Education

Cornell University, Ph.D., 2020
University of California, Berkeley, Master of Architecture, 2013
Hunan University, Bachelor of Architecture, 2012

Biography

Dr. Yixiao Wang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Institute of Technology. As an interaction design researcher, his primary focus is on making built environments socially intelligent and interactive. Dr. Wang leads the Robotic Environment Lab, where he explores how robotic environments can shape our everyday lives both physically and socially through interactivity and adaptivity. His vision is to transform homes, offices, classrooms, public spaces, and even natural environments into socially intelligent "Space Agents" that can function as friends, partners, companions, or caregivers. 

Dr. Wang's expertise lies in human-centered design, engineering, and evaluation of smart machines at various scales, both spatial and non-spatial. His research investigates how socially expressive smart machines, seemingly imbued with emotions, personalities, and social roles, can improve and empower our daily experiences. Through his work, Dr. Wang aims to push the boundaries of how we interact with our surroundings, envisioning a future where our environments are not just spaces, but active, socially intelligent participants in our lives.

Statement of Teaching Interest

Dr. Wang’s teaching interests focus on the human-centered design, engineering, and evaluation of Robotic Environments (ID 4071: Innovation Studio One) and Social Robots (ID 8803: Social Robot Design Research) in various scales (from object to environmental scale) for various applications (e.g., exhibition, education, work environment, healthcare, human behavioral change, etc.). Dr. Wang also teaches entry-level product design processes with an emphasis on Arduino electronics prototyping skills (ID 6107: Integrated Product Design), which prepares students for more advanced interaction design courses.

Statement of Research Interest

Dr. Wang is currently leading the “Robotic Environment Lab” at GA Tech, exploring and investigating how robotic environments can shape our everyday life, both physically and socially, through their interactivity and adaptivity. Dr. Wang’s key research theme is Human- “Space Agent” Interaction, a research topic broadly situated in Human-Agent Interaction (HAI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). “Space Agents” refers to intelligent and interactive agents that are both environmental (i.e., capable of reconfiguring virtual or physical spaces/environments) and human-like in (at least some of) their behavior. Dr. Wang is currently investigating “Space Agent” with the embodiment of a physical space (Socially Interactive Robotic Environment, or SIRE) and “Space Agent” with the embodiment of a virtual space (Socially Interactive Virtual Environment, or SIVE). In Dr. Wang’s vision, our homes, offices, classrooms, public spaces, and even natural environments and virtual spaces, when embedded with AI, robotics, and mixed reality technology, could become “Space Agents” that behave as if our friends, partners, companions, caregivers, etc. Dr. Wang conducts his research primarily through human-centered design, engineering, and evaluation approaches, with a strong emphasis on design creativity and research rigor.