About
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Assistant Professor of Practice, Computer Science Department, The George Washington University.
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Research Focus: Machine Learning and Brain-Computer Interfaces (Google Scholar).
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Previous Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Swarthmore College (2021-2023).
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Name Pronunciation: 'Shyow-dohng Chew.' (Audio link).
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Education:
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Ph.D. in Computer Science, Brandeis University, (Advisor: Professor Timothy J Hickey.)
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B.S. in Computer Science, Dalian University of Technology.
Contact
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Zoom Link for Office Hours and Research Meetings
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More on our CS Faculty Page
Teaching
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Machine Learning (Spring 2026, Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022)
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Algorithms (Fall 2025, Spring 2025, Spring 2024)
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Intro to Computer Science (Spring 2023, Fall 2021)
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Senior Capstone Design Project (Fall 2025 to Spring 2026, Fall 2024 to Spring 2025, Fall 2023 to Spring 2024)
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Master’s Thesis (Fall 2025 to Spring 2026, Fall 2024 to Spring 2025)
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Undergraduate Research Project (Fall 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022)
Research
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I am actively recruiting motivated students interested in Machine Learning or Neuroscience.
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Explore this research talk Summer 2024 for insights into my recent work and ongoing projects.
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Our research lab currently has fifteen students (and fifteen Brain-Computer Interfaces headsets).
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My publications are here: Google Scholar and Research Gate.
News
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Congratulations!
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One paper at Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2025. The top conference in Human Computer Interaction
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One of our undergraduate researchers, Zeina Nweashe, received the GW Undergraduate Research Award for her work in our lab.
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GW Today features research by Prof. Xiaodong Qu: Gaming with Your Brain? That’s the Tip of the Iceberg (March 24, 2025)
Coverage of Prof. Qu’s work on brain-computer interfaces for mind-controlled gaming and neurological health research. -
Prof. Xiaodong Qu featured in GW Today at the GW Shines at 2025 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 23, 2025)
Highlights from GW experts including Prof. Qu at the premier science gathering. -
One paper at SIGKDD 2025, KDD 2025 Undergraduate and Master Consortium. The top conference in Data Mining and Analysis.
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Seven papers and posters at HCI International 2025.
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Three papers at SIGKDD 2024, KDD 2024 Undergraduate Consortium.
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Evaluating Generative AI Models on Summarizing Undergraduate Data Science Research Papers Tse Saunders, Nawwaf Aleisa, Juliet Wield, Joshua Sherwood, Xiaodong Qu
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Optimizing Multichannel EEG Data: An Investigation of Current EEG Data Compression Methods Andrews Damoah, Teng Liang
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Enhancing EEG Data Quality: A Comprehensive Review of Outlier Detection and Cleaning Methods Sofia Utoft, Jingwen Dou, Jade Wu
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Eleven papers at HCI International 2024.
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AnoGAN for Tabular Data: A Novel Approach to Anomaly Detection Aditya Singh, Pavan Reddy
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Enhancing Representation Learning of EEG Data with Masked Autoencoders Yifei Zhou, Sitong Liu
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Whisper+AASIST for DeepFake Audio Detection Qian Luo, Kalyani Vinayagam Sivasundari
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Enhancing Eye-Tracking Performance through Multi-Task Learning Transformer Weigeng Li, Neng Zhou, Xiaodong Qu
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Advancing EEG-Based Gaze Prediction: Depthwise Separable Convolution and Pre-Processing Enhancements in EEGViT Matthew Key, Tural Mehtiyev, Xiaodong Qu
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Effect of Kernel Size on CNN-Vision-Transformer-Based Gaze Prediction Using Electroencephalography Data Chuhui Qiu, Bugao Liang, Matthew Key
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Fusing Pretrained ViTs with TCNet for Enhanced EEG Regression Eric Modesitt, Haicheng Yin, Williams Huang Wang, Brian Lu
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Integrating HCI Datasets in Project-Based Machine Learning Courses: A College-Level Review and Case Study Xiaodong Qu, Matthew Key, Qian Luo, Chuhui Qiu
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EEGMobile: Enhancing Speed and Accuracy in EEG-Based Gaze Prediction with Advanced Mobile Architectures Teng Liang, Andrews Damoah
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Refining Human-Data Interaction: Advanced Techniques for EEGEyeNet Dataset Precision Jade Wu, Jingwen Dou, Sofia Utoft
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Two more papers at SIGKDD 2023, KDD 2023 Undergraduate Consortium.
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Ruiqi Yang and Eric J Modesitt
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ViT2EEG: Leveraging Hybrid Pretrained Vision Transformers for EEG Data
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Nathan K Murungi, Michael V Pham, Xufeng Dai, and Xiaodong Qu
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Two papers at last year SIGKDD 2022, KDD 2022 Undergraduate Consortium, SIGKDD, the top conference in Data Mining and Analysis.
