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This summer brought new faces, fresh ideas, and plenty of collaboration. We welcomed several undergraduate research assistants, shared our work, and celebrated two new publications:
- “I don’t want to engineer prompts, I want to engineer products”: 3D CAD Designers’ Views on Futuristic GenAI Concepts
- Hands-Off or Hands-On? Variation in Area Chair Practices and Implications for AI Support
Together, these papers reflect our work in human-AI collaboration, AI-supported creative work, and thoughtful, human-centered design.
We also got out into the community and hosted activities that made room for learning and connection:
CG Connect
The lab headed to CG Connect, hosted by Autodesk Research in Toronto, to meet the wider graphics and interactive systems community. Read more here
GI Conference
Pengqi Wang presented a demo and position paper on AI proactivity at the GI conference in Waterloo. Read more here
Lunch & Learn
The lab hosted a Lunch & Learn to share ideas and connect with Dr. Sharan from the University of Hamburg. Read more here
CAIS Conference
Many of our undergraduate research assistants attended their first conference and presented posters at CAIS, learning from others in AI and HCI and connecting with the research community. Read more here
Bringing STEM to Life Symposium
Dr. Kuang joined the Bringing STEM to Life Symposium to see high school students’ projects addressing her research challenge: using AI to make education more accessible. Read more here
Thanks to everyone who made it such a lively and productive season!
Our lab has seven new publications this semester, thanks to all our collaborators and students for their hard work and contributions! A common theme across these works is human-AI collaboration and visual analytics tools across different contexts, including UX evaluation, sensemaking, software engineering, and presentation authoring.
One full paper that I presented at CHI 2026 in Barcelona:
Two workshop papers at CHI 2026:
- “I’’m Not Reading All of That”: Understanding Software Engineers’’ Level of Cognitive Engagement with Agentic Coding Assistants
- Beyond One User and One Model: Rethinking LLMs as Mediators in Collaborative Sensemaking and Ideation
Two articles in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction:
- Standardizing the Evaluation of Usability Test Results: Criteria Development and Human-AI Collaborative Performance
- MultiUX: A Human-AI Collaborative Tool to Facilitate Multiple Usability Test Video Analyses
Two papers to be presented at DIS 2026 in Singapore:
Our lab has two new publications this semester:
Evaluating Usability Challenges in VR Games for Older Adults: A Comparison With and Without AI Assistance
In Adjunct Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Key highlights:
- Older adults encountered several usability problems in VR, including unclear instructions and goals, confusing game mechanics, and difficult-to-navigate menus.
- AI-generated suggestions helped UX evaluators to identify a greater number of usability problems.
LLM-powered assistant with electrotactile feedback to assist blind and low vision people with maps and routes preview
In the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Key highlights:
- An LLM-powered assistant that supports natural language queries about map elements, route conditions, and trajectories.
- A wearable electrotactile feedback device that conveys map features via haptic signals.
- A user study with blind and low vision participants demonstrating improved efficiency and spatial understanding of route previews.
