Zihan Wu
Assistant Professor at University of Maine
Greater Bangor Area United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolZihan Wu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine and a PhD in Information Science from the University of Michigan with eight years of experience spanning HCI, computing education research, and front-end engineering. His background combines a CS and Psychology double bachelor’s from Tsinghua with hands-on industry internships at Google and research roles at U-M, enabling a cross-disciplinary approach to designing interactive learning tools. He contributed key front-end functionality to the widely used RunestoneComponents project—building a horizontal Parsons problem tool with drag-and-drop, reusable blocks, editor integration, and SQL syntax highlighting—to improve code-learning UX. Zihan’s work blends empirical research with practical tool-building, often focusing on how interface affordances and feedback shape novice programmers’ learning.
8 years of coding experience
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Information Science/Studies, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Information Science/Studies at University of MichiganBachelor of Engineering - BE, Computer Science and Technology, Bachelor of Engineering - BE, Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University
Github Skills (8)
html10
javascript10
user-interface10
front-end-development10
graphical-user-interface10
human-interface10
css9
sql7
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
RunestoneInteractive/RunestoneComponents
Feb 2022 - Jan 2023
Packaging of the Runestone tools for publishing educational materials using github pages
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:66 commits, 8 PRs, 12 comments in 11 months
Contributions summary:Zihan primarily contributed to the development of the horizontal Parsons tool, a component for interactive learning. Their work included implementing the core functionality of the tool, such as the ability to drag and drop code blocks, and the integration of the code editor. They also added features like the ability to reuse blocks and incorporate block-based feedback, while integrating with an existing code execution environment. They improved the overall user experience by incorporating visual elements such as tooltips and providing feedback related to block arrangement, also adding SQL syntax highlighting.
educational-materialspackagingpublishing
amy21206/RunestoneComponents
Feb 2022 - May 2023
Packaging of the Runestone tools for publishing educational materials using github pages
Contributions:2 PRs, 84 pushes, 15 branches in 1 year 3 months
educational-materialspackagingpublishing
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