Beyond interestingness: Semantic and Context-aware Natural Language Query Recommendations for Visual Data Analysis
Visual Informatics Journal, 2026.
Xingbo Wang
Researcher building useful and reliable AI systems
- Large Language Models
- AI Agents
- Human–AI Interaction
About Me
I am Xingbo Wang, an AI researcher working at the intersection of large language model (LLM) agents and human–AI interaction. I am currently a research scientist at Bosch
, developing LLM-based agentic systems for complex, knowledge-intensive tasks. More broadly, I build interactive tools that help people understand, evaluate, and collaborate with AI.
I received my PhD in CSE at HKUST, advised by Prof. Huamin Qu. I later worked with Prof. Fei Wang at Weill Cornell Medicine and Prof. Tanzeem Choudhury at Cornell Tech.
Current Focus
- Agent optimization: building agents that learn from experience and improve over time by optimizing prompts, managing memory, refining tool use.
- Tool-integrated reasoning: enabling agents to create, retrieve, and use tools as part of their reasoning.
- Knowledge extraction and grounding: turning heterogenous evidence into structured knowledge that agents can reason and act on.
- Human–agent interaction and evaluation: designing intuitive interfaces, oversight, and evaluation methods for effective agent collaboration.
Beyond Research
Outside research, I enjoy discovering local coffee shops, exploring new trails, and playing video games. My partner and I also share our home with three cats: Whisky , Coffee , and Dollar .
News
- Jul. 2026 📢 : My PhD work on context-aware semantic-driven query recommendation QRecNLI finally finds a happy home at Visual Informatics.
- Jan. 2026 📢 : Our intern's work ToolDreamer on tool retrieval with synthetic tool generation is accepted to EACL 2026. Congrats!
- Nov. 2025 📢 : One paper about visual analytics for online user behavior progression exploration is accepted to TVCG. Checkout details here Congrats to Rui and the team!
- Sep. 2025 📢 : My paper about interactive strcutured data extraction from scientific literature is accepeted to Campbell Systematic Reviews. Welcome to check our code here!
- Aug. 2025 📢 : One paper about multimodal visual analytics for E-commerce fashion design is accepted to IEEE CG&A. Congrats to Quan's team!
- Jul. 2025 📢 : I will serve as a program committee member for ACM CSCW 2026.
- Jul. 2025 📢 : Our paper: TrialCompass: visual exploration of clinical trial design criteria is accepted to IEEE VIS' 25! Congrats Rui and the team!
- Jan. 2025 📢 : I am excited that my year-long project on Multi-agent LLMs for personalized sleep health is conditionally accepted to CHI' 25. Stay tuned for more details!
- Feb. 2025 📢 : I will serve as a program committee member for IEEE VIS 2025.
- Jan. 2025 📢 : Oue paper about prompt optimization for enhancing multimodel Reasoning of LLMs is accepted to Proc. of PacificVis 2025.
- Jan. 2025 📢 : One paper about problem-driven design space and pattern analysis for visual analytics research is accepted by TVCG 2025!
- Dec. 2024 📢 : I will serve as a Associate Chair for CHI 2025 Late-Breaking Work. Thanks for the invitation!
- Dec. 2024 📢 : Our paper about Multi-agent LLMs for data insights management and navigation for exploratory data analysis is accepted to TVCG (Proc. of PacificVis 2025).
- Nov. 2024 📢 : One paper about multimodel presentation delivery support system is accepted to Chinese CHI 2024 and won the Best Paper Award 🥇. Cograts to Yuchen and Quan's team!
- Jul. 2024 📢 : Two co-athored papers with SYSU's teams on LLMs for (1) supporting teachers' teaching plans and (2) proactive peer support are accepted to UIST 2024.
- Jun. 2024 📢 : I will serve as an Associate Chair for CSCW 2025. Thanks for the invitation!
- May. 2024 📢 : One paper about multimodal vocabulary learning via story retelling is accepted to DIS 2024.
- Feb. 2024 📢 : One scoping review paper about LLM interpretability and applications in biomedicine is published in iScience.
- Jan. 2024 📢 : One viewpoint paper about LLM in healthcare is published in Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM).
- Dec. 2023 📢 : I will serve as an Associate Chair for CHI LBW 2024. Thanks for the invitation!
- Nov. 2023 📢 : Built a web app for personalized health data analysis: link.
- Aug. 2023 📢 : Built a web app for interactive visual data analysis, where you can use chat with your data through natural language: link.
- July. 2023 🎉 : Four papers (one about explaning commonsense knowledge and reasoning capabilities of NLP models, and three about multimodal data analysis) are accepted to IEEE VIS 2023 @ Melbourne. 👏 More details to come later.
- July. 2023 🎉 : One paper about story co-writing for vocabulary learning is conditionally accepted to ACM UIST 2023@San Francisco. 👏
- Jun. 2023 📢 : I started my postdoc @ Weill Cornell Medicine.
- Jun. 2023 📢 : Our 30 Million QEF Project AI-assisted VR English Speaking Program, where I act as a Co-PI, is funded! 👏
- Mar. 2023 📢 : Our MultiViz paper is accepted to CHI LBW 23. 👏
- Feb. 2023 📢 : I gave a talk at Weil Cornell Medicine titled "Unlease the Power of Data-driven AI through Explanations and Interactions".
