Hi, I’m Irene Hou! I’m a third-year Cognitive Science PhD student in the Design Lab at UC San Diego, advised by Philip Guo. I’m also a 2026 Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellow and 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

My research spans Human-Centered AI, Human-Computer Interaction, and computing education. I study how generative AI impacts the ways people build tacit knowledge and expertise, whether through hands-on practice (like lab scientists) or learning communities (like computing students). I often draw on qualitative and participatory AI approaches.

I’ve been a visiting researcher at ETH Zürich in April Wang’s PEACH lab (2025, 2026). Before my PhD, I was a Research Lead in Stephen MacNeil’s HCI Lab and UX Lead at FluentPet in collaboration with the Comparative Cognition Lab. Outside of research, I write fiction/poetry and was one of America’s youngest published authors at 14.