mastodon 4.7.3Associate Prof. at @uchicago & @uchicagocs. Lead of the Human Computer Integration Lab -- https://lab.plopes.org/ Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, HCI, VR, haptics, hardware, Neuroscience
A year ago we made https://seeingwiththehands.com/ lead by Shan-Yuan Teng, Gene S-H Kim and
Xuanyou Liu! On a personal note, it is insane to see how much has changed in just 365 days: Shan-Yuan is a professor, Gene is a PhD at MIT, Zed is a PhD at Northwestern (and I survived CHI org).
That's it... #CHI2026 done. Hope you enjoyed the program!
Our best paper award 🏆 on "generative electrical muscle stimulation"—a new type of embodied AI—is tomorrow at #CHI2026. 9AM at M2-M211!
This is a physical assistance system that moves your body, via a VLM to decode contextual clues.
Code, video, paper: https://embodied-ai.tech/
That time of the year where Romain Nith and I teach PCB (w @kicad@fosstodon.org and @JLCPCB@mastodon.social ) to folks with no electronics/EE background, it's awesome it is to see them make interactive physical devices from scratch! (This is hcipcb.plopes.org class at UChicago).
Our Embodied AI (https://embodied-ai.tech/) is also an art piece at #CVPR2026 art gallery!
Watch the backend representation of an AI system that moves a dancer's body with muscle stimulation.
Video: https://youtu.be/iRg6_SKpKrI
(See all art pieces at #CVPR: https://thecvf-art.com/archive.php?year=2026)
Recently a colleague asked me about a vision type keynote they are writing and I pointed them to Takeo's talk, deceptively simple message but pretty deep conversation he is having here with the HCI community.
Humbled that I was asked (and able) to say a few words at Jun Rekimoto's final lecture for his retirement from UTokyo. See online the lovely archive they put together, a most inspiring legacy!
Video of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBb-K3-Op78
#CHI2026 program is shaping up: here's the first glimpse at the list of accepted workshops: https://chi2026.acm.org/workshops/accepted/
This will be a really fun @chi@hci.social ! (Reminder that there's no added fee this year to attend workshops, they will happen throughout the conference!)
I'm chairing the first session of #augmentedhumans2026 on #haptics, sensory substitution and perception! What a collection of incredible papers! (They will be soon online, but DM if you want a preview). #AHs2026
#CHI2026 received a record 6730 submissions and accepted 1703 papers (25.3%). Handling these many papers required incredible hard work from paper chairs, SC, and ACs, and reviewers--thank you deeply!
Important reminder: poster & demo tracks are both still open for submissions!
The amazing people behind this effort are Alessandro Bozzon, Vera Liao, Thomas Kosch, and Xiaojuan Ma (- assistants: https://chi2026.acm.org/organizing-committee/), SC/ACs (https://chi2026.acm.org/authors/papers/selecting-a-subcommittee/) and all of you who reviewed for CHI!
20 years of tangible and embodied interaction conference (#TEI2026 ) and it's happening in our campus and department at the university of Chicago! (Led by Ken Nakagaki!). Exciting program and tours coming up this week. Join us!
#CHI2026 program (the draft) is out: https://programs.sigchi.org/chi/2026/program/all?itemsType=SESSION&sortDirection=asc&sortType=TIME&viewType=LIST a monster sized CHI that will definitely be fun and intellectually stimulating. Huge kudos to Pablo Cesar and Heloisa Candello, as well as our assistants for making this possible in such a short time ! Check it out!
The ACM SIGCHI Executive committee has created an open call to fill 11 spots on the 12-person ACM CHI Conference steering committee. #chi2026 #chi2027 (rt from Max Wilson) https://sigchi.submittable.com/submit/354142/open-call-for-the-chi-steering-committee
Want to ask question to our keynote speakers, use our slido: https://app.sli.do/event/eYDGwPGHLUk59rZpERa81A/live/questions?section=39b86501-61db-4bf1-99db-ae90d5fc9b5c #Chi2026 please RT
How hard is it to learn a force you felt by muscle stimulation? And could we ever use this to build systems that teach you new physical skills requiring controlled forces? Our master student Mithil Guru is presenting this at #CHI2026. Tue 9AM "Haptics + XR" session at P1-119
I can't put this into any other words except that "you should check our Dr. Jasmine Lu's work at https://jasminelu.site/ "
.... A huge congratulations to @xjasminelu@hci.social on her absolutely stellar PhD and Eric Paulos Ken Nakagaki and Greg Abowd for serving on this most incredible committee!
#CHI2026 Student Mentoring Program is open for applications: https://chi2026.acm.org/authors/student-mentoring-program/ with a brand new program:
(1) CHI 101
(2) Building a Research Cohort
(3) Dissertation Research Roundtable
Deadline: 22 Jan!
RT friends of @sigchi@hci.social @chi@hci.social
We are hiring PhD students in our Human-Computer Integration lab at the University of Chicago.
You can apply via UChicago:
1. Computer Science (deadline Dec 11)
2. Data Science (Dec 16)
3. Neuroscience Institute's CNS (Dec 3)
... Join us to work on how future devices will integrate with the body!
Learn what we work on: https://lab.plopes.org
All application details: https://lab.plopes.org/apply
I get a bunch of emails/comments about my single-take videos we do to showcase our lab's work, so we gathered them in one page: https://lab.plopes.org/videos.html (including an annotated history of how we started making these, and how they transformed over the years, to become more improv!)
Help with CHI Late Breaking Work program! We are looking for associate chairs (ACs). Not only is the LBW an excellent track for our community to show new work at CHI, but it is also an important step to train new ACs in our community: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc11FddMYDX05kei9ml-CmZGGUinWF-iLBrpka1NG0K1Cod7Q/viewform?usp=sf_link #hci #CHI2025 RT @chi@hci.social @sigchi@hci.social
RE: @JulianOliver@mastodon.social
Lots of great ideas here on how to spin your own flexible and resilient infrastructure!
New paper at #ICRA2026 with/led by Matt Walter's team at TTIC. HapCompass: wearable haptic device for teleoperation that gives directional cues via asymmetric vibration! By mapping the robot's tactile measurements—improves teleoperation performance + better imitation learning! 1/3
Want to ask question to our keynote speakers, use our slido: https://app.sli.do/event/eYDGwPGHLUk59rZpERa81A/live/questions?section=39b86501-61db-4bf1-99db-ae90d5fc9b5c #Chi2026 please RT
#CHI2026 has a new format for more social based activities called Meetups ! Here's the inaugural list of meetups (accepted from the submissions, stats on that later) that you can participate at during the conference: https://chi2026.acm.org/meet-ups/accepted/ (spread the word!)
Room was super full so if you missed Yudai Tanaka 's talk at #CHI2026, you can watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWaMaBYOgo
Read paper: https://lab.plopes.org/published/2026-CHI-MyoAction.pdf
Watch the technical demonstration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0EVjipRmPU
@andresmh@hci.social @chi@hci.social CHI is no longer on weekend, with workshops happening in afternoons (no overlap with papers ). You can read it all here https://chi2026.acm.org/2025/06/19/chi-2026-technical-program-new-format-and-changes/ (or in the CHI steering committee blog post a few years back when this was announced)
I am writing a small reflection about serving as technical program chair for CHI. If you have questions that I can try to answer in that essay (I already got a bunch in instagram) send them my way (you can DM, you can email me anon, reply below—whatever and I'll try to incorporate it!).
#augmentedhumans2026 conference started (#AHs2026) with a record number of papers and participants! Thanks to the organizing committee for all the hard work! Papers will be in the ACM DL very soon!