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Abdelrahman Abdelmonsef and Brian Xiang
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Guangyao Dou and Zheng Zhou
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EEG4Students: An Experimental Design for EEG Data Collection and Machine Learning Analysis
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Three Full-Time Research Students, Summer 2022:
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Abdelrahman Abdelmonsef, Brian Xiang, and Tianyi (Jonathan) Wang.
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Funded by Swarthmore Summer Research Opportunities
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More Student Papers
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(Selected from HCI International, one of the top twenty conferences in Human Computer Interaction)
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It’s Easy as ABC Framework for User Feedback, Sydney Levy, Alexandra Fischmann
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High-Powered Ocular Artifact Detection with C-LSTM-E, Ian McDiarmid-Sterling, Luca Cerbin
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Single-Subject vs. Cross-Subject Motor Imagery Models, Joseph Geraghty, George Schoettle
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ML vs DL: Accuracy and Testing Runtime Trade-offs in BCI, Anarsaikhan Tuvshinjargal, Elliot Kim
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Vector-Based Data Improves Left-Right Eye-Tracking Classifier Performance After a Covariate Distributional Shift, Brian Xiang, Abdelrahman Abdelmonsef
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CNN with Self-Attention in EEG Classification, Xuduo Wang, Ziji Wang
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Optimizing ML Algorithms under CSP and Riemannian Covariance in MI-BCIs, Yang Windhorse, Nader Almadbooh
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Using Machine Learning to Determine Optimal Sleeping Schedules of Individual College Students, Orlando Azuara Hernandez, Zachary Gillette
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Hierarchical Binary Classifiers for Sleep Stage Classification, Kenneth Barkdoll, Erebus Oh
Publications
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(Selected, more details are on my Google Scholar page and Research Gate page)
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Generative AI Tools in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Impact Xiaodong Qu, Joshua Sherwood, Peiyan Liu, Nawwaf Aleisa, CHI 2025. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{qu2025generative, title={Generative AI Tools in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Impact}, author={Qu, Xiaodong and Sherwood, Joshua and Liu, Peiyan and Aleisa, Nawwaf}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages={1--9}, year={2025} } -
From Theory to Play: A Review of EEG-Controlled Directional Games and Evaluation of Custom-Developed BCI Games Wensi Xie, Jingwen Dou, Yiran Wang, Xiaodong Qu, SIGKDD 2025. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@article{xie2025theory, title={From Theory to Play: A Review of EEG-Controlled Directional Games and Evaluation of Custom-Developed BCI Games}, author={Xie, Wensi and Dou, Jingwen and Wang, Yiran and Qu, Xiaodong}, year={2025} } -
A Systematic Review of Consumer-Grade EEG Applications in Directional Game Control via Motor Imagery Wensi Xie, Yiran Wang, Sara Dou, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2026 (Springer), pp. 85–105. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{xie2026systematic, title={A Systematic Review of Consumer-Grade EEG Applications in Directional Game Control via Motor Imagery}, author={Xie, Wensi and Wang, Yiran and Dou, Sara and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={85--105}, year={2026}, organization={Springer} } -
Low-Cost Wearable EEG in Non-Medical HCI: A Systematic Review of Applications, ML Pipelines, and Deployment Challenge Leqi Jia, HCI International 2026 (Springer), pp. 302–319. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{jia2026low, title={Low-Cost Wearable EEG in Non-Medical HCI: A Systematic Review of Applications, ML Pipelines, and Deployment Challenge}, author={Leqi Jia}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={302--319}, year={2026}, organization={Springer} } -
EMIGC: An EEG Motor Imagery Controller for Real-Time Gameplay Yiran Wang, Wensi Xie, Sara Dou, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2025 (Springer), pp. 63–76. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{wang2025emigc, title={EMIGC: An EEG Motor Imagery Controller for Real-Time Gameplay}, author={Wang, Yiran and Xie, Wensi and Dou, Sara and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={63--76}, year={2025}, organization={Springer} } -
Generative AI in Sports Management Education: A Systematic Review and Pilot Study Xinyu Liu, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2026 (Springer), pp. 121–133. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{liu2026generative, title={Generative AI in Sports Management Education: A Systematic Review and Pilot Study}, author={Liu, Xinyu and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={121--133}, year={2026}, organization={Springer} } -
