Christopher You

Email
christopheryou@ufl.edu
Location

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL USA

About me

👋 Hi, there! I'm Christopher, a Ph.D. researcher focusing on on virtual agents, applied AI/LLMs, virtual reality, embodiment and machine learning to promote health and wellbeing. Much of my research is also conducted collaboratively with organizations, such as the Mayo Clinic, to support NIH/NSF grants addressing cancer disparities within underrepresented populations. I am completing my Human-Centered Computing PhD (M.S. in Computer Science, 2022) at the University of Florida with Dr. Benjamin Lok in the Virtual Experiences Research Group.

LIVE BOBA CAM

Outside of research, I enjoy traveling, spending time on the lakes, and (poorly) playing golf. To the right is my beloved cat Boba.

I'm actively pursuing research positions in the field of human-computer interaction and computer science, particularly with virtual agents, AI/ML/LLMs, and AR/VR/XR technologies.

Research Interests

Virtual Agents

Project(s): Embodied Interactions With Virtual Agents, Virtual Agents in Mental Health Conversations, GET PrEPD Psychiatry
AI/ML

Project(s): Fine-Tuned BERT & Data Augmentation to Classify..., Clinical Trial Enrollment Project
Virtual Reality

Project(s): Embodiment & Agency of Virtual Avatars
Mental Health & Healthcare

Project(s): Virtual Agents in Mental Health Conversations, Clinical Trial Enrollment Project

Curriculum Vitae

Download Academic CV Download Resume

Education

Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing, University of Florida
Aug 2020 — May 2026
Advisor: Dr. Benjamin Lok | GPA: 3.8
M.S. in Computer Science, University of Florida
Aug 2020 — Dec 2022
Advisor: Dr. Benjamin Lok | GPA: 3.8
B.S. in Computer Science, University of Minnesota
Sep 2018 — May 2020
Advisor: Dr. Evan Suma Rosenberg | GPA: 3.8

Experience

Research Assistant, University of Florida
Aug 2020 — May 2026
• Broad impacts of research: (1) embodied agents to improve care for psychiatric patients (NIH R34 Grant), (2) AI clinical trial enrollment platform for cancer patients (NIH R24/U01 Grant), (3) AI patient simulations in university curriculum, and (4) conversational AI and agentic systems to support mental well-being.

• Designed Build-a-Being Yourself, a web-based conversational AI research platform enabling domain experts to rapidly author and deploy agent-based interventions at scale across multiple active studies.

• Developed and evaluated a multi-institutional AI Clinical Trial Enrollment Platform, conducting user studies with 1500+ patients and building evaluation pipelines analyzing model outputs, engagement metrics, and behavioral outcomes.

• Investigated human-AI collaboration through 10+ web-deployed user studies, integrating user-state modeling, retrieval-augmented generation, LLM fine-tuning, and VR technologies into experimental research protocols.

• Mentored undergraduate and graduate students in research methods, system development, and academic writing, directly advising 3 undergraduates to peer-reviewed publication.
Teaching Assistant, University of Florida
Jan 2024 — May 2024
• Designed coursework and projects for CEN4722: User Experience Design, including a semester-long capstone in which 25 student teams conducted user interviews with campus organizations and peers to identify pain points and prototype meaningful application solutions.

• Curated weekly readings to reinforce course objectives and develop critical thinking around human-centered design principles.

• Collaborated with faculty to plan lectures and course activities, held regular office hours, and provided feedback to support 100 students across all stages of the design process.
Research Assistant, Davidson College
May 2022 — Aug 2022
• Conducted in-depth research on embodiment and agency in avatars within VR and desktop environments, leading to two publications.

• Built IK-driven avatar systems to achieve high-fidelity user embodiment using consumer VR tracking.
Software Engineering Intern, Amazon
May 2020 — Aug 2020
• Architected knowledge graph-backed query system spanning Amazon Help Services and Alexa, enabling semantic search across large-scale service documentation.

• Designed and implemented full-stack SPARQL query interface, integrating NLP-driven entity resolution with a structured graph backend.

• Built frontend and API layer to expose graph query results to end users at production scale.
Research Assistant, University of Minnesota
Oct 2018 — May 2020
• Created novel redirection techniques for locomotion in VR, leading to two publications.

• Developed programming skills in C# using Unity to explore practical applications of VR systems.

Funding Received

Generation NEXT Fellowship, $10,000, University of Florida
2023 — 2026
Computer & Information Science & Engineering Scholarship, $2,500, University of Florida
2024 — 2025
Olson-Mitchell STEM Translational Communications Project Award, $5,000, University of Florida
2021 — 2022
Graduate School Preeminence Award, $36,000/yr, University of Florida
2020 — 2026
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Award, $4,000, University of Minnesota
2019 — 2020

Articles

Published Manuscripts

Journal Articles

[3] You, C., Ghosh, R., Vilaro, M., Venkatakrishnan, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., Maxim, A., Peng, X., Tamboli, D., & Lok, B. (2025). Alter egos alter engagement: Perspective-taking can improve disclosure quantity and depth to AI chatbots in promoting mental wellbeing. Frontiers in Digital Health, 7, 1655860.
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[2] You, C., Venkatakrishnan, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., Han, Z., Lok, B., & Peck, T. (2024). A sense of urgency on the sense of agency: Challenges in evaluating agency and embodiment in virtual reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
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[1] You, C., Peck, T., Stuart, J., Gomes de Siqueira, A., & Lok, B. (2024). What my bias meant for my embodiment: An investigation on virtual embodiment in desktop-based virtual reality. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 5, 1251564.
Conference Articles

[8] You, C., Ghosh, R., Canales, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., & Lok, B. (In submission). Embodying support: Investigating multiple embodied virtual agents on engagement and behavioral outcomes in health information seeking. Proceedings of the 26th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 1–10.

