Human-Centered Computing at Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Bridging the gap between people and technology
Computer science research in human-centered computing focuses on understanding people and designing new technologies that meets their needs. Researchers study how we work with our devices — computers, smartphones, speakers, appliances, and vehicles — and how that work changes when embedded in networks and systems. Such research provides insights about people, technology, and systems that impact how future systems to support work, play, health, and communication are designed.
At Khoury College of Computer Sciences, researchers study how to make such interactions effective, safe, and ethical. This entails developing and testing interfaces, device sensors (for fitness and other apps), data visualization tools, and the digital data that fills our lives.
Revolutionizing the way we interact with technology
By improving human interaction with computers — making it more intuitive, efficient, enjoyable, and ethical — research in human-centered computing has positive impacts on interfaces, usability, and user experience, including making technologies that are inclusive and accessible to all users. This field also fuels the development of cutting-edge technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality devices and experiences, and is revolutionizing the way we interact with technology. This research also is critical to developing AI agents that have the potential to revolutionize health care, education, and training.
Ethical and social impacts of human-centered computing are an important area of research as well, addressing such issues such accountability, privacy, security, bias, equity of access, and how to shape policies on the responsible use of computer technology.
Sample research areas
- Advanced sensing and natural language processing
- Automatic detection of human behavior and context
- Data visualization tools and methods to communicate insight and support new scientific discovery
- Prototyping and testing new methods for assessing user experience
- New methods for using citizen science and crowdsourcing
- Development of conversational agents that educate, counsel, and persuade users
- Audit and critique of deployed socio-technical systems to understand if they are fair, unbiased, and ethical
Domains of interest
- Human-centered computing
- Personal health informatics
- User interface and User experience (UI and UX)
- Accessibility
- Gaming
- Data visualization
- Virtual reality
- Digital civics
- The future of work
- Human-robot interaction
- Social networks
- Human-centered computing and security
Khoury researchers: At the forefront
Current project highlights
Accessibility in ability-diverse collaboration
Khoury researchers are investigating how accessibility is created and negotiated within ability-diverse teams in the contexts of collaborative writing, creative making, ideation, and remote work. Some examples of our recent projects include developing auditory techniques for enhancing accessibility in asynchronous and synchronous collaborative writing, an audio-enhanced loom for accessible weaving, and an audio-tactile system for accessible pattern generation. Through our work, we also critically interrogate what roles technologies play in reshaping group dynamics and redistributing the labor of creating access in ability-diverse teams. (PI: Maitraye Das)
The Physical Activity Using Wearable Sensors (PAAWS) study
Accurate measurement of human behavior using devices could significantly advance current knowledge on the dose-response relationships between chronic diseases and behaviors such as physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep. The objective of this project is to develop new algorithms to accurately measure behavior 24/7 using wearable sensors. We are collecting wearable sensor datasets from people as they go about their normal lives, labeling the data second-by-second, and using the labeled data to develop and test new machine learning algorithms that will more reliably detect activities and habits. We aim to help the larger research community perform comparisons between algorithms on realistic datasets of behavior. (PI: Stephen Intille)
Relational Agents Group
Khoury College’s Relational Agents Group studies and creates computer programs designed to build and maintain long-term, social-emotional relationships with their users, which includes providing mental health care, performing genetic counseling, and helping manage chronic pain. Such agents go beyond just providing information, aiming to build rapport, trust, and engagement with users. This highlights the interdisciplinary nature of HCI, bringing together social psychology, design, and public health, among other disciplines.
Crowd-Sourced Annotation of Longitudinal Sensor Data to Enhance Data-Driven Precision Medicine for Behavioral Health
This research investigates if mobile game players can help improve the usefulness of health data collected from wearable devices by adding additional annotations.
Could our clothes be computer interfaces? Khoury faculty research on 4D Fiber Interfaces (the 4th “D” is for time, as these textiles change over time) explore how computer technology could create interactive, responsive, and adaptable materials, such as garments that adapt to different weather conditions.
Recent research publications
No More Angry Birds: Investigating Touchscreen Ergonomics to Improve Tablet-Based Enrichment for Parrots (proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2024)
Authors: Rebecca Kleinberger, Jennifer Kunha, Megan McMahon, Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas
Khoury and CAMD researchers are pushing the frontiers of gaming into the animal realm by developing custom tablet games for pet birds. This paper describes a study with 20 pet parrots using a custom-made application to collect data on how the birds use touchscreens and develop more adapted interfaces for animals.
