Chen Fang
Joint PhD Candidate at Northeastern University and Ghent University
Hello! I am Chen Fang, a joint PhD candidate at Northeastern University and Ghent University, currently based in Ghent. I am supervised by Prof. Fu Guo at Northeastern University and Prof. Tony Belpaeme at Ghent University.
My research focuses on user experience and the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying human-AI interaction. I specialize in integrating subjective evaluations with objective multimodal measurements, including eye tracking, peripheral physiological signals, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to build a more complete understanding of user responses.
I obtained my master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering at Northeastern University, where I ranked first in my cohort. My earlier work centered on robotic affective touch and multimodal human-robot interaction, including users’ emotional responses to different robotic touches and the potential of humanoid touch for emotional regulation. Building on this line of work, my doctoral research investigates conversational agents, with a focus on intentional stance and trust formation during interaction.
More broadly, I am interested in how humans interpret and attribute mental states to intelligent agents, including intentional stance, mentalization, and Theory of Mind in both HRI and HCI contexts. I am open to research collaborations in related areas.
News
| Mar 16, 2026 | I gave a spotlight talk and joined the panel discussion at the HRI 2026 workshop “Empowering Human-Robot Communication Through Non-Linguistic Pathways”. |
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| Mar 06, 2026 | Our paper “Effects of Robot’s Face Ratio and Eye Shape on Users’ Perceived Trustworthiness, and Neural Activity: An Event-Related Potential Study” was accepted by the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. |
| Oct 10, 2025 | Our paper “Answering correctly or incorrectly: the impact of multimodal feedback from education robot voice gender and body movements on users’ learning outcomes” was accepted by Ergonomics. |
| Jun 09, 2025 | Our paper “How Conversation Type and Presumed Message Source Influence Users’ Trust towards Mental Health Conversational Agents: The Mediator Effect of Intentional Stance” was accepted by IEEE RO-MAN 2025. |
| Dec 09, 2024 | I started a new position as a joint PhD candidate at AIRO group, HRI team, Ghent University - imec, supervised by Prof. Tony Belpaeme. I am excited to continue my research on human-AI interaction and user experience in this new setting! |
Publications
2026
- Effects of Robot’s Face Ratio and Eye Shape on Users’ Perceived Trustworthiness, and Neural Activity: An Event-Related Potential StudyInternational Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 2026
2025
- Answering Correctly or Incorrectly: The Impact of Multimodal Feedback from Education Robot Voice Gender and Body Movements on Users’ Learning OutcomesErgonomics, 2025
- Let Me Hold Your Hand: Effects of Anthropomorphism and Touch Behavior on Self-Disclosure Intention, Attachment, and Cerebral Activity towards AI Mental Health CounselorsInternational Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 2025
- How Conversation Type and Presumed Message Source Influence Users’ Trust towards Mental Health Conversational Agents: The Mediator Effect of Intentional StanceIn IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2025
- Potential Applications of Humanoid Robotic Touch for Social Regulation of Emotion: Evidence from ECG and fNIRSBehaviour & Information Technology, 2025
2024
- How do Robot Touch Characteristics Impact Users’ Emotional Responses: Evidence from ECG and fNIRSInternational Journal of Social Robotics, 2024
2023
- Multisensory Integration Effect of Humanoid Robot Appearance and Voice on Users’ Affective Preference and Visual AttentionBehaviour & Information Technology, 2023