Bio

Isla Xi Han is an Assistant Professor in the School of Innovation at The University of Hong Kong. Her research explores novel design-fabrication processes and co-creation powered by robotics and AI, spanning design, computation, and physical realization.

Her academic trajectory reflects a deep cross-disciplinary curiosity. She holds a Bachelor of Science with honors, double majoring in Architecture and Economics with double minors from the University of Virginia, alongside summer studies at the University of Cambridge. She earned her Master of Architecture and a joint Ph.D. in Architecture and Materials Science from Princeton University, conducting doctoral research in robotic fabrication and swarm robotics across Princeton’s Leonard Lab and EPFL’s CRCL Lab. Before joining HKU, she was co-founder and former CTO of the NSF-funded startup MoVA Realities, and served as the Tennessee Architecture Fellow at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, teaching computational design and experimental construction.

Inspired by the architectural concept of the “in-between,” a threshold that connects distinct spatial conditions to create new possibilities rather than divide them, she applies this philosophy to her research, working across design, engineering, and industry to drive positive societal impact. Outside the lab, she enjoys paddleboarding, rock climbing, flamenco, electric bass, and cat training.
 

Selected Publications

• Han, I. X. (2025). Collective Creativity Between Humans and Machines: Exploring Improvisational Design-Fabrication Workflows Enabled by Robotics and Artificial Intelligence(Doctoral dissertation, Princeton University).
• Han, I. X., & Parascho, S. (2025). From Words to Actions: A Large Language Model (LLM) Approach for Human-Robot Interaction in Design-Fabrication Settings. In Architectural Informatics: Proceedings of the 30th CAADRIA Conference(Vol. 2, pp. 325-334).
• Han, I. X. (2024, July). Not-So-Thick Origami. In International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education(pp. 201-209). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
• Han, I. X., & Parascho, S. (2022, September). Improv-Structure: Exploring Improvisation in Collective Human-Robot Construction. In International Conference on Trends on Construction in the Post-Digital Era(pp. 233-243). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Han, I. X., Meggers, F., & Parascho, S. (2021). Bridging the collectives: A review of collective human–robot construction. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 19(4), 512-531.
• Han, I. X., Bruun, E. P., Marsh, S., Tavano, M., Adriaenssens, S., & Parascho, S. (2020). From Concept to Construction-A Transferable Design and Robotic Fabrication Method for a Building-Scale Vault. In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture: Distributed Proximities, Acadia 2020.
• Parascho, S., Han, I. X., Walker, S., Beghini, A., Bruun, E. P., & Adriaenssens, S. (2020). Robotic Vault: A Cooperative Robotic Assembly Method for Brick Vault Construction. Construction Robotics, 4(3), 117-126.

Selected Awards

• Young CAADRIA Award, the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (2025);
• Tennessee Architecture Fellowship (2025);
• Jury Award, Art of Science Exhibition, Princeton (2025);
• Silver Winner, MUSE Design Award (2024);
• R+D Award, ARCHITECT Magazine (2021);
• AIA Virginia Prize (2016)

Selected Exhibitions

• ICRA Arts in Robotics Exhibition – Eyes as a Brush, Light as Paint. Vienna, Austria (2026).
• Galileo Week Collateral Exhibition – Rhythm Bots VR Experience. American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy (2025);
• NeurIPS Creative AI – Rhythm Bots (2024): A Sensitive Improvisational Environment. Vancouver, BC, Canada;
• The Wrong New Media Biennale – Totem. Philadelphia, PA, US (2024);
• SHErobots: Tool, Toy, Companion Exhibition – BLOCK PLAY with a Robotic Arm. Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2022);
• ICRA Robotics and Art: Automating Expressions Exhibition – Rhythm Bots. Philadelphia, PA, US (2022).