🍑 Tao Long (he/him)
Hi, I'm a second-year Computer Science PhD student at Columbia University, with a focus on human-computer interaction (HCI). I'm fortunate to be advised by Professor Lydia Chilton and part of the Columbia HCI and Columbia VIGR
My research focuses on making generative AI models more usable, useful, and well-integrated into our everyday workflows. Thus, I build multimodal AI productivity & creativity support tools (yeee🤠!!) Specifically, I design and build co-creative workflows and systems using large language models (LLMs) and text-to-image models in the context of workspaces :) Before my PhD, I earned my bachelors with Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University, which unlocked the doors to research and teaching for me.
long@cs.columbia.edutwitter
g-scholarcv (08/2024)
✎ᝰ. News
Below is a list of recent updates, which admittedly focuses on good news. However, I think it's also important to share *bad news*, to normalize sadness, vulnerabilities, rejections, and failures :) While it's far from perfect, you can check some of my thoughts on this other side of the mood blog. If you want, I'm happy to chat!
I'm so over the moon to joinas a research intern & work with Justin, Jo, Kendra, and Geroge!
Accepted to DIS 2024 :) 📃 Longitudinal study on generative AI systems: Not Just Novelty !!
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running this year's PhD Pre-submission Application Review (PAR) Program for the Columbia CS department! please apply!
attended CSCW 2023 ✈ in Minneapolis, MN and UIST 2023 ✈ in San Fransico, CA!! Thanks Lydia and SIGCHI Gary Marsden Travel Awards!
got selected for the 2023b cohort of Google's CS research mentorship program (CSRMP)✨
headed to 5 concerts during the summer: twice, blackpink, beyoncé, ive, and helped run the taiwanese waves concert in central park 🍃🎤🎵👩🎤🎧🎆🗽
happy pride & won a free ice cream for my kpop dance cover; attended HCIC 2023 ✈ in Delavan, WI and ICCC 2023 ✈ in Toronto, ON 🧀️⛲️🐄🇨🇦🍁🗼🖼️
became a mentor for undergraduate research experiences in mathematical modeling (CSUREMM)
new paper alert x2! our papers on gen AI for science communication and design for virtual Cyberball are accepted :)
attended AAAI 2023 ✈ in Washington D.C. and CRA-WP IDEALS ✈ in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 🏄🏖️🌊🌺🍹🐬🌋
became a mentor for women in science at columbia (WISC) undergraduate mentoring program
new paper alerts x2! our papers on social dynamics of AI support and alexa design challenges are accepted and awarded $1500 funding!
happy new year and happy lunar new year! sent from Nairobi, Kenya 🦓🦌🦒🐆🐗🦩🇰🇪
our paper on digital tools for asylum seekers is accepted and appeared cornell chronicle; volunteered at CSCW 2022 and EMNLP 2022
got featured on columbia cs department website: Voices of CS: Tao Long and selected for the 2023 CRA-WP grad cohort workshop for IDEALS!
got selected as a kraft global fellow by the office of university chaplain and kraft family fund!
started my PhD at columbia cs with amazing Lydia Chilton!
earned two BS from cornell with summa cum laude, research w/ distinction, distinction w/ honors, teaching recognition award, outstanding TA award
got selected as the recipient of the Anson H. Rowe Award, the highest department award! $3500!
dade the decision to join columbia cs finally, and my announcement tweet got shared by cornell cis!
our project collaborated with cornell law and weill cornell medicine is on cornell chronicle! volunteered at TEI 2022
first grants! my honors thesis received the Jane E. Brody Undergraduate Research Award and Fredric N. Gabler ’93 Memorial Research Endowment!
received a huge grad school application scholarship provided by oSTEM and Queer in AI! Thank you!
✎ᝰ. Research
My Info/Sci and Communication background made me understand that technology has both communicative capacity and responsibility. Therefore, as designers and developers, we should speak, design, and build for those who can't. As a junior PhD, I am more than eager to learn and join exciting HCI/AI projects. Don't hesitate to reach out for collab :D
Not Just Novelty: A Longitudinal Study on Utility and Customization of an AI Workflow
Tao Long, Katy Gero, Lydia Chilton
DIS 2024 Generative AI workflows solve real and complex problems by chaining AI outputs together with human interaction. However, it's uncertain how useful they are after novelty wears off and whether users take advantage of the potential for customization. Thus, a study with 12 users over three weeks found a 4.3-session familiarization phase. Post-familiarization, perceived system usefulness increases notably, driven by user customization of workflows. This suggests a future where AI systems can be tailored to individual needs, enabling design for appropriation.
Generative Disco: Text-to-Video for Music Visualization
Vivian Liu, Tao Long, Nathan Raw, Lydia Chilton
arXiv 2024 Visuals enhance our music experience while existing text-to-video tools produce uncanny ones. Our system, Generative Disco, helps generate music visualizations with start and end prompts and design patterns (transition and holds) using LLMs and text-to-image models. With robust user control to mitigate the uncanny, professionals found the system enjoyable, easy to explore, and highly expressive.
