I'm on the job market for the 2025-26 cycle!

Hi, I'm Alan Cheng!

Computer Science Educator • HCI Researcher

I'm a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Stanford University, advised by James Landay and Chris Piech. I also collaborate with Roy Pea in the Graduate School of Education.

I'm passionate about teaching and incorporating evidence-based practices into my work. I like to design and build engaging, interactive learning technologies, which is the focus of my research.

ayc@[institution]CV

Research & Publications

Oak Story: Improving Learner Outcomes with LLM-Mediated Interactive Narratives

Alan Y. Cheng, Carolyn Q. Zou, Anthony Xie, Matthew Hsu, Felicia Yan, Felicity Huang, David K. Zhang, Arjun Sharma, Rashon Poole, Daniel Wan Rosli, Andrea Cuadra, Roy D. Pea, and James A. Landay

UIST 2025

Scientific and Fantastical: Creating Immersive, Culturally-Relevant Learning Experiences with Augmented Reality and Large Language Models

Alan Y. Cheng*, Meng Guo*, Melissa Ran, Arpit Ranasaria, Arjun Sharma, Anthony Xie, Khuyen N. Le, Bala Vinaithirthan, Shihe (Tracy) Luan, David Thomas Henry Wright, Andrea Cuadra, Roy D. Pea, and James A. Landay

CHI 2024

Brief, Just-in-Time Teaching Tips to Support Computer Science Tutors

Alan Y. Cheng, Ellie Tanimura, Joseph Tey, Andrew C. Wu, and Emma Brunskill

SIGCSE 2024

Designing Immersive, Narrative-Based Interfaces to Guide Outdoor Learning

Alan Y. Cheng, Jacob Ritchie, Niki Agrawal, Elizabeth Childs, Cyan DeVeaux, Yubin Jee, Trevor Leon, Bethanie Maples, Andrea Cuadra, and James A. Landay

CHI 2023

Teaching Language and Culture with a Virtual Reality Game

Alan Cheng, Lei Yang, and Erik Andersen

CHI 2017

Teaching Experience

Courses Taught (as Instructor of Record)

CS 147L: Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Programming course for undergraduate and graduate students covering the foundations of cross-platform mobile development in React Native.

Autumn 2023Autumn 2024Autumn 2025125-160 students

CS 103: Mathematical Foundations of Computing

Foundational course covering discrete mathematics and introductory computer science theory, required for all CS majors.

Summer 2021116 students