Chau Vu. Châu Vũ.

CS Student @ Pomona College

Both an academic and a programmer at heart, my research concerns the full tech cycle from shipping and evaluating machine-learning-powered systems to developing theoretical frameworks that inspire the next ones. I've applied both technical and theoretical skills to solve critical problems across multiple domains, including personal informatics, creativity support, education, and always challenge myself with new ideas—all centered on keeping humans at the core of technology.

Beyond research, I built software at Microsoft. Honored to have published and received Best Paper awards at premier research venues including ACM UIST and CHI.

Chau Vu presenting at Google PI&E Summit

Chau Vu presented at Google PI&E Summit in Sunnyvale on accessibility and HCI.

News

[01 - 2026] — Honored to receive the Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award [link]

Pomona's First CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. 1 of 8 awardees across North American universities.

[10 - 2025] — Presented "Computationally Scaffolding of Composition, Value, and Color" and received Best Paper Award at UIST 2025 (Top 1%).

In-person presentation in Busan, Korea.

Publications

My work would not have been possible without the support of my advisors at Pomona College & UC Irvine: Dr. Alexandra Papoutsaki, Dr. Jingyi Li, and Dr. Daniel Epstein.

Computational Scaffolding of Composition, Value, and Color for Disciplined Drawing
— UIST 2025 Best Paper Award

Jiaju Ma, Chau Vu*, Asya Lyubavina*, Catherine Liu, Jingyi Li. Details · Code

Understanding Temporality of Reflection in Personal Informatics through Baby Tracking
— CHI 2025 Honorable Mention Best Paper Award

Julianne Louie*, Tara Mukund*, Chau Vu*, Daniel Epstein, Alexandra Papoutsaki. Details

Mind wandering somewhere in between Hanoi and Los Angeles.

I like building things—staying close to the code, whether for research or ideas that simply won't leave me alone. Visit GitHub for a full list of my projects.

Outside of work, you will find me at a movie theatre (my updating Letterboxd), gym, or in the wild catching moments on a digicam when I travel:

All locations

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