cv

Basics

Name Adnan Abbas
Label CS PhD Student @ Virginia Tech
Email adnana99@vt.edu
Phone 540-558-5330
Url https://adnan-abbas.github.io
Summary A Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher exploring how conversational and agentic AI systems can support productivity, self-reflection, and collaboration. My work investigates how people engage with large language model–driven agents for planning and behavior change, and how such systems shape social interaction, cooperation, and collective knowledge practices in the workplace.

Work

  • 2023.08 - 2025.08
    Graduate Teaching Assistant
    Virginia Tech
    Instructional support for multiple CS courses.
    • CS 2114: Software Design & Data Structures (Fall 2023 — Fall 2024)
    • CS 3744: Introduction to GUI Programming / Graphics (Spring 2025)
    • CS 5024: Ethics & Professionalism in Computer Science (Summer 2025)
  • 2023.08 - Present
    Graduate Research Assistant
    Virginia Tech — Echolab
    HCI research on agentic conversational support for planning and reflection; end-to-end system design, deployment, and mixed-methods evaluation.
    • Reviewed 100+ papers on human–AI interaction and behavioral science to surface design and analysis gaps.
    • Engineered and field-deployed a Slack-based agent promoting diverse productivity interventions.
    • Ran a two-week mixed-methods field study (N=12) using interviews, conversation logs, and daily surveys.
    • Conducted qualitative (open/thematic coding, dialogue-act analysis) and quantitative analyses (Python/R).
    • Published findings at CUI 2025.
  • 2022.07 - 2023.07
    Educational Technology Engineer
    Educative, Inc.
    Developed interactive XR courses and platform features; led content and prototyping.
    • Authored flagship courses: WebXR Experiences and VR Development with Unity.
    • Prototyped a WebADB-based VR widget for in-browser headset integration.
    • Conducted usability tests (N=20) to improve navigation and comprehension.
  • 2020.07 - 2022.05
    Research Assistant
    Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
    Systems research on edge-based cellular control planes.
    • Co-developed a design for optimizing control-plane operations; geographically aware consistent hashing.
    • Improved latency-sensitive application performance by up to ~2.8× under real-world cellular traffic.

Education

  • 2023.08 - Present

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Ph.D.
    Virginia Tech
    Computer Science (HCI)
  • 2018.08 - 2022.05

    Lahore, Pakistan

    B.S.
    Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
    Computer Science

Publications

Skills

Research Methods
Mixed-methods design
Field deployment
Semi-structured interviews
Storyboarding
Thematic analysis
Dialogue-act coding
Statistical modeling
Programming
Python
JavaScript (Node.js, React)
C++
Java
SQL
HTML/CSS
Bash
Tools & Frameworks
OpenAI API
Flask
MongoDB
MERN stack
Slack Bolt
Docker
GitHub
Figma
Balsamiq
Nginx

Languages

English
Urdu
Gujarati

Interests

Human–AI Interaction
Agentic LLMs
Conversational UX
Behavior change
Organizational memory

Projects