Patrick Zhao

MSc student at Simon Fraser University, advised by Dr. Nicholas Vincent. I study human-centered AI, agent-based modeling, and AI safety.

Currently exploring the epistemological and methodological challenges of using LLMs in social simulations.

Recent

Apr 2026 Best Paper award at PoliSim Workshop @ CHI 2026
Mar 2026

Accepted to PoliSim @ CHI 2026: Mechanism Plausibility in Generative Agent-Based Modeling

Feb 2026 Attended TreeHacks 2026 at Stanford
Jan 2026 Got my first citation!
Sep 2025

Accepted to NeurIPS 2025 Workshop: Empowering Users Together

Publications

Mechanism Plausibility in Generative Agent-Based Modeling

PoliSim Workshop @ CHI 2026 Best Paper

Patrick Zhao, David Huu Pham, Nicholas Vincent

Empowering Users Together: Connecting Algorithmic Collective Action and Explainable AI

NeurIPS 2025 Workshop on Algorithmic Collective Action

Ayana Hussain, Cole Michael Thacker, Patrick Zhao, Aditya Karan, Nicholas Vincent

Let Them Down Easy! Contextual Effects of LLM Guardrails on User Perceptions and Preferences

EMNLP Findings 2025 News Coverage

Mingqian Zheng, Wenjia Hu, Patrick Zhao, Motahhare Eslami, Jena D. Hwang, Faeze Brahman, Carolyn Rose, Maarten Sap

All publications →