Zhuodi (Zoe) Cai is keen on finding connections between things through practice, as well as observing, solving puzzles, and exploring new territories. Her aim is always to 🅳iscover new possibilities and engineer the future. As Zoe wants a more holistic view of her goal, 🆂he practices from different entry points, so her experience may seem varied but inter🅲onnected. Any form serves its purpose! Zoe enjoys making friends with people who are on the same wavelength. Feel free to choose your preferred contact method at the bottom left of the page.

Currently working as a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle.



Education

New York University 2021 - 2023

M.P.S. in Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts

China Agricultural University 2016 - 2020

B.E. in Industrial Design, College of Engineering


Work

Research Scientist 2023 - present

University of Washington

Research Assistant 2022 - 2023

New York University

Teaching Assistant 2022

New York University

Associate Engineer 2020 - 2021

Air China Ltd

Product Design Intern 2019

Beijing Spruce World Information Technology Co Ltd

Content Creator 2015 - 2017

Picsart, Personal Freelance Account (Several Hundreds K Followers)


Publications

Creativity ≠ Generativity: A Case Study of Attentive Machine Learning in Dance Performance 2026

Ziyu Xu, Zhuodi Cai. To appear in Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (PACMCGIT) / SIGGRAPH 2026 Art Papers.

TBA 

How I Perceive It: Human Memory-Augmented Analogical Reasoning for Machine Visual Interpretation 2025

Zhuodi Cai. In ACM Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Art Papers (SA Art Papers '25).

DOI 

Human-Machine Ritual: Synergic Performance through Real-Time Motion Recognition 2025

Zhuodi Cai, Ziyu Xu, Juan Pampin. In the 39th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems Creative AI Track: Humanity (NeurIPS Creative AI '25).

OpenReview 

3Description: An Intuitive Human-AI Collaborative 3D Modeling Approach 2024

Zhuodi Cai. In ACM Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH '23).

DOI 


Exhibitions / Presentations

How I Perceive It 2026

Zhuodi Cai. CVPR Art Gallery, Denver, USA (and online).

AI and Creativity: From Concepts to System Development 2025

Zhuodi Cai. Invited talk, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, online.

Art Content Creation: When demands are met by pipelines (or not) 2025

Zhuodi Cai, Ziyu Xu, Judah Goldfeder, Jiong Lin, Yonghyun Kim, Yuki Mitsufuji. Invited panel, Creative AI, NeurIPS, San Diego, USA.

Panel 


Services

NeurIPS (Reviewer of Creative AI Track)
SIGGRAPH Asia (External Reviewer of Art Papers)
World Science Fiction Convention (Photographer)





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