I'll be starting as an Assistant Teaching Professor at Cornell Information Science in July 2027!

Hi, I'm Alan Cheng!

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 building engaging, interactive learning technologies.

ayc@[institution]CV
Alan Cheng

Research & Publications

  1. UIST 2025
    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

  2. CHI 2024
    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

  3. SIGCSE 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

  4. CHI 2023
    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

  5. CHI 2017
    Teaching Language and Culture with a Virtual Reality Game

    Alan Cheng, Lei Yang, and Erik Andersen

Teaching Experience

Courses taught as Instructor of Record

  1. CS 147L
    Autumn 2023Autumn 2024Autumn 2025

    Cross-Platform Mobile Development

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

    125-160 students

  2. CS 103
    Summer 2021

    Mathematical Foundations of Computing

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

    116 students