[7] Tamboli, D., You, C., Canales, R., Reese, P., Potluri, V., & Lok, B. (In submission). Experiential knowledge in multi-agent virtual health systems: The value of an expert patient agent. Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 1–10.

[6] You, C., Ghosh, R., Canales, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., Vilaro, M., & Lok, B. (In preparation). Human-AI collaboration and user-state modeling transparency promotes engagement in mental health conversations. Proceedings of the 25th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 1–8.
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*Note: Currently showing dissertation chapter as paper is in preparation.

[5] You, C., Ghosh, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., Maxim, A., Peng, X., Tamboli, D., Huang, Z., & Lok, B. (To Appear). Build-a-being yourself: A practical system and method for embodied conversational agents in web-based research. Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 1–15.
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[4] Ghosh, R., You, C., Venkatakrishnan, R., & Lok, B. (2025). The impact of health literacy in a virtual agent intervention addressing barriers to cancer clinical trial participation. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, 76–86.
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[3] Ghosh, R., You, C., Venkatakrishnan, R., & Lok, B. (2025). Exploring the influence of multiple virtual agents for addressing barriers to cancer clinical trial participation. Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 1–10.
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[2] You, C., Benda, B., Rosenberg, E. S., Ragan, E., Lok, B., & Thomas, J. (2022). Strafing gain: Redirecting users one diagonal step at a time. 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 603–611.
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[1] You, C., Ghosh, R., Maxim, A., Stuart, J., Cooks, E., & Lok, B. (2022). How does a virtual human earn your trust? Guidelines to improve willingness to self-disclose to intelligent virtual agents. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 1–8.
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Extended Abstracts, Posters, & Demos

[8] Kauer, T., Franco, C., Munroe, D., Flood-Grady, E., Gaillard, T., George, T., Lin, T., Lok, B., Tucker, C., Vilaro, M., Webb, F., Wilke, D., Wilson-Howard, D., Ghosh, R., You, C., Serat, J., Buhr, M., Murphy, C., van Mossel, A., … Krieger, J. (2025). Representation matters: The feasibility and impact of photo-realistic and social identity-matched virtual community health educators among black, hispanic, and rural adults. Science of Community Outreach and Engagement Annual Conference, 1.

[7] Huynh, L., You, C., Mazorra, G., Black, E., Lok, B., & Blue, A. (2025). A patient chatbot to support interprofessional learning. [Oral presentation]. Collaborating Across Borders IX, 1.

[6] Munroe, D., Kauer, T., Franco, C., Ghosh, R., You, C., Ford, H., Lok, B., & Krieger, J. L. (2025). Connecting communities: Developing a provider portal to enhance cancer trial diversity. Science of Communication Outreach and Engagement Annual Conference, 1.

[5] Kauer, T., Franco, C., Lok, B., Tucker, C., Lin, T., Flood-Grady, E., Ghosh, R., You, C., Wilson-Howard, D., Gaillard, T., Anton, S., & Krieger, J. (2025). Connecting older adults to clinical trials: Developing the alex clinical trial referral portal. 14th Annual Alliance Meeting for Healthy Aging Conference, 1.

[4] Kauer, T., Franco, C., Munroe, D., Flood-Grady, E., Gaillard, T., Lin, T., Lok, B., Tucker, C., Wilson-Howard, D., Ghosh, R., You, C., Serat, J., Buhr, M., Wynter, S., Anton, S., & Krieger, J. (2025). A strengths- and community-based approach to increasing medical research participation among black, hispanic, and white rural populations in florida [poster presentation]. Mayo Clinic Transforming Community and Rural Healthcare 2025 Conference, Rochester, MN, 1.

[3] Ghosh, R., Maxim, A., You, C., & Lok, B. (2024). Real-time virtual human for promoting clinical trial education and recruitment. 2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 1184–1185.

[2] Jurczyk, K., You, C., Nourani, M., Gupta, M., Anthony, L., & Lok, B. (2021). Romadoro: Leveraging nudge techniques to encourage break-taking. Adjunct Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 66–69.

[1] You, C., Suma Rosenberg, E., & Thomas, J. (2019). Strafing gain: A novel redirected walking technique. Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 1–1.
Undergraduate-Mentored Articles

Undergraduate journal publications authored by students whom I directly mentored on a weekly basis throughout the project and manuscript development.

[2] Huynh, L., Blue, A., You, C., Lok, B., Smith, G., Ghosh, R., & Venkatakrishnan, R. (2025). A feasibility study to assess virtual patients authenticity on building confidence in students' clinical decision-making. UF Journal of Undergraduate Research, 27.

[1] Smith, G., Huynh, L., You, C., Ghosh, R., Venkatakrishnan, R., & Lok, B. (2025). Evaluating lip synchronization techniques in LLM-based virtual humans for healthcare and computer science applications. UF Journal of Undergraduate Research, 27.