Who is David C. Jeong?

David C. Jeong, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Human-AI Communication at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore. He also serves as Assistant Dean for Technology and Education in NTU's College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and directs the NTU Embodied Dynamics Lab.

What is Human-AI Communication?

Human-AI Communication studies communication between people and intelligent systems, including how language, embodiment, behavior, and interface cues shape understanding, trust, agency, social presence, and relationships.

What does the NTU Embodied Dynamics Lab study?

The NTU Embodied Dynamics Lab studies embodied human–AI interaction: how people interpret intelligent machines, how embodiment and repeated interaction shape social relationships, and how movement and multimodal behavior can be measured.

Is David recruiting PhD students?

Yes. The lab is recruiting doctoral students in human-AI interaction at NTU WKWSCI. Strong fits come from communication, HCI, computer vision, cognitive science, or design, and students from every background and path are welcome. Reach out through the contact section with a short note about what you want to build.

How can I collaborate with or invite David?

David welcomes research and speaking inquiries on human-AI communication, embodied interaction, social presence, XR, and behavioral measurement. He also welcomes conversations about AI in higher education and responsible university-industry collaboration.

What is David's academic background?

UCLA (B.A., Communication), Harvard (Ed.M., Mind, Brain and Education), USC (Ph.D., Communication), followed by postdoctoral training in computer science at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies and Northeastern's Khoury College of Computer Sciences.

Where can I read David's research?

His publications, including work at ICCV, IROS, IEEE RA-L, and Psychological Inquiry, are listed in the publications section of this site and on Google Scholar, ORCID, DBLP, Scopus, and Web of Science.

Human–AI Communication · Embodied Interaction · XR

David C. Jeong, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Human-AI Communication
Assistant Dean for Technology and Education
Nanyang Technological University

View research → View publications →

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About

Communication · Cognitive Science · Computer Science

I am a communication scholar, grounded in cognitive science and trained in computer science. I study how people understand, trust, and communicate with AI systems across physical and virtual settings.

Read the full story →

Education & training

Ph.D., Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Ed.M., Mind, Brain & Education, Harvard University
B.A., Communication Studies, UCLA
Postdoc, Agent-Based Social Simulation Modeling, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
Postdoc, Intelligent Artificial Agents & Virtual Environments, Northeastern University

Current roles

Assistant Professor of Human-AI Communication
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Assistant Dean for Technology and Education
College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Nanyang Technological University
Read about my work in technology and education →

Research & Lab

How people come to know a made thing as someone

I study how people interpret intelligent machines and how embodiment, identity, movement, and repeated interaction shape the relationships that follow. This is the work of the NTU Embodied Dynamics Lab.

Explore the Embodied Dynamics Lab →

Current work

Motion capture to digital twin pose stream. Drag the ink figure’s joints and the twin mirrors you; double-click to reset.

Pose logging is local to this browser session.

Human-AI Communication & Embodied Interaction Lab · WKWSCI, NTU Singapore

Collaborate
The lab welcomes research conversations about embodied human–AI interaction, social presence, identity, cooperation, XR, computer vision, and behavioral measurement. Please reach out. 문의 있으시면 편히 연락 주세요.

Join the lab
I’m recruiting PhD students in human-AI interaction, and I’d love to hear from you. Strong fits come from communication, HCI, computer vision, cognitive science, or design, but I care most about curiosity and follow-through. Students from every background and path are welcome. Feel free to reach out to me with questions and interest.

News & Updates

Milestones and updates, published as they arrive

Selected Work

Featured Research

Representative projects in computer vision, simulation, social presence, and human–machine communication. Hover or focus a tile to reveal its resident figure. Select a tile to open the publication.

What am I seeing?

These images represent several kinds of work: reconstructing a body from egocentric video, recognizing emotion from movement and context, simulating decisions, and studying identity and social presence in virtual environments. Hover, focus, or tap a tile to see its diagram move.

