Ruoxian Zhang

My path into research started in the weight room. At Beijing Sport University I trained in strength and conditioning and physical education, coached athletes, and joined my first lab study, an eight-week training intervention with college athletes that became a paper in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

A semester at Springfield College brought me to the United States, and my questions began to shift from how the body adapts to how we measure movement, and what the brain is doing while we move. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I now help run two multimodal studies in the PLAY Lab: READY, which follows children’s motor, cognitive and academic development as they start school, and FAME, which links motor function and fitness with cognition in adults.

I also lead MOVE, a collaboration with Dr. Feng Ji at the University of Toronto that asks whether multimodal large language models can rate movement as reliably as experts, and what evidence is needed before those scores are used.

In my PhD, I want to study the neural processes that link cognition, motor behaviour and development, and how physical activity supports brain health.

Research interests

1. 01

   Neurocognitive and behavioural development

   How brain function relates to the growth of cognition, motor skill and academic skills.

2. 02

   Brain–movement relationships

   Combining EEG/ERP, fNIRS, motion capture and accelerometry to link neural activity with motor function, fitness and physical activity.

3. 03

   Measurement of movement

   What evidence supports the intended use of movement scores, including those produced by AI.

• 4646

  participants whose markerless motion-capture data I processed in Theia3D for FAME

• 1313

  movement tasks covered in that processing

• 4.04.0

  GPA, M.S. in Kinesiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• 33

  courses as a graduate teaching assistant, 2026–27

1. AELPhysical adaptation
2. MOVEMovement measurement
3. FAMEBrain–motor relationships
4. READYNeurocognitive development
5. NextNeural processes linking cognition, motor behaviour and development

• EEG
• ERP

Aug 2025 – present

READY: Research Enhancing Academic Development in Youth

Research Assistant · PLAY Lab, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · PI Dr. Shelby Keye

A longitudinal, multimodal study of how children’s motor competence, physical activity, cognition and academic skills change as they start school.

• Support participant testing and EEG collection, guiding children through study tasks.
• Preprocess EEG in EEGLAB/ERPLAB: data reduction, quality control and manual bad-channel removal.
• Produce grand-average ERP waveforms and topographic maps for group-level interpretation.
• Train undergraduate research assistants in study procedures and testing protocols.

MethodsEEG · ERP · EEGLAB/ERPLAB · MATLAB

• fNIRS
• Motion capture

Aug 2025 – present

FAME: Fitness and Activity for Motor and Executive Function

Research Assistant · PLAY Lab, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · PI Dr. Shelby Keye

How do motor function and physical activity relate to cognitive function in young and middle-aged adults?

• Conduct participant testing and support fNIRS setup and data collection.
• Processed markerless motion-capture data in Theia3D for 46 participants across 13 movement tasks, working independently.
• Generated task-related fNIRS brain maps and wrote visualization instructions now used by lab colleagues.

MethodsfNIRS · Homer3 · NIRS Toolbox · Theia3D

• Movement assessment
• Multimodal LLMs

Aug 2024 – present

MOVE: Generative AI for Movement Assessment in Physical Education and Kinesiology

Project Lead · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign & University of Toronto · Supervisors Dr. Shelby Keye & Dr. Feng Ji

Can multimodal large language models score human movement the way experts do, and what evidence would justify using those scores?

• Compared multimodal LLM ratings with expert Functional Movement Screen scores, using raw-image and pose-based inputs.
• Designed and refined the prompting and input strategies.
• Took the empirical manuscript from research question to journal submission; presented at the 2026 Midwest ACSM Mid-Year Symposium.
• Wrote a companion methods tutorial on interpreting AI–human rating agreement for fundamental movement skills, with reproducible R code. It is now under review.

MethodsMultimodal LLMs · pose-based input · rater agreement · R

• Training intervention
• Ultrasound

2023 – 2024

Accentuated Eccentric Loading and Muscle Adaptation

Research Assistant · Biomechanics Lab, Beijing Sport University · Mentor Caizheng Yue

How do different accentuated eccentric loading repetition structures affect lower-limb strength and muscle adaptation in college athletes?

• Helped design and run an eight-week training intervention with college athletes.
• Collected pre- and post-test data, including ultrasound-based muscle measures.
• Ran descriptive analyses and paired t-tests; contributed to figures and the published manuscript.

MethodsTraining intervention · ultrasound · paired t-tests

Earlier projects

• Jul 2024 – May 2025

  Adolescent physical activity and mental health

  Research Assistant · AI and Prevention Science Lab, University of Florida · PI Dr. Xiaoya Zhang

  Data cleaning and analysis (t-tests, ANOVA, correlation, regression) on the Future of Families & Child Wellbeing Study.

• Jun 2024 – Jan 2025

  Wearable devices and exercise motivation

  Undergraduate thesis · Beijing Sport University & Springfield College · Drs. Susan Guyer & Zezhao Chen

  Designed and ran an online survey of college students in Beijing on wearables, physical activity and exercise motives.

• Aug – Dec 2024

  Musical rhythm and preschoolers’ executive function

  Research Coordinator · Springfield College · Mentor Bingbing Li

  Administered executive-function tasks with preschool children.

• HK 340

  Sociology & Psychology of Physical Activity

  Laboratory instructor

  Lead two weekly discussion and lab sections (about 50 students), guide class discussion and evaluate student work.

• HK 102

  Bowling

  Primary instructor

  Teach a full section of 40 students; designed the course progression and teach motor-skill execution.

• HK 271

  Health Equity in the United States

  Grader

  Grade coursework and exams, with detailed feedback on health-disparity topics and student writing.

Coaching & applied work

• 2024Strength & Conditioning Coach, U18 Ice Hockey Team, Beijing Sport University
• 2024Intern, National Training Base, Beijing Sport University
• 2024Volunteer, TCS New York City Marathon
• 2023Track & Field Coach (100 m), Guangdong Provincial Athletics Team

• 

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  M.S. in Kinesiology · GPA 4.0

  Graduate research and teaching assistant, fully funded

  2025 – 2027expected May 2027

• 

  Springfield College, Massachusetts

  Exchange student · GPA 4.0

  Hsu Scholarship, full ride

  Fall 2024

• 

  Beijing Sport University

  B.S. in Strength and Conditioning · B.Ed. in Physical Education

  Major GPA 4.0 · cumulative GPA 3.91

  2021 – 2025