Incredible Showing of UChicago CS Researchers to CHI 2026
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is a premier international conference where researchers and practitioners gather to discuss the latest research in human-computer interaction. Held annually, CHI brings together experts from academia and industry to present groundbreaking research, share insights, and explore future directions in the field. Hosted in Barcelona this year, the conference embraces the motto “Creando el mañana juntos”, which translates to “Creating tomorrow together”, focused on building technologies that contribute positively towards the future.
CHI 2026 showcases a wide scope of HCI research at the University of Chicago Department of Computer Science that can speak to this theme, ranging from building an AI system to understand weather in an urban community, to creating next generation wearable haptics. The program features nineteen full papers that explore innovative topics, including the effects of dark patterns, social media’s role in managing AI-generated content, generative muscle stimulation, and bias leading to underreporting of AI use. Assistant Professor Mina Lee received the Best Paper Award for her paper, Writing with AI Can Reduce Gender Bias in Hiring Evaluations. The Human Computer Integration Lab, led by Associate Professor Pedro Lopes, was also awarded the Best Paper Award for their paper Generative Muscle Stimulation: Providing Users with Physical Assistance by Constraining Multimodal-AI with Embodied Knowledge.
Beyond papers, UChicago researchers are contributing to multiple interactive demos on topics like eyes-free object retrieval, various workshops on topics like sustainable body transformation experiences, as well as two posters and one meet-up. This is a record number of papers, demos, and workshops on top of our historically strong contributions to the CHI conference, demonstrating the department’s strength across HCI research, with contributions from multiple labs including the Human Computer Integration Lab, AI&Me Group, AIR Lab, NOISE Lab, AxLab, and many others.
The full list of papers and contributors can be found below, as well as in the dashboard here:
UChicago authors in bold.
* denotes papers that include interactivities
FULL PAPER
Writing with AI Can Reduce Gender Bias in Hiring Evaluations
Best Paper Award
Alicia T.H. Liu, Mina Lee, Xuechunzi Bai
Best Paper Award
Yun Ho, Romain Nith, Peili Jiang, Steven He, Bruno Felalaga, Shan-Yuan Teng, Rhea Seeralan, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab — [paper link]
Kelly B. Wagman, Kanchan Uday Naik, Madison Vanderbilt, Naeun Ko, John Rugemalila, Thomas Chang, Marshini Chetty
AIR Lab — [paper link]
A Systematic Review of User Experiments on the Effects of Dark Patterns
Brennan Schaffner, Luis Heysen, Marshini Chetty
AIR Lab — [paper link]
Governance of AI-Generated Content: A Case Study on Social Media Platforms
Lan Gao, Abani Ahmed, Oscar Chen, Margaux Reyl, Zayna Cheema, Nick Feamster, Chenhao Tan, Kurt Thomas, Marshini Chetty
AIR Lab — [paper link]
Beyond PII: How Users Attempt to Estimate and Mitigate Implicit LLM Inference
Synthia Qia Wang, Sai Teja Peddinti, Nina Taft, Nick Feamster
NOISE Lab – [paper link]
Tess Eschebach, Emma I. C. Peterson, Nathaniel Kim, Bingning Liu, Marc Downie, Douglas Pancoast, Blase Ur
SUPERgroup — [paper link]
BloomBeacon: Blooming Physical Touch Display Surfaces via Persistence-of-Vision Motion*
Willa Yunqi Yang, Justice T Andersen, David Dajun Yuan, Ken Nakagaki
AxLab — [paper link]
Attention Nooks: Situated Frictions to Foster Intentional Technology Use
Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki
AxLab — [paper link]