A 3D human body mesh reconstruction, mid-stride, rendered in pale blue-grey against a plain background. — Fish2Mesh Transformer

ICCV 2025 · Egocentric mesh recovery

Two small toy figures standing face to face, holding hands. — MoEmo Vision Transformer

IROS 2023

A sound wave rendered as a ridged three dimensional form on a pale background. — AcousNet

IEEE RA-L 2022

A hurricane photographed from orbit, with the eye of the storm near the center. — Disaster World

CMOT 2022 · Theory-of-mind agents

A network graph of brightly colored nodes joined by thin lines against a dark background. — Causal Inference

Psychological Inquiry 2019

A small toy figure sitting alone at the end of a wooden dock, looking out at the water. — Shippers and Kinnies

FDG 2023

A person in a hood holding a plain white mask in front of their face. — The Alt-Self

CHI PLAY 2024

Selected Publications

Full list on Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar

XR / Virtual & Extended Reality5

Stress and coping in VRChat: A mixed-method case study of the use of VRChat as a coping tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leith, A. P., Lim, C., Foxman, M., Beyea, D., & Jeong, D. C. (2025). Computers in Human Behavior Reports, advance online publication.

XR · Health · Social Media
The Alt-Self: Investigating the inclusivity of self-avatar representations in social VR.

Javier, M., Wheeler, S., Ni, Q., Drivas, M., Fitzsimmons, S., et al., & Jeong, D. C. (2024). In CHI PLAY ’24 Companion: Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 131–138.

XR · Social VR · Identity
Protean kinematics: A blended model of VR physics.

Jeong, D. C., Kim, S. S. Y., Xu, J. J., & Miller, L. C. (2021). Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 705170.

XR · Motion · Modeling
Virtual environments for the representative assessment of personality: VE-RAP.

Miller, L. C., Jeong, D. C., & Christensen, J. L. (2021). In Measuring and Modeling Persons and Situations (pp. 223–252). Academic Press.

XR · Personality · Assessment
Virtual prognostication: When virtual alcohol choices predict change in alcohol consumption over 6 months.

Wang, L., Miller, L. C., Jeong, D. C., & Christensen, J. L. (2019). Computers in Human Behavior, 93, 250–258.

XR · Behavior Change · Health

AI / Machine Learning3

Disaster World: Decision-theoretic agents for simulating population responses to hurricanes.

Pynadath, D. V., Dilkina, B., Jeong, D. C., John, R. S., Marsella, S. C., Merchant, C., Miller, L. C., & Read, S. J. (2022). Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 29, 84–117.

Agents · Simulation · Social Modeling
User–agent bond in generalizable environments: Long-term risk reduction via nudged virtual choices.

Wang, L., Christensen, J. L., Smith, B. J., Gillig, T. K., Jeong, D. C., et al. (2021). Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 695389.

AI · Virtual Agents · Behavior Change
A supervised topic model approach to learning effective styles within human-agent negotiation.

Xu, Y., Jeong, D. C., Sequeira, P., Gratch, J., Aslam, J., & Marsella, S. (2020). In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS), 2047–2049.

AI · Human-Agent Negotiation · NLP

Computer Vision / 3D Pose & Mesh Estimation3

Fish2Mesh Transformer: 3D Human Mesh Recovery from Egocentric Vision.

Shen, T., Puranik, A., Vong, J., Deogirikar, V., Fell, R., Dietrich, J., Kyrarini, M., Kitts, C., & Jeong, D. C. (2025). Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV).

Computer Vision · Mesh Recovery · Egocentric XR
SoloPose: One-Shot Kinematic 3D Human Pose Estimation with Video Data Augmentation.

Jeong, D. C., Liu, H., Salazar, S., Jiang, J., & Kitts, C. A. (2023). CoRR, abs/2312.10195.

Computer Vision · 3D Pose · Data Augmentation
Inverse kinematics and temporal convolutional networks for sequential pose analysis in VR.

Jeong, D. C., Xu, J. J., & Miller, L. C. (2020). In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR), 274–281.

Computer Vision · Pose Estimation · XR

Robotics / Human–Robot Interaction4

Real-Time Acoustic Holography With Physics-Based Deep Learning for Robotic Manipulation.

Zhong, C., Li, J., Sun, Z., Li, T., Guo, Y., Jeong, D. C., Su, H., & Liu, S. (2024). IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 21(3), 4155–4164.