Talk2Care: An LLM-based Voice Assistant for Communication between Healthcare Providers and Older Adults
Authors: Ziqi Yang, Xuhai Xu, Bingsheng Yao, Ethan Rogers, Shao Zhang, Stephen Intille, Nawar Shara, Guodong Gordon Gao, Dakuo Wang
Khoury researchers tackled the challenge of providing health information to seniors, something that often happens over the phone. The result is Talk2Care, a system that uses AI to facilitate communication between older adults and healthcare providers.
FibeRobo: Fabricating 4D Fiber Interfaces by Continuous Drawing of Temperature Tunable Liquid Crystal Elastomers
Authors: Jack Forman, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Sarah Nicita, Rosalie Hsin-Ju Lin, Liu Yang, Megan Hofmann, Akshay Kothakonda, Zachary Gordon, Cedric Honnet, Kristen Dorsey, Neil Gershenfeld, Hiroshi Ishii
Khoury researchers have prototyped FibeRobo, a new type of temperature sensitive element that can be embedded in textiles, opening the possibility for interactive garments, comfortable health monitoring devices, as well as potential applications in robotics and design.
A Culturally Aware Tool for Crowdworkers: Leveraging Chronemics to Support Diverse Work Styles (proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 2024 (CSCW))
Authors: Carlos Toxtli, Christopher Curtis, Saiph Savage
Khoury researchers are studying how to design culturally aware AI tools that better support the human annotators who power AI systems. By understanding cultural contexts, they aim to create AI that collaborates more effectively and ethically with diverse teams, enhancing both the accuracy and fairness of AI technologies and the labor produced with AI.
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Much of Saiph Savage’s work focuses on expanding real-world applications of AI and human-centered design. -
Megan Hofmann and PHI PhD student Jack Hester work with the computer-controlled weaving machine. -
Timothy Bickmore interacting with the robotic health coach. -
Savage shares a moment, and a smile, with students. -
Savage talking with students in West Village on the Boston campus. -
Maitraye Das is explaining the work process of Co11ab, an application that makes collaborative writing accessible for blind people.
Related labs and groups
Faculty members
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Elizabeth Mynatt
Elizabeth Mynatt is the Dean of Khoury College of Computer Sciences. She joined Northeastern University in January 2022 after a 23-year career at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), where she most recently served as Regents’ and Distinguished Professor in the College of Computing and executive director of the Institute of People and Technology.
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Timothy W. Bickmore
Timothy Bickmore is a professor at Khoury College and the director of the Relational Agents Group. He develops and evaluates computer agents that emulate face-to-face interactions between health providers and patients, with human–computer interaction, natural language processing, and animation playing a role.
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Matthew Goodwin
Matthew Goodwin is a professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. He works with people on the autism spectrum to develop and evaluate behavioral assessment and intervention technologies, enabling caregivers to more capably and compassionately assist their loved ones.
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Stephen Intille
Stephen Intille is a professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Using ideas from ubiquitous computing, user-interface design, pattern recognition, behavioral science, and preventative medicine, he develops technologies that measure and motivate health-related behaviors.
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Christo Wilson
Christo Wilson is an associate professor and associate dean of undergraduate programs at Khoury College. His research, which draws on computational, political, and economic methods, delves into the data, security, and privacy issues at the heart of our internet use.
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Michael Ann DeVito
Michael Ann DeVito is an assistant professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the College of Arts, Media and Design. Her AI and machine learning research aims to address inequalities and unfairness toward marginalized populations through inclusive, equitable design.
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Megan Hofmann
Megan Hofmann is an assistant professor at Khoury College. Her human–computer interaction and personal health informatics research often centers around the development and evaluation of accessible tools, including for people with disabilities.
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Wallace Lages
Wallace Lages is an assistant professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the College of Arts, Media and Design. He blends his multidisciplinary research into augmented and virtual reality with his artistic practice, which has been featured on four continents.
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Varun Mishra
Varun Mishra is an assistant professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. His research leverages ubiquitous technologies like smartphones and wearables to enable mental and behavioral health interventions.
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Lace Padilla
Lace Padilla is an assistant professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the College of Science. She combines cognitive, neural, and computer sciences to study how people process data visualizations and how those visualizations can communicate more accurately and effectively.
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Zhi Tan
Zhi Tan is an assistant professor at Khoury College. He studies how robots interact with the world and how they can be integrated with human users, each other, and intelligent systems.
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Dakuo Wang
Dakuo Wang is an associate professor at Khoury College. He is also an ACM Distinguished Speaker and gives talks around the world on his research into human-centered AI (HCAI) systems.
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Saiph Savage
Saiph Savage is an assistant professor and director of the Civic A.I. Lab at Khoury College. Her research focuses on creating intelligent civic technology to organize collective action for change, which includes battling misinformation and empowering gig and rural workers to access better jobs.