Exploring Texture-Level Creative Decisions with penPal, a Novel Handheld Actuated Drawing Tool*
Tucker Rae-Grant, Luke Jimenez, Lea Albaugh, Ken Nakagaki
AxLab — [paper link]
Increasing Input Accuracy of Embodied Devices via Electrical Muscle Stimulation
Lonnie Chien, Yudai Tanaka, Noor Amin, Jas Brooks, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab — [paper link]
Modeling Perceived Force of Electrical Muscle Stimulation to Improve User’s Recall
Mithil Guruvugari, Romain Nith, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab — [paper link]
Myo Action: Accelerating Voluntary Actions via Electromyography and Muscle Stimulation*
Yudai Tanaka, Che-Wei Hsu, Bruno Felalaga, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab — [paper link]
Next Generation Wearable Haptics Should Balance Virtual & Real-world Fidelity
Shan-Yuan Teng, Yudai Tanaka, Alex Mazursky, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab — [paper link]
Underreporting of AI Use: The Role of Social Desirability Bias
Yier Ling, Alex Kale, Alex Imas
Data Cognition Lab — [paper link]
Sachita Nishal, Mina Lee, Nicholas Diakopoulos), Jennifer Wortman Vaughan
Jiayin Zhi, Harsh Kumar, Mina Lee
Jiayin Zhi, Hoyt Long, Richard Jean So, Mina Lee
Jake Chanenson, Tara Matthews, Sunny Consolvo, Patrick Gage Kelley, Jessica McClearn, Sarah Meiklejohn , Abhishek Roy, Renee Shelby), Kurt Thomas, Amelia Hassoun
AIR Lab — [paper link]
INTERACTIVITY
*Demonstrating BloomBeacon: Blooming Physical Touch Display Surfaces via Persistence-of-Vision Motion
Willa Yunqi Yang, Justice T Andersen, David Dajun Yuan, Ken Nakagaki
Demonstrating Eyes-Free Object Retrieval via Fingertip Deflection Guidance Using the NURing
Tomasz P Trzpit, Gregory Reardon, Elizabeth Gerber, Pedro Lopes, Michael Peshkin, J. Edward Colgate
Human Computer Integration Lab
*Demonstrating Myo Action: Accelerating Voluntary Actions via Electromyography and Muscle Stimulation
Yudai Tanaka, Che-Wei Hsu, Bruno Felalaga, Pedro Lopes
Human Computer Integration Lab
*Demonstrating penPal: a Novel Handheld Actuated Drawing Tool for Exploring Texture
Tucker Rae-Grant, Luke Jimenez, Lea Albaugh, Ken Nakagaki
WORKSHOP
Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Elena Márquez Segura, Marte Roel Lesur, Laia Turmo Vidal, Frederic Bevilacqua , Nadia Berthouz, Aneesha Singh, Alice C Haynes, Pedro Lopes, Jun Nishida, Don Samitha Elvitigala , Paul Strohmeier
Cultivating Pedagogies for Post-Growth HCI
Vishal Sharma, Hongjin Lin, Jasmine Lu, Han Qiao, Asra Sakeen Wani, Christina Bremer, Philip Engelbutzeder, Christoph Becker, Neha Kumar, Rikke Hagensby Jensen, Anupriya Tuli
Developmentally Safe Generative AI Environment for Youth
Jake Chanenson, Yaman Yu, Jessica Vitak, Sheena Erete, Tamara Clegg, Diana Freed, Marshini Chetty
Embodying Relationships: Designing TUIs for Co-Located Human-Human Dynamics
Ofir Sadka, Iddo Yehoshua Wald, Andrey Grishko, Ken Nakagaki, Julia Dominiak, Tanja Döring, Oren Zuckerman
Sustainable Body Transformation Experiences
Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Elena Márquez Segura, Laia Turmo Vidal, Kristina Höök, Kristi Kuusk, Pedro Lopes, Mel Slater
Understanding and Engaging Critical Resistance to AI in Education
Dinesh Ayyappan, Davinia Hernández-Leo, Robert Larson, Leaf Elhai, Julia Chatain, Grace Li
POSTER
Tomasz P Trzpit, Gregory Reardon, Elizabeth Gerber, Pedro Lopes, Michael Peshkin, J. Edward Colgate
Understanding the Affordances of Control in AI Reasoning for Human-AI Decision-Making
Jiwon Moon, Chien-Ming Huang, Ziang Xiao
MEET-UP
NeuroHCI: Integrating Neuroscience and Human-Computer Interaction
Amber Maimon Iddo Yehoshua Wald, Yudai Tanaka, Yun Ho, Jamie A Ward, Max L Wilson, Kristina Höök, Pedro Lopes, Rainer Malaka
