Yumeng Hou

Digital Humanities x Cultural Heritage & Archives | Researcher / Computist / Analyst

About


Yumeng Hou is a digital humanities researcher and PhD candidate at the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), EPFL. With a background in data science, Yumeng obtained her master’s degree in computer science from EPFL, and a Bachelor's in Digital Media Technology from Zhejiang University. She holds research and practical experience in digital museology, computational archival science, data visualisation, visual analytics, human-computer interaction, media cloud computing, and creative media technologies, with a track record of publications and creative installations in diverse settings.

Motivated by a deep-seated passion for applying computational strategies to preserve cultural heritage and traditional folklore, Yumeng embarked on a journey to pursue a PhD in digital museology and computational (cultural) archives. Her research primarily focuses on China-related intangible cultural heritage and traditional folklore, examining the intersection of cultural heritage, computational archives, digital narratives, knowledge encoding, and cultural AI. Her PhD dissertation centres on the computational curation embodied knowledge in Southern Chinese martial arts and unlocking a multimodal archive for public dissemination in digital and museum settings. Within the theme, she has demonstrated her research through publications in prestigious journals (e.g., Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, Journal of Documentation, Journal on Open Humanities Data, Digital Humanities Research), peer-reviewed conferences (e.g., Digital Humanities, EuropeanaTech, International Digital Curation Conference, AMPS (IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S), International Martial Studies Conference, Young Scholars' Forum in Chinese Studies), and contributions to books. She was shortlisted as a candidate for the Paul Fortier Prize at Digital Humanities 2023. And she is progressing as a Hung Kuen practitioner and studying the art of Italian swordsmanship!

Prior to joining EPFL eM+, Yumeng's professional background includes roles as Technical Product Manager at Alibaba Cloud, Digital Analyst at Procter & Gamble, Creative Tech Lead at _box Interaction Studio, and Digital Strategist at NewStyle Media Group.

Research keywords: digital museology, computational archival science, data visualisation, knowledge representation, multimedia analytics, mixed reality, intangible cultural heritage, interactive interface, martial arts, digital humanities, embodiment

Professional keywords: project management, PaaS/SaaS products, data analytics, user experience, playful museums