GViT: Combining Convolutional and Transformer Layers for Spatial-Temporal EEG Analysis Chenxu Zhu, Yiming Xu, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2025 (Springer), pp. 433–442. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{zhu2025gvit, title={GViT: Combining Convolutional and Transformer Layers for Spatial-Temporal EEG Analysis}, author={Zhu, Chenxu and Xu, Yiming and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={433--442}, year={2025}, organization={Springer} } -
Accessible EEG Game Control: Real-Time Personalization with Consumer-Grade EEG Hardware Nawwaf Aleisa, Yingzhou Lu, Lifu Gao, Zeina Nweashe, Emily Flanagan, Matthew Winchester, Sylvester Junior Ampomah, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2025. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{aleisa2025accessible, title={Accessible EEG Game Control: Real-Time Personalization with Consumer-Grade EEG Hardware}, author={Aleisa, Nawwaf and Lu, Yingzhou and Gao, Lifu and Nweashe, Zeina and Flanagan, Emily and Winchester, Matthew and Ampomah, Sylvester Junior and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, year={2025}, organization={Springer} } -
A Review of Transformer-Based and Hybrid Deep Learning Approaches for EEG Analysis Aniket Konkar, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2026 (Springer), pp. 391–404. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{konkar2026review, title={A Review of Transformer-Based and Hybrid Deep Learning Approaches for EEG Analysis}, author={Konkar, Aniket and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, pages={391--404}, year={2026}, organization={Springer} } -
Human-Centered AI Agents for Healthcare and Education: A Systematic Literature Review Lifu Gao, Joshua Sherwood, Nawwaf Aleisa, Andrews Damoah, Yingzhou Lu, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2025. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{gao2025human, title={Human-Centered AI Agents for Healthcare and Education: A Systematic Literature Review}, author={Gao, Lifu and Sherwood, Joshua and Aleisa, Nawwaf and Damoah, Andrews and Lu, Yingzhou and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, year={2025}, organization={Springer} } -
FlockJS: A Browser-Native Game Engine Integrating WebGPU and Peer-to-Peer Networking for Scalable Multiplayer Experiences Faris Jiwad, Owen Wolff, Omar Barabandi, Laith Najjab, Xiaodong Qu, HCI International 2025. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{jiwad2025flockjs, title={FlockJS: A Browser-Native Game Engine Integrating WebGPU and Peer-to-Peer Networking for Scalable Multiplayer Experiences}, author={Jiwad, Faris and Wolff, Owen and Barabandi, Omar and Najjab, Laith and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction}, year={2025}, organization={Springer} } -
Evaluating Generative AI Models on Summarizing Undergraduate Data Science Research Papers Tse Saunders, Nawwaf Aleisa, Juliet Wield, Joshua Sherwood, Xiaodong Qu, SIGKDD 2024. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{saunders2024optimizing, title={Optimizing the Literature Review Process: Evaluating Generative AI Models on Summarizing Undergraduate Data Science Research Papers}, author={Saunders, Tse and Aleisa, Nawwaf and Wield, Juliet and Sherwood, Joshua and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining}, year={2024} } -
Optimizing Multichannel EEG Data: An Investigation of Current EEG Data Compression Methods Andrews Damoah, Teng Liang, SIGKDD 2024. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{damoah2024optimizing, title={Optimizing Multichannel EEG Data: An Investigation of Current EEG Data Compression Methods}, author={Damoah, Andrews and Liang, Teng}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining}, year={2024} } -
Enhancing EEG Data Quality: A Comprehensive Review of Outlier Detection and Cleaning Methods Sofia Utoft, Jingwen Dou, Jade Wu, SIGKDD 2024. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{utoft2024enhancing, title={Enhancing EEG Data Quality: A Comprehensive Review of Outlier Detection and Cleaning Methods}, author={Utoft, Sofia and Dou, Jingwen and Wu, Jade and Gunn Senior, HM}, booktitle={Proceedings of KDD Undergraduate Consortium (KDD-UC'24)}, year={2024}, organization={ACM} } -
ViT2EEG: Leveraging Hybrid Pretrained Vision Transformers for EEG Data Ruiqi Yang, Eric J. Modesitt, SIGKDD 2023. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{yang2023vit2eeg, title={ViT2EEG: Leveraging Hybrid Pretrained Vision Transformers for EEG Data}, author={Yang, Ruiqi and Modesitt, Eric J.}, booktitle={Proceedings of KDD Undergraduate Consortium (KDD-UC'23)}, year={2023} } -
Empowering Computer Science Students in Electroencephalography (EEG) Analysis: A Review of Machine Learning Algorithms for EEG Datasets Nathan K. Murungi, Michael V. Pham, Xufeng Dai, Xiaodong Qu, SIGKDD 2023. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{murungi2023empowering, title={Empowering Computer Science Students in Electroencephalography (EEG) Analysis: A Review of Machine Learning Algorithms for EEG Datasets}, author={Murungi, Nathan Koome and Pham, Michael Vinh and Dai, Xufeng Caesar and Qu, Xiaodong}, booktitle={The 29th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD)}, year={2023} } -
