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About me

I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, also affiliated with the School of Information and Michigan Medicine. I am also the ACM SIGCHI VP for Accessibility, overseeing the executive committee policy and accessibility of over 27 SIGCHI sponsored conferences. I received my PhD from University of Washington, masters from MIT Media Lab, and I have worked at Microsoft Research, Google, and Apple.

My research lies in human-computer interaction (HCI). At Michigan, I lead the Accessibility Lab, where I am joined by a passionate group of students and collaborators with one common aim: to build and study interactive systems that solve pressing accessibility challenges. Our research work has been released publicly, has directly impacted products at Microsoft, Google, and Apple, and has been honored with several best paper and honorable mention awards. Please see our lab's website for our current focus areas and projects.

I also have over 10 years of experience serving in departmental and conference committees on DEI and accessibility. I was instrumental in pioneering new efforts at leading computer science conferences to improve accessibility of poster sessions for blind attendees and real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing attendees. I am also a member of HCI4SoundAsia, with aims to broaden participation of South East Asian researchers in human-computer interaction conferences, and I am currently serving as the inaugural ACM SIGCHI VP for accessibility.

I teach Accessibility Studio for undergraduate students (in Winter) and Advanced Accessibility for graduate students (in Fall). I also frequently participate in educational outreach, in the form of two-week DIY workshops, which I help co-organize with local instructors. Thus far, I have organized seven workshops in four different countries. These events have been hugely successful in inculcating an entrepreneurial mindset in underserved students. To disclose a specific known outcome, three teams of undergraduate students have continued their projects from the workshops and turned them into multinational companies with global impact!

Recent news

Apr 19: Honored to receive the Google Research Scholar Award.
Apr 14: Invited talk at U-M e-HAIL.
Apr 13: Invited to serve in an NSF Review Panel.
Mar 20: Invited talk at U-M Center for Disability Health and Wellness.
Mar 16: Appointed as the inaugral ACM SIGCHI VP for Accessibility!
Feb 14: Honored to receive the 2023 SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award!
Jan 30: Honored to receive the 2022 William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award!
Nov 15: Invited talk at BostonCHI, the oldest SIGCHI chapter!
Nov 5: Invited talk at Michigan AI Symposium.
Sep 12: Started as an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan!

Publications

A t-SNE low dimensional cluster visualization of lots of short mouth sounds

Sound Actions

Non-Verbal Sound Detection
Commercialized on iPhone and iPad (Try it out)
ICASSP 2022: PAPER | TALK
A close up shot of a person attending a 10-person video conference on a laptop.
AWARD

Talks

Sound Sensing for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

Navigating Graduate School with a Disability

Deep Learning for Sound Awareness on SmartWatches

Field Study of a Tactile Sound Awareness Device

First slide of the talk. A scene of a kitchen in the background with the talk title: Field Deployment of a Smarthome Sound Awareness System for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

Field Deployment of a In-Home Sound Awareness System

First slide of the talk. Shows DJ riding on a camel in a desert. The title of the talk reads: Autoethography of a Hard of Hearing Traveler

Autoethnography of a hard of hearing traveler

First slide of the talk. A person claps in front of a tablet interface that visaulizes the clapping sound using a pulsating bubble. The title reads: Exploring Sound Awareness in the Home for People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Exploring sound awareness in the home

First slide of the talk with an image of an ear doning a hearing aid. The title reads: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals' Preferences for Wearable and Mobile Sound Awareness Technologies​

Online Survey of Wearable Sound Awareness

First slide of the talk showing a person walking and talking with another person. The first person is wearing a HoloLens which shows ​real-time captions in Augmented Reality. Title is Towards Accessible Conversations in a Mobile Context for People who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Towards accessible conversations in a mobile context

First slide of the talk showing a rocky beach with waves crashing over the beach. Talk title reads: Immersive Scuba Diving Simulator Using Virtual Reality

Immersive scuba diving simulator using virtual reality​

First slide of the talk showing a round table conversation with a person wearing a Google Glass. The directions of the active speakers in the conversation are visualized as arrows on the Glass. Talk title is Head-Mounted Display Visualizations to Support Sound Awareness for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

HMD Visualizations to Support Sound Awareness

Videos