PDF Video Tweetorial Code Demo BibTeX
ReelFramer: Human-AI Co-Creation for News-to-Video Translation
Sitong Wang, Samia Menon, Tao Long, Keren Henderson, Dingzeyu Li, Kevin Crowston, Mark Hansen, Jeffrey Nickerson, Lydia Chilton
CHI 2024 News outlets struggle to create news reels that match the style of TikTok. Our system, ReelFramer, uses LLMs and text-to-image models to help journalists explore framings, generate scripts, character boards, and storyboards. Our user study and co-design workshop found it eases the burden of writing, makes the process rewarding, and generates informative and entertaining end results.
Tweetorial Hooks: Generative AI Tools to Motivate Science on Social Media
Tao Long, Dorothy Zhang, Grace Li, Batool Taraif, Samia Menon, Kynnedy Smith, Sitong Wang, Katy Gero, Lydia Chilton
ICCC 2023 Tweetorials are popular, but STEM experts struggle to make them engaging. Our system, HookIncubator, utilizes scaffolding and AI chaining with LLMs for co-creating compelling hooks. Our evaluation indicates reduced cognitive load and well-supported science contextualization. Users edits LLM outputs for personal style and clarity, enhancing ownership and motivating more readers.
PDF Video Project Code Demo BibTeX
Social Dynamics of AI Support in Creative Writing
Katy Gero, Tao Long, Lydia Chilton
CHI 2023 To address the lack of work considering the social-technical gap that LLMs poses on writers, we discover three elements that govern a writer’s interaction with support actors: [1] what writers desire help with (motivation, planning, translating, reviewing) and [2] how writers perceive potential support actors (availability, individuality, trust) and [3] the values writers hold (intention, authenticity, creativity).
PDF Video Tweetorial Press BibTeX
Challenges and Opportunities for the Design of Smart Speakers
Tao Long, Lydia B. Chilton
AAAI AI4Home 2023 VUIs have opened up many new types of interaction, while they are still underused. We identify opportunity spaces for designers and developers to explore such as focusing on 1) information support while multitasking (cooking, driving, childcare, etc), 2) incorporating users’ mental models, and 3) integrating calm design principles.
Perspectives from Naive Participants and Social Scientists on Addressing Embodiment in a Virtual Cyberball Task
Tao Long, Swati Pandita, Andrea Won
CSCW 2023 EA To address the lack of research on UCD methodologies for social science paradigms, we identify shared considerations and disagreements between naive participants and experienced researchers for future systems: 1) intuitiveness, 2) inclusivity, 3) minimalism.
PDF Code Funding 1 Funding 2 BibTeX
Multistakeholder Perspectives on Digital Tools for U.S. Asylum Applicants Seeking Healthcare and Legal Information
Aparajita Bhandari, Diana Freed, Tara Pilato, Faten Taki, Gunisha Kaur, Stephen Yale-Loehr, Jane Powers, Tao Long, Natalie Bazarova
CSCW 2022 A lack of information for asylum applicants negatively impacts their healthcare engagement. We identify four challenges for immigrants using current digital tools: lack of information, inaccessibility, emotional barriers, and lack of cultural sensitivity. The study recommends multiple stakeholders' perspectives when designing future tools.
PDF Video Project Press 1 Press 2 Press 3 BibTeX
✎ᝰ. Teaching & Services
I enjoy teaching and service. My passion for teaching and socially impactful research significantly contributes to my decision to pursue a PhD and (possibly) an academic career in Computer Science. For the sake of intersectionality, I always remind myself that I am indeed a privileged person along my journey. It helps me rethink myself, my role, and my responsibilities in better helping others with the resources I have. Always eager to contribute to new initiatives ;)
COMS W4156: Advanced Software Engineering (w/ Gail Kaiser)
COMS E6998: Designing for Generative AI (w/ Lydia Chilton)
COMS W4170: User Interface Design (w/ Lydia Chilton)
COMS BC3997: Applied Computing: Research and Industry Perspectives (w/ Brian Plancher)
COMS E6998: Designing for Generative AI (w/ Lydia Chilton)
COMS 6998: Designing for Emerging Technology (w/ Lydia Chilton)
