Research outputs

Publications

Work across human-centered AI, ubiquitous computing, sensing, and human activity recognition. For citation counts and the latest indexing, visit Google Scholar .

2026

IMUdrape: Generating Garment-Mounted Virtual IMU Data from Text through Physics-Based Cloth Simulation

Zikang Leng, Thomas Plötz

Under review

Project page →Paper ↗Code ↗

EduGage: A Multimodal Dataset and Benchmark for Sensor-Based Momentary Assessment of Engagement in Self-Guided Video Learning

Zikang Leng*, Edan Eyal*, Yingtian Shi, Jiaman He, Yaqi Liu, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 10(4), 2026

Project page →Paper ↗Code ↗Dataset ↗

StitchSense: Smart-Garment Sensing as a Source Domain for Watch-Based Activity Recognition

Ishita Datta, Zikang Leng, Rachit Bhayana, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the 2026 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), 22–28, 2026

Paper ↗

AgentSense: Virtual Sensor Data Generation Using LLM Agents in Simulated Home Environments

Zikang Leng*, Megha Thukral*, Yaqi Liu*, Hrudhai Rajasekhar, Shruthi K Hiremath, Jiaman He, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 40(3), 1891–1899, 2026

Project page →Paper ↗arXiv ↗Code ↗

2025

Scaling Human Activity Recognition: A Comparative Evaluation of Synthetic Data Generation and Augmentation Techniques

Zikang Leng, Archith Iyer, Thomas Plötz

arXiv preprint, 2025

Paper ↗

Can We Hide Machines in the Crowd? Quantifying Equivalence in LLM-in-the-loop Annotation Tasks

Jiaman He, Zikang Leng, Dana McKay, Damiano Spina, Johanne R Trippas

ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval in the Asia Pacific Region (SIGIR-AP), 2025

Paper ↗

Towards More Equitable Ulcer Recognition Models: A Dataset of Naturalistic Foot Images from People of Color Living with Diabetes

Cynthia Baseman, Yingtian Shi, Zikang Leng, Yaqi Liu, Gabriel Santamarina, Marcos C Schechter, Maya Fayfman, Thomas Ploetz, Rosa I Arriaga

IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), 2025

Paper ↗

259-OR: Evaluating Diabetic Foot Ulcer Recognition Algorithms for Patients of Color

Cynthia Baseman, Zikang Leng, Thomas Plötz, Gabriel Santamarina, Marcos C. Schechter, Maya Fayfman, Rosa I. Arriaga

Diabetes, 74(Supplement 1), American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, 2025

Paper ↗

Characterising Topic Familiarity and Query Specificity Using Eye-Tracking Data

Jiaman He, Zikang Leng, Dana McKay, Johanne R Trippas, Damiano Spina

Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR), 2602–2606, 2025

Paper ↗

2024

IMUGPT 2.0: Language-Based Cross Modality Transfer for Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition

Zikang Leng, Amitrajit Bhattacharjee, Hrudhai Rajasekhar, Lizhe Zhang, Elizabeth Bruda, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 8(3), 1–32, 2024

Project page →Paper ↗Code ↗

More Data for People with Disabilities! Comparing Data Collection Efforts for Wheelchair Transportation Mode Detection

Best Paper Nomination

Sungjin Hwang*, Zikang Leng*, Seungwoo Oh, Kwanguk Kim, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), 82–88, 2024

Paper ↗

Emotion Recognition on the Go: Utilizing Wearable IMUs for Personalized Emotion Recognition

Zikang Leng*, Myeongul Jung*, Sungjin Hwang, Seungwoo Oh, Lizhe Zhang, Thomas Plötz, Kwanguk Kim

HASCA Workshop, Companion of the 2024 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp/ISWC), 537–544, 2024

Paper ↗

2023

FingerSpeller: Camera-Free Text Entry Using Smart Rings for American Sign Language Fingerspelling Recognition

David Martin*, Zikang Leng*, Tan Gemicioglu, Jon Womack, Jocelyn Heath, William C Neubauer, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz, Thad Starner

Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2023

Paper ↗Data ↗

On the Benefit of Generative Foundation Models for Human Activity Recognition

Zikang Leng, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz

Generative AI for Pervasive Computing (GenAI4PC) Symposium within UbiComp/ISWC, 2023

Paper ↗

Generating Virtual On-body Accelerometer Data from Virtual Textual Descriptions for Human Activity Recognition

Best Paper Honorable Mention

Zikang Leng, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), 39–43, 2023

Project page →Paper ↗Code ↗

On the Utility of Virtual On-body Acceleration Data for Fine-grained Human Activity Recognition

Zikang Leng, Yash Jain, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz

Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), 55–59, 2023

Paper ↗

2022

Fine-grained Human Activity Recognition Using Virtual On-body Acceleration Data

Zikang Leng, Yash Jain, Hyeokhyen Kwon, Thomas Plötz

arXiv preprint, 2022

Paper ↗