Too Fine or Too Coarse? The Goldilocks Composition of Data Complexity for Robust Left-Right Eye-Tracking Classifiers Abdelrahman Abdelmonsef, Brian Xiang, SIGKDD 2022. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{xiang2022too, title={Too Fine or Too Coarse? The Goldilocks Composition of Data Complexity for Robust Left-Right Eye-Tracking Classifiers}, author={Xiang, Brian and Abdelmonsef, Abdelrahman}, booktitle={SIGKDD}, year={2022} } -
EEG4Students: An Experimental Design for EEG Data Collection and Machine Learning Analysis Guangyao Dou, Zheng Zhou, SIGKDD 2022. [PDF]
[BibTeX]
@inproceedings{zhou2022eeg4students, title={EEG4Students: An Experimental Design for EEG Data Collection and Machine Learning Analysis}, author={Zhou, Zheng and Dou, Guangyao}, booktitle={SIGKDD}, year={2022} } -
Yi, Long, and Xiaodong Qu. "Attention-Based CNN Capturing EEG Recording’s Average Voltage and Local Change." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 448-459. Springer, Cham, 2022. Paper, Slides
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Wang, Ruyang, and Xiaodong Qu. "EEG Daydreaming, A Machine Learning Approach to Detect Daydreaming Activities." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 202-212. Springer, Cham, 2022. Paper, Slides
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Dou, Guangyao, Zheng Zhou, and Xiaodong Qu. "Time Majority Voting, a PC-based EEG Classifier for Non-expert Users." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2022, Late Breaking Work. PDF File, Slides
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Zhou, Zheng, Guangyao Dou, and Xiaodong Qu. "BrainActivity1: A Framework of EEG Data Collection and Machine Learning Analysis for College Students." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2022, Late Breaking Work. Paper, Poster
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Qu, Xiaodong, and Timothy J. Hickey. "EEG4Home: A Human-In-The-Loop Machine Learning Model for EEG-Based BCI." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 162-172. Springer, Cham, 2022. PDF File, Slides
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Qu, Xiaodong, Peiyan Liu, Zhaonan Li, and Timothy Hickey. "Multi-class Time Continuity Voting for EEG Classification." In International Conference on Brain Function Assessment in Learning, pp. 24-33. Springer, Cham, 2020. Best Paper Award, PDF File
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Qu, Xiaodong, Qingtian Mei, Peiyan Liu, and Timothy Hickey. "Using EEG to distinguish between writing and typing for the same cognitive task." In International Conference on Brain Function Assessment in Learning, pp. 66-74. Springer, Cham, 2020. PDF File
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Qu, Xiaodong, Saran Liukasemsarn, Jingxuan Tu, Amy Higgins, Timothy J. Hickey, and Mei-Hua Hall. "Identifying clinically and functionally distinct groups among healthy controls and first episode psychosis patients by clustering on EEG patterns." Frontiers in psychiatry (2020): 938. PDF File
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Qu, Xiaodong, Yixin Sun, Robert Sekuler, and Timothy Hickey. "EEG markers of STEM learning." In 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1-9. IEEE, 2018. PDF File
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Qu, Xiaodong, Mercedes Hall, Yile Sun, Robert Sekuler, and Timothy J. Hickey. "A Personalized Reading Coach using Wearable EEG Sensors." Presentation In Analytics in Education Environments (A2E2018). PDF File
Service
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Program board member for subconferences of HCI International, one of the top twenty conferences in Human Computer Interaction.
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Chair the following sessions in HCI International.
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S234: Affective and Cognitive Computing, (Wednesday, 03 July, 16:00 – 18:00, 2024)
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S245: EEG and Eye-tracking for Augmented Cognition, (Thursday, 04 July, 08:00 – 10:00, 2024)
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S267: Ensuring Accuracy and Reliability in AI Systems, (Thursday, 04 July, 10:30 – 12:30, 2024)
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S095: Input methods, techniques and devices - II, (Monday, 24 July, 16:00 – 18:00, 2023)
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S107: Design and evaluation methods and techniques - I, (Tuesday, 25 July, 08:00 – 10:00, 2023)
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S014: Advances in Augmented Cognition - I, (Sunday, 26 June: 19:30 – 21:30, 2022)
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S072: Advances in Augmented Cognition - IΙΙ, (Monday, 27 June: 17:30 – 19:30, 2022)
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Department Representative (Computer Science, 2022-23) of Sigma Xi