INFO 4400: Qualitative User Research and Design Methods (w/ Gilly Leshed)
INFO 3450: Human-Computer Interaction Design (w/ Gilly Leshed)
INFO 2300: Intermediate Design and Programming for Web (w/ Kyle Harms)
IUI 2025 PC, C&C 2025 PC, CHI 2024 Late-Breaking Work Program Committee & Area Chair, UIST 2024 Web Chair
CHI 2025, IUI 2025, CHI 2024 🏅️, DIS 2024 🏅️, UIST 2024 🏅️, TEI 2024, C&C 2024, CSCW 2024, CSCW 2023 EA, CHI PLAY 2023 EA
UIST 2024, CHI 2024, DIS 2024, CSCW 2023, CHI 2023, EMNLP 2022, CSCW 2022, TEI 2022
Teachers' Lounge | Teaching with AI: Notes from the Frontline. Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning. New York, NY, Nov 9, 2023
Charting Your Course: Exploring Careers in Math, Applied Math, and Computer Science.CSUREMM Program. New York, NY, Jun 27, 2023
UX Research Alumni Career Panel. Cornell University INFO 4400 Class. Ithaca, NY, May 27, 2023
Columbia CS Department
Columbia HCI & Columbia HCI Seminars
qSTEM at Columbia University (linktree)
Columbia Undergraduate Research Experiences in Mathematical Modeling (CSUREMM) Program
Women in Science at Columbia (WISC) Undergraduate Mentoring Program
Social Justice Mini-Grant Grantee & Recipient (PI, $1500) University Life and Columbia University (grantee profile)
Lead Teaching Fellow at Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning
Kraft Global Fellow at Kraft Family Fund and Columbia University (news)
CRA Grad Cohort for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership Skills (CRA-IDEALS)
PhD Service Award at Columnbia University (news)
Queer in AI & Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM)
Grad Students for Gender Inclusion in Computing at Cornell University
Technical Project Coordinator at Cornell Information Technologies
Café Jennie at Cornell University
📍for the latest and cutest details, please check my CV :)
✎ᝰ. Miscs
Music Blog (i listened to 127,335 mins of music last year...)
- 55% Mandopop:
Tanya Chua 蔡健雅, Yanzi Sun 孙燕姿, Jolin Tsai 蔡依林, Hebe Tien 田馥甄, Deserts Chang 張懸, Penny Tai 戴佩妮, Sandy Lam 林憶蓮, Lala Hsu 徐佳瑩
- 25% Kpop:
IU 이지은, IVE 아이브, TWICE 트와이스, Stella Jang 장성은, Sunmi 이선미, NewJeans 뉴진스, BOL4 볼빨간 사춘기
- 20% Pop (?):
Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, The Weepies
Travel Blog (escape ithaca/NYC once a month!)
- 2nd year phd in the big apple...
- [05/2024] Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (chi 24!)
- [04/2024] Minneapolis, MN (cra ideals 24!) & Durham, NC
- [03/2024] Manassas, VA
- [02/2024] Palo Alto, CA (havent been with my family for lunar new year for 6 years!)
- [01/2024] Palo Alto, CA
- [12/2023] Miami, FL + Caribbean Sea (family vacay! cruise!)
- [11/2023] San Francisco, CA (uist 23!)
- [10/2023] Minneapolis, MN (cscw 23!)
- [07-09/2023] NYC SAD! I miss traveling :(
- [06/2023] Delavan, WI (hcic 23!) & Waterloo, ON (iccc 23 virtual...thank u! amazing Canada visa officers🕯️RIP)
- 1st year phd in the big apple...
- [05/2023] Durham, NC
- [04/2023] Manassas, VA (chi 23 virtual...)
- [03/2023] Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (cra ideals 23!)
- [02/2023] Washington, DC (aaai 23!)
- [01/2023] Nairobi, Kenya (kraft global fellow)
- [12/2022] Manassas, VA
- [11/2022] Pittsburgh, PA (cscw 22 virtual...)
- [10/2022] Raleigh, NC
- [09/2022] Miami, FL (gaga concert!)
- [08/2022] Palo Alto, CA (family reunion!)
- [07/2022] Ithaca, NY
- [06/2022] Manassas, VA
- senior year in ithaca...
- [05/2022] New York, NY (my graduation!)
- [04/2022] Miami, FL
- [03/2022] Chicago, IL
- [02/2022] New York, NY
- [01/2022] Washington, DC
- [12/2021] Manassas, VA
- [11/2021] Boston, MA
- [10/2021] Winston-Salem, NC
- [09/2021] New York, NY
- [08/2021] Gainesville, VA
- [07/2021] Washington, DC (July 4 fireworks!)
- [06/2021] New York, NY
Foodie Blog (see @dr_dietcoke)
Mood Blog (see this doc)
Dance Blog (kpop cover dance!)
@iamtaolong 🤍wonyoung in the house #ive #wonyoung #iamchallenge #nyc #kpop ♬ original sound - taotao
@iamtaolong 🖤newjeans - omg #newjeans #omgchallenge #minji #danielle #hybe ♬ OMG
@iamtaolong 💖wonyoung in the studio #ive #wonyoung #elevenchallenge #nyc #phdstudent ♬ original sound - taotao
@iamtaolong 💚wonyoung in the office #ive #wonyoung #afterlikechallenge #nyc #phdstudent ♬ original sound - taotao