Yumeng Hou

Researcher | Data Scientist | Digital Strategist

About

Yumeng Hou is a digital humanities researcher and PhD candidate at the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), EPFL. Trained as a data scientist, Yumeng holds research and practical experiences in data visualisation, analytics, human-computer interaction, and cloud solutions, with publications in top-level journals and conferences (e.g., ACM C&G, IEEE VIS, PacificVis). Driven by a passion for leveraging computational strategies to preserve cultural heritage and traditional folklore, Yumeng switched her career to digital museology and cultural computing. Her current activities examine the convergence of cultural heritage, computational archival science, digital narratives, knowledge encoding, and cultural AI.

Yumeng is preparing a doctoral thesis on safeguarding the living heritage of Chinese martial arts through digitisation, datafication, (re)presentation and augmentation. Her research interacts closely with archivists, scholars, and masters of historical martial arts across mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Europe (primarily Italy and Switzerland). Her research findings so far have been demonstrated through publications in highly recognised journals (Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, Journal of Documentation, Digital Humanities Research), international conferences (e.g., Digital Humanities, International Digital Curation Conference, AMPS (IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S), International Martial Studies Conference, Young Scholars' Forum in Chinese Studies), and contribution to books.

Before joining EPFL eM+, Yumeng's professional experience includes Product Manager at Alibaba, Digital Analyst at Procter & Gamble, Creative Tech Lead at _box Interaction Studio, and Digital Strategist at NewStyle Media Group.

Research keywords: intangible cultural heritage, computational museology, interactive archives, data visualisation, knowledge representation, martial arts

Professional keywords: project management, PaaS/SaaS product, data analytics, business intelligence, user experience, digital museums