Yuxi Wu, PhD

Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Northeastern University
502-9 @ 177 Huntington
email: firstname at ccs.neu.edu
bluesky + google scholar + linkedin + CV

hi, i'm yuxi

I am a Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University.

I conduct applied research in critical technology studies through a lens of more-than-human design. Building on my background in security and privacy and collective computing, I examine how contemporary digital systems deaden people's relational capacities: their ability to notice their context, empathize with others, and recognize shared conditions of harm. Across my work, I ask:

How can people meaningfully refuse contemporary and emerging digital systems?

My work employs a combination of speculative design and traditional HCI methods. I publish at top venues in human-computer interaction (CHI, CSCW, DIS), security and privacy (IEEE S&P, USENIX Security), and AI ethics (FAccT). My research has been supported by a Georgia Tech President's Fellowship and a JP Morgan Chase AI Research Fellowship.

At Northeastern, I work closely with Alexandra To. I earned my PhD in Computer Science in from Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing, where I studied human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work under the co-advisement of Sauvik Das and Keith Edwards. Prior to my PhD, I worked with Blase Ur at the University of Chicago.

select publications

1. Hike Your Own Hike: Noticing Through Iterative Physical Disorientation
   

   Yuxi Wu and Alexandra To.
   Forthcoming at ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), 2026.

2. Alternative Technology Consumption Under Capitalism
   

   Yuxi Wu, Beatriz Palacios Abad, Vishāl Sharma, Hanlin Li, Alexandra To.
   CSCW Companion, 2025.

3. Transformational Provocations for Usable Privacy and Security: Designing Beyond Compliance and Expert Norms
   

   Yuxi Wu, Alexandra To, Emilee Rader, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
   New Security Paradigms Workshop, 2025.

4. Navigating Security and Privacy Threats in Homeless Service Provision
   

   Yuxi Wu*, Ruoxi Zhang*, Shiyue Liu, Mufei Hei, Aidan Hong, Jeremy J. Northup, Calla Kainaroi, Fei Fang, Hong Shen.
   34th USENIX Security Symposium, 2025.

5. Design(ing) Fictions for Collective Civic Reporting of Privacy Harms
   

   Yuxi Wu, William Agnew, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
   Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW), 2025.

6. Modeling End-User Affective Discomfort With Mobile App Permissions Across Physical Contexts
   

   Yuxi Wu, Jacob Logas, Devansh Ponda, Julia Haines, Jiaming Li, Jeffrey Nichols, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
   Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC), 2025.

7. On-demand RFID: Improving Privacy, Security, and User Trust in RFID Activation through Physically-Intuitive Design
   

   Youngwook Do, Tingyu Cheng, Yuxi Wu, Hyunjoo Oh, Daniel J. Wilson, Gregory D. Abowd, Sauvik Das.
   Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC), 2025.

8. The Slow Violence of Surveillance Capitalism: How Online Behavioral Advertising Harms People
   

   Yuxi Wu, Sydney Bice, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
   ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), 2023.

9. SoK: Social Cybersecurity
   

   Yuxi Wu, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
   IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), 2022.

10. "A reasonable thing to ask for": Towards a Unified Voice in Privacy Collective Action
    

    Yuxi Wu, W. Keith Edwards, Sauvik Das.
    ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2022.

11. Privacy for the people? Exploring collective action as a mechanism to shift power to consumers in end-user privacy
    

    Sauvik Das, W. Keith Edwards, DeBrae Kennedy-Mayo, Peter Swire, and Yuxi Wu.
    IEEE Security & Privacy 19, no. 5 (2021): 66-70.

12. Smart Webcam Cover: Exploring the Design of an Intelligent Webcam Cover to Improve Usability and Trust
    

    Youngwook Do, Jung Wook Park, Yuxi Wu, Avinandan Basu, Dingtian Zhang, Gregory D. Abowd, and Sauvik Das.
    Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 2021.

13. Exploring the Utility versus Intrusiveness of Dynamic Audience Selection on Facebook
    

    Sindhu Kiranmai Ernala, Stephanie S. Yang, Yuxi Wu, Rachel Chen, Kristen Wells, and Sauvik Das.
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW), 2021.
    *Best Paper Honorable Mention.

14. Your Secrets Are Safe: How Browsers' Explanations Impact Misconceptions about Private Browsing Mode
    

    Yuxi Wu, Panya Gupta, Miranda Wei, Yasemin Acar, Sascha Fahl, and Blase Ur.
    The Web Conference (WWW), 2018.

teaching

College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

• TA, Human-Computer Interaction. Fall 2023.
  
• Co-Instructor, Usable Privacy and Security. Spring 2023.
• TA, Computing, Society, and Professionalism. Fall 2022.
• TA, User Interface Design. Summer 2021.

Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

• TA, Data Skills for Public Policy (R). Winter 2018.
• TA, Introduction to Programming for Public Policy (Python). Fall 2017.