Behavioral AI, Digital Health, and Agent Systems
Zhiyuan "Ryan" Wang
I am a Research Scientist at Meta Reality Labs Research, working on behavioral AI and proactive agents for next-generation personal wearables. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where I worked on ubiquitous sensing, behavioral AI, and mobile systems for health.
Alongside my research, I build AI agent infrastructure: orchestration, tool use, and developer systems for reliable long-running agents.
About
Hi! I am Zhiyuan "Ryan" Wang, currently a Research Scientist at Meta Reality Labs Research, working on Behavioral AI and Proactive Agents for next-generation personal wearables.
I received my Ph.D. in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia, advised by Prof. Laura E. Barnes in the Sensing Systems for Health Lab and Link Lab. My research develops ubiquitous sensing and intervention systems to enhance human health and well-being, through interdisciplinary collaborations spanning medicine, nursing, psychology, and bioethics. I also build AI agent infrastructure—systems that make AI agents work reliably at scale.
Previously, I was a Research Scientist Intern at Meta Reality Labs Research (2025) and an AI/ML Data Scientist Intern at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (2024). I received my B.S. in Computer Science from Xiamen University, China (2021).
Research Keywords: Digital Health, Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing, Human-Centered AI, Behavioral AI, AI Agent Systems
Experience
Meta Reality Labs Research -- Research Scientist (May 2026--present)
Behavioral AI and proactive agents for next-generation personal wearables
Meta Reality Labs Research -- Research Scientist Intern (May--Dec 2025)
Multimodal Behavioral AI, Redmond, WA. Mentors: Robert Cavin, Michael Proulx
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine -- AI/ML Data Scientist Intern (May--Dec 2024)
Remote. Mentors: Mehdi Boukhechba, Stefan Avey
Selected Awards
- 2025 UVA Link Lab Distinguished Research Award
- 2025 NSF-EMBS-Google NextGen Scholar in Biomedical Informatics
- 2025 UVA All-University Graduate Teaching Award
- 2024 UVA Sture G. Olsson Endowed Fellowship ($12,000)
- 2024 NSF Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Rising Star
- 2024 University of Virginia Engineering Teaching Fellowship (~$20,000)
- 2024 University of Virginia Ruthie Oxford Memorial Award
- 2021 University of Virginia SIE Departmental Fellowship (~$55,000)
- 2020 Xiamen University Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award & Funding (~$10,000)