Robotics · Acoustic Holography · Automation
Noncontact Particle Manipulation on Water Surface with Ultrasonic Phased Array System and Microscopic Vision.

Zhang, Y., Li, J., Jia, Y., Li, T., Wang, Y., Jeong, D. C., Su, H., & Liu, S. (2023). In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 5459–5465.

Robotics · Ultrasonics · ICRA 2023
MoEmo Vision Transformer: Integrating Cross-Attention and Movement Vectors in 3D Pose Estimation for HRI Emotion Detection.

Jeong, D. C., Shen, T., Liu, H., Kapoor, R., Nguyen, C., Liu, S., & Kitts, C. A. (2023). In 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 9846–9852.

HRI · Vision Transformer · IROS 2023
AcousNet: A Deep Learning Based Approach to Dynamic 3D Holographic Acoustic Field Generation From Phased Transducer Array.

Zhong, C., Jia, Y., Jeong, D. C., Guo, Y., & Liu, S. (2022). IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), 666–673.

Robotics · RA-L · Acoustic Control

Health Communication6

Socially Optimized Learning in Virtual Environments (SOLVE): Developing, evaluating, and disseminating a game HIV-prevention intervention nationally over the web.

Miller, L. C., Christensen, J. L., Appleby, P. R., Read, S. J., Marsella, S., et al., & Jeong, D. (2014). Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine, 3(1s), 4.

Health · Games · Intervention
Friends over doctors? The influences of source and perceived customization on college drinking.

Niu, Z., Jeong, D. C., & Willoughby, J. F. (2021). Health Communication, 36(6), 671–681.

Health · Alcohol Use · Message Design
An experimental investigation into promoting mental health service use on social media: Effects of source and comments.

Niu, Z., Hu, L., Jeong, D. C., Brickman, J., & Stapleton, J. L. (2020). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), 7898.

Health · Social Media · Mental Health
A picture worth a thousand texts? Investigating the influences of visual appeals in a text message-based health intervention.

Niu, Z., Jeong, D. C., Brickman, J., Nam, Y., Liu, S., & Stapleton, J. L. (2020). Journal of Health Communication, 25(3), 204–213.

Health · Visual Design · Mobile Messaging
Associations of social media use, patient-centered communication, and knowledge with perceived HPV vaccine effectiveness.

Niu, Z., Bhurosy, T., Jeong, D. C., Coups, E. J., Heckman, C. J., & Stapleton, J. L. (2020). American Journal of Health Behavior, 44(5), 642–651.

Health · Social Media · Vaccination
Health education on mobile devices: A pilot study of human presence and mobile technologies on college students’ sun protection.

Niu, Z., Jeong, D. C., Coups, E. J., & Stapleton, J. L. (2019). JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 7(3), e13720.

Health · Mobile · Presence

Social Media / Games / Platforms6

Social presence in human–machine communication.

Xu, K., & Jeong, D. C. (2023). In The SAGE Handbook of Human–Machine Communication (p. 287). SAGE.

HMC · Social Presence · Theory
Shifting the Meta: Bridging the gap between scholar and developer perspectives of the post-pandemic game industry.

Redinbo, J., Patwardhan, G., Foxman, M., & Jeong, D. C. (2025). In Abstract Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads.

Games · Industry · Platforms
Snap back to reality: Examining the cognitive mechanisms underlying Snapchat.

Jeong, D. C., & Lee, J. (2017). Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 274–281.

Social Media · Attention · Ephemerality
Shippers and Kinnies: Re-conceptualizing parasocial relationships with fictional characters in contemporary fandom.

Nguyen, T. M., Khadadeh, M., & Jeong, D. C. (2023). In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG), 1–12.

Fandom · Parasocial · Games
Examining attitudes about the virtual workplace: Zoom fatigue, impression management, and virtual meeting adoption intent.

Lim, C., Ratan, R., Foxman, M., Beyea, D., Jeong, D. C., & Leith, A. P. (2025). PLOS ONE, 20(2), e0312354.

