Bio

Hey there! I'm a PhD student in the Department of Psychology and the Beckman Institute at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Professor Diane M. Beck. I'm also pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science here at UIUC. Previously, I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with minors in Statistics and Neuroscience from University of Minnesota Twin-Cities.

My research delves into the fascinating intersection of human visual neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Specifically, I aim to understand how our visual system achieves object recognition invariance, allowing us to effortlessly navigate through diverse visual environments. This quest will help advancements in deep learning, particularly in enhancing model resilience against noise in visual tasks. We use fMRI, as well as ultra-high field (UHF) fMRI, to explore the human visual system and leverage advanced deep learning models for the computational aspect. An additional focus of mine is on the predictive capabilities of the brain in scene perception and understanding the efficiency of human vision through the lens of active inference.

Besides research, I dedicated myself to advocacy and education on critical social issues. As an advocate working at The Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education at UMN, I served for victims and survivors of sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence. My role also involved coordinating outreach events and fostering collaborations with student organizations to encourage the conversation around women's rights and empowerment.

Here is my Curriculum Vitae.

(Fall 2025) Excited to share that I have been awarded the Scott Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Graduate College at UIUC.

(May 2025) Excited to share that I have been awarded the 2025 FoVea Travel and Networking Award.

(May 2025) Excited to share that I will be presenting our work on the critical role of neural manifolds in human visual robustness at VSS 2025 in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

• Probing Human Visual Robustness with Neurally-Guided Deep Neural Networks
  Z. Shao, L. Ma, Y. Zhou, Y. J. Zhang, S. Koyejo, B. Li, and D. M. Beck
  arXiv, 2025

  Paper Code

  Oral Presentation at Vision Science Society (VSS), St. Pete Beach, FL. (2025)

  Talk Session

  Oral Presentation at Vision Science Society (VSS), St. Pete Beach, FL. (2024)

  Talk Session Recording

• The Role of Real-world Statistical Regularities in Visual Perception
  D. M. Beck, E. Center, and Z. Shao
  Current Directions in Psychological Science, 33(5), 317-324. (2024)

  Paper

• Is Attention Necessary for the Representational Advantage of Good Exemplars over Bad Exemplars?
  Z. Shao and D. M. Beck
  European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(9), 2129-2415. (2024)

  Paper Code

• Is Attention Necessary for the Representational Advantage of Good Exemplars over Bad Exemplars?
  Z. Shao and D. M. Beck
  Poster presented at Vision Science Society (VSS), St. Pete Beach, FL. (2023)

  Abstract Poster

• The similarity of CNN, behavioral, and PPA feature spaces.
  P-L Yang, Z. Shao, and D. M. Beck
  Poster presented at Vision Science Society (VSS), St. Pete Beach, FL. (2023)

  Abstract

• Neural correlates of maltreatment timing during self-processing in depressed adolescents.
  M. Castro, Z. Shao, M. Engstrom, J. Y. Teoh, and K. Quevedo
  Poster presented at Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI) Research Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN. (2019)

Scott Dissertation Completion Fellowship, UIUC (2025-2026)

FoVea Travel and Networking Award, Females of Vision, et al. (FoVea)(2025)

Winner of Bio-informed AI Research Competition, UIUC (2024)

Elsevier/Vision Research International Travel Award, VSS2023 (2023)

Graduate College Conference Presentation Awards, UIUC (2023 - 2025)

Illinois Distinguished Fellowship, UIUC (2020-2023)

Dean’s List, UMN (2016-2020)

Graduate with highest distinction, UMN (2020)

Maroon Global Excellence Scholarship, UMN (2016-2020)

• zhenans2@illinois.edu
• (952) 666-8925