human sensemaking and agency. I design socially intelligent, multi-agent systems that model cognition and emotion as distributed, interactive processes, enabling adaptive decision-making, reflective reasoning, and emotionally grounded human-AI collaboration in complex, information-rich environments.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks and human-centered system design, I explore how AI can become a teammate that supports, not substitutes, human reasoning, creativity, and decision-making.

Before joining UIUC, I earned a B.S. in Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, where I worked with Prof. Steven Dow at Design Lab. I also completed an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, collaborating closely with Prof. Stephen MacNeil from Temple HCI Lab and Prof. Qian Yang from Cornell University.

Research Interests:

Brain-inspired & Affective AI Systems
Multi-Agent Systems for Human-AI Collaboration
Creativity Support Tools
Conversational Agents & Adaptive Feedback

News:

Jan 2026: First-author paper accepted at CHI 2026 — “AI as Colleagues”! See you in Barcelona!
Jan 2026: Serving as Publication Chair for ACM C&C 2026
Jun 2025: Paper at C&C 2025 — “Can AI Take a Joke?” See you online!
Apr 2025: LBW at CHI 2025 — “Personality in AI Writing Companions”. Meet you in Yokohama!
Sep 2024: Joined NIDILRR-funded research project led by Prof. Chung-Yi Chiu, Prof. ChengXiang Zhai, and Prof. Jessie Chin
Jun 2024: Attending C&C 2024 in Chicago
Jun 2023: Paper at C&C 2023 — “CausalMapper”
May 2023: Joining UIUC iSchool PhD program! Go Illini!
Apr 2023: Full paper accepted at CHI 2023 — “Calibrating Clinicians’ Trust in AI”

selected publications

Towards AI as Colleagues: Multi-Agent System Improves Structured Ideation Processes

Kexin Quan, Dina Albassam, Mengke Wu, and 2 more authors

In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026

arXiv Bib PDF

@inproceedings{quan2026multicolleagues,
  title = {Towards AI as Colleagues: Multi-Agent System Improves Structured Ideation Processes},
  author = {Quan, Kexin and Albassam, Dina and Wu, Mengke and Ding, Zijian and Chin, Jessie},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {ACM},
}

Conversational Decision Support for Information Search Under Uncertainty: Effects of Gist and Verbatim Feedback

Kexin Quan and Jessie Chin

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2026

Under Review

arXiv Bib PDF

@article{quan2026sera,
  title = {Conversational Decision Support for Information Search Under Uncertainty: Effects of Gist and Verbatim Feedback},
  author = {Quan, Kexin and Chin, Jessie},
  journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Studies},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Under Review},
}

Can AI Take a Joke—Or Make One? A Study of Humor Generation and Recognition in LLMs

Kexin Quan, Pavithra Ramakrishnan, and Jessie Chin

In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 2025

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{quan2025humor,
  title = {Can AI Take a Joke---Or Make One? A Study of Humor Generation and Recognition in LLMs},
  author = {Quan, Kexin and Ramakrishnan, Pavithra and Chin, Jessie},
  booktitle = {Adjunct Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {ACM},
  doi = {10.1145/3698061.3734388},
}

Incorporating Personality into AI Writing Companions: Mapping the Design Space

Mengke Wu, Kexin Quan, Weizi Liu, and 2 more authors

In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2025

Late-Breaking Work

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{wu2025personality_chi,
  title = {Incorporating Personality into AI Writing Companions: Mapping the Design Space},
  author = {Wu, Mengke and Quan, Kexin and Liu, Weizi and Yao, Mike and Chin, Jessie},
  booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {ACM},
  note = {Late-Breaking Work},
  doi = {10.1145/3706599.3720185},
}

Harnessing Biomedical Literature to Calibrate Clinicians’ Trust in AI Decision Support Systems

Qian Yang, Yuexing Hao, Kexin Quan, and 4 more authors

In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2023

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{yang2023calibrate,
  title = {Harnessing Biomedical Literature to Calibrate Clinicians' Trust in AI Decision Support Systems},
  author = {Yang, Qian and Hao, Yuexing and Quan, Kexin and Yang, Stephen and Zhao, Yiran and Kuleshov, Volodymyr and Wang, Fei},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  year = {2023},
  publisher = {ACM},
  doi = {10.1145/3544548.3581393},
}