Platforms · Remote Work · Presence
Civic engagement in China against misinformation using danmu during the initial COVID-19 outbreak.

Xu, J. J., & Jeong, D. C. (2022). In The Routledge Handbook of Media Education Futures Post-Pandemic. Routledge.

Platforms · Misinformation · Civic

Cognitive Psychology / Morality8

Understanding human social kinematics using virtual agents.

Jeong, D. C., Feng, D., & Marsella, S. (2018). In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci).

Cognition · Nonverbal Behavior · Virtual Agents
Bringing the “real world” into the experimental lab: Technology-enabling transformative designs.

Miller, L. C., Wang, L., Jeong, D. C., & Gillig, T. (2019). In Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems. Wiley.

Cognition · Methods · Simulation
Causal inference in generalizable environments: Systematic representative designs.

Miller, L. C., Shaikh, S. J., Jeong, D. C., Wang, L., Gillig, T. K., Christensen, J. L., Marsella, S., & Read, S. J. (2019). Psychological Inquiry, 30(4), 173–202.

Cognition · Methods · Causal Inference
Systematic representative design: A reply to commentaries.

Miller, L. C., Jeong, D. C., Wang, L., Shaikh, S. J., Gillig, T. K., Godoy, C. G., Appleby, P. R., Corsbie-Massay, C. L., Marsella, S., Christensen, J. L., & Read, S. J. (2019). Psychological Inquiry, 30(4), 250–263.

Cognition · Methods · Rejoinder
Prefrontal cortical activity during the Stroop task: New insights into the why and the who of real-world risky sexual behavior.

Barkley-Levenson, E., Xue, F., Droutman, V., Miller, L. C., Smith, B. J., Jeong, D. C., Lu, Z.-L., Bechara, A., & Read, S. J. (2018). Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 52(5), 367–379.

Cognition · Neuroscience · Decision-Making
Negative feedback in your face: Examining the effects of proxemics and gender on learning.

Jeong, D. C., Feng, D., Krämer, N. C., Miller, L. C., & Marsella, S. (2017). In Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA), 170–183. Springer.

Cognition · Proxemics · Virtual Agents
Parental rejection after coming out: Detachment, shame, and the reparative power of romantic love.

Kim, H. M., Jeong, D. C., Appleby, P. R., Christensen, J. L., & Miller, L. C. (2021). International Journal of Communication, 15.

Cognitive · Emotion · Relationships
“Is it just me?”: Evaluating attribution of negative feedback as a function of virtual instructor’s gender and proxemics.

Feng, D., Jeong, D. C., Krämer, N. C., Miller, L. C., & Marsella, S. (2017). In Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems, 810–818.

Cognitive · Attribution · Virtual Agents

For a complete and up-to-date list of publications, please see Google Scholar, DBLP, Web of Science, Scopus, and ORCID.

Teaching

Courses and approach

Courses taught

Technology and Communication
Quantitative Research Methods
Media Psychology
VR Design & Development
Big Data Analytics

I teach students to examine how communication technologies shape behavior, institutions, and social life. In courses involving AI and emerging media, that means combining conceptual work with direct experimentation. Read about my work in technology and education →

Contact

Email and profiles

I welcome inquiries from prospective students and collaborators working on human–AI communication, embodied interaction, social presence, XR, computer vision, and behavioral measurement. I also welcome conversations about AI in higher education and responsible university–industry collaboration.

Email: david.jeongcg [at] ntu.edu.sg
Affiliation: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University
Campus office: 31 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637718

Profiles: NTU Profile · Scholar · DBLP · ORCID · Web of Science · Scopus · LinkedIn · Semantic Scholar · ACM · IEEE

NTU Wee Kim Wee School

CS 02-46
31 Nanyang Link
Singapore 637718

David C. Jeong is based at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.

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David C. Jeong, Ph.D.

About

Research & Lab

News & Updates

Featured Research

Fish2Mesh Transformer

MoEmo Vision Transformer

AcousNet

Disaster World

Causal Inference

Social Presence in HMC

Shippers and Kinnies

The Alt-Self

Selected Publications

Teaching

Contact

NTU Wee Kim Wee School