- Feb. 2023 📢 : One paper about multimodal satisfaction analysis is acceoted to IEEE TVCG. 👏 (Anchorage: Visual Analysis of Satisfaction in Customer Service Videos via Anchor Events)
- Jan. 2023 📢 : One paper about interpretability analysis of multimodal models is accepted to ICLR 2023. 👏 (MultiViz: Towards Visualizing and Understanding Multimodal Models)
- Jan. 2023 📢 : One paper about explanation and diagnosis of NLI is accepted to IEEE TVCG. 👏 (XNLI: Explaining and Diagnosing NLI-based Visual Data Analysis)
- Jan. 2023 📢 : One paper about shortcut exploration in NLP datasets is accepted to IEEE TVCG. 👏 (ShortcutLens: A Visual Analytics Approach for Exploring Shortcuts in Natural Language Understanding Dataset)
- Dec. 2022 Three papers receive minor revision at IEEE TVCG.
- Jul. 2022 📢 : One poster about pre-screening tool for students with specific learning disabilities is accepted by ASSETS 2022 👏
- Jul. 2022: I will serve as a student volunter captain at IEEE VIS 2022.
- Jan. 2022 📢 : One paper about persuasive strategies in online discussion is accepted with minor revision by CSCW 2022 👏 (Persua: A Visual Interactive System to Enhance the Persuasiveness of Arguments in Online Discussion)
- Jan. 2022 📢 : One paper about multimodal gesture analysis receives minor revision at IEEE TVCG 👏 (GestureLens: Visual Analysis of Gestures in Presentation Videos)
- Oct. 2021 We release the project pages of DeHumor and M2Lens. Welcome to check them out.
- Sep. 2021 Our paper "M2Lens: Visualizing and Explaining Multimodal Models for Sentiment Analysis" receives Best Paper Honorable Mention !
- Jul. 2021 I present "M2Lens: Visualizing and Explaining Multimodal Models for Sentiment Analysis" @China VIS 2020, Wuhan! (, )
- Jul. 2021 I visit IDG group of Zhejiang Univeristy, thank professor Wu for his hospitality! ()
- Jul. 2021 Our XAI paper "M2Lens: Visualizing and Explaining Multimodal Models for Sentiment Analysis" is accepted by IEEE VIS 2021, Virtual! See you online!
- Jul. 2021 Our paper "DeHumor: Visual Analytics for Decomposing Humor" is finally accepted by IEEE TVCG, 2021! Stay tuned!
- Jan. 2021 Our team won Silver Award of the 6th China International College Students' "Internet+" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (, , ) Announcement
- Dec. 2020 Our team won Silver Award of 12th Challenge Cup National College Student Business Plan Competition (, ) Announcement
- Jun. 2020 I passed the PhD Qualifying Exam (PQE). And now I am a PhD Candidate!
- !!! Jun. 2020 !!! Our project won the First Prize for the 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
- **!!! May. 2020 !!! Welcome to check the online presentation of VoiceCoach for CHI 2020.
- Dec. 2019 Our paper "VoiceCoach: Interactive Evidence-based Training for Voice Modulation Skills in Public Speaking" has been conditionally accepted by CHI 2020.
- Jul. 2019 Our paper "EmoCo: Visual Analysis of Emotion Coherence in Presentation Videos" is accepted by IEEE VIS 2019 @Vancouver, Canada!
- Jun. 2019 Our project FLY healthtech wins Student Team Award @HKUST-SINO One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2019!
- Aug. 2018 I join Vislab @HKUST.
- Jun. - Aug.2018 I visit at IDG @ZJU.
- Jun. 2018 I graduate from WHU.
Publications
User interfaces for human-AI interactions and human-data interactions
(*: equal contribution; +: corresponding author; †: intern(s))
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ToolDreamer: Instilling LLM Reasoning Into Tool Retrievers
EACL 2026 (Oral).
Exploring Personalized Health Support through Data-Driven, Theory-Guided LLMs: A Case Study in Sleep Health
CHI 2025.
SciDaSynth: Interactive Structured Data Extraction from Scientific Literature with Large Language Model NEW
Campbell Systematic Reviews 2025.
POEM: Interactive Prompt Optimization for Enhancing Multimodal Reasoning of Large Language Models
IEEE Pacific Visualization Conference (PacificVis), 2025.
InsightLens: Augmenting LLM-Powered Data Analysis with Interactive Insight Management and Navigation
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings of PacificVis 2025).
CommonsenseVIS: Visualizing and Understanding Commonsense Reasoning Capabilities of Natural Language Models
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS 2023).
Storyfier: Exploring Vocabulary Learning Support with Text Generation Models
The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2023).
VideoPro: A Visual Analytics Approach for Interactive Video Programming
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS 2023).
PromptMagician: Interactive Prompt Engineering for Text-to-Image Creation
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS 2023).
M2Lens: Visualizing and Explaining Multimodal Models for Sentiment Analysis
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. IEEE VIS '21).
🏆 Best Paper Honorable Mention