About me
Hi there👋 I am Zihan Fang (房梓晗). I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, guided by Dr. Yu Huang. I earned my Bachelor's degree in Information Management from Soochow University, and my Master's degree in Data Science from Vanderbilt University. My research focuses on designing human-centered AI for software engineering, using cognitive and mixed-methods studies to evaluate and refine AI-powered code tools that fit developers’ workflows, support developers, and enhance productivity and coding outcomes. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in my work!
Publications
CodeACT-R: A Cognitive Simulation Framework for Code Reading. ASE 2025-NIER
Yueke Zhang, Zihan Fang, Greg Trafton, Daniel Levin, Kevin Leach, Yu Huang
[PDF]
A Comparative Study on ChatGPT and Checklist as Support Tools for Unit Testing Education. FSE 2025-SEET
Zihan Fang, Jiliang Li, Anda Liang, Gina R. Bai, Yu Huang
[PDF]
“Math Is a Pain!”: Understanding Challenges and Needs of the Machine Learning Community on Stack Overflow. CSCW 2024
Zihan Fang, Yu Huang
[PDF]
A Four-Year Study of Student Contributions to OSS vs. OSS4SG with a Lightweight Intervention. FSE 2023
Zihan Fang, Madeline Endres, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford, Westley Weimer, Kevin Leach, Yu Huang
🏆 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award [PDF]
Awards
- Ignite Grant at Vanderbilt University
- LIVE Horizon Grant at Vanderbilt University
- C. F. Chen Best Paper Award in the Department of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University
- Richard Bennett/Dorothy Danforth Compton Prize Scholarship at Vanderbilt University
- SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at FSE 2023
- NSF Student Travel Award
Service
- SIGCSE TS 2025 - PC member (Posters)
- SIGCSE TS 2025 - PC member (Computing Education Research)
Experience
- Ph.D. student in Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 2023-2028
- M.S. in Data Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 2021-2023
- B.S. in Information Management, Soochow University, China, 2016-2020