Research

Lab members

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Funded Projects

  • 2024:  Principal Investigator, Move to Play. Augment Therapy Corp
  • 2023-2026: Principal Investigator, From Human-Powered to Automated Video Description for Blind and Low Vision Users. NIH (UCSC PI)
  • 2022-2025: Principal Investigator, HCC: Small: ProSocial: A 360-Degrees Video-based Virtual Reality Game Strengthening Social-emotional Skills with Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. NSF
  • 2022-2024: Principal Investigator, VRIENDS – Let’s be friends. Vriends Corp
  • 2021-2024: CCRI-ENS: Cognitive Hardware and Software Ecosystem Community Infrastructure (CHASE-CI). NSF through UC San Diego
  • 2021-2024: Principal Investigator, 360 VR for self confidence and socioemotional training in youth with cleft. Smile Train
  • 2022-2023: Principal Investigator, Virtual evacuation decision-making under fire threat for personal property and transportation decisions (UCSC PI). CITRIS
  • 2020-2022: Co-Principal Investigator, Interactive Virtual Platform for Intergenerational Wellbeing of Essential Worker Communities in a Medical Desert: Promoting Health Equity During and After Pandemic. CITRIS
  • 2019: Co-Principal Investigator, Youth Connect. Monterey Peninsula Foundation
  • 2017-2018: Principal Investigator, Interactive platform for articulation and pragmatic language improvement in persons with Autism/Developmental Disabilities. Disability Communications Fund
  • 2016-2019: Co-Principal Investigator, PFI:BIC:RouteMe2: A Cloud-Integrated Sensor Testbed for Assisted Public Transportation. NSF Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity
  • 2016-2018: Principal Investigator, CHS: Small: Game for Cleft Speech. NSF Cyber-Human Systems
  • 2015-2019: Principal Investigator, SCH: INT: Collaborative Research: Replicating clinic physical therapy at home: Touch, depth, and epidermal electronics in an interactive avatar system. In collaboration with UC San Diego. NSF Smart Connected Health
  • 2015: Co-Principal Investigator, Speech with Sams: Helping kids in speech therapy. Indiegogo campaign, matched by UCSC office of research and UCSC BSOE Dean’s office
  • 2014: Principal Investigator, Experiments with the Toyota vibrotactile belt for blind wayfinding. Toyota Information Technology Center
  • 2012-2015: Co-Principal Investigator, Transit Information Access for Person with Visual or Cognitive Impairments. Department of Transport Federal Highway Administration through The National Academies
  • 2012-2013: Principal Investigator, On-Demand Telemonitoring for Independent Living Older Adults. CITRIS (The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society)
  • 2012-2015: Principal Investigator, Acquisition of a FLEX Reconfigurable Multi-user Immersive Visualization System. NSF Major Research Instrumentation
  • 2012-2013: Collaborator, Textable – Input and Editing of Text for the Motor Impaired Users. Czech-American Scientific Cooperation
  • 2012-2013: Principal Investigator, Digital Birth: Improving Perinatal Outcomes for Under-Served Californians Through Game-Based Learning. CITRIS (The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society)
  • 2011-2016: Principal Investigator, Document Formatting and Layout Helper for Blind Authors. NSF CAREER
  • 2010-2011: Co-Principal Investigator, Generation games for girls. NSF EAGER
  • 2010-2011: Principal Investigator, Usability and Accessibility Assessments of eCommons and User Evaluation of eCommons in the context of Human-Computer Interaction. UCSC Commitee on Research
  • 2010: Faculty advisor for student research grant, Persuasive Technology for Teenagers’ Physical Activity: A Comparative International Study. UC Mexus
  • 2008-2009: Principal Investigator, Virtual Speech Therapist for Stroke Survivors. CITRIS (The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society)
  • 2008-2009: Principal Investigator, Virtual Speech Therapist for Stroke Survivors with Aphasia in Rural Malaysia. UC MICRO
  • 2008-2009: Principal Investigator, Virtual Speech Therapist for Stroke Survivors with Aphasia in Rural Malaysia. Microsoft Research
  • 2008: Principal Investigator, Investigating Browsing Behavior of Web Users with Visual Impairment. UCSC Faculty Research Grant
  • 2007: Co-Principal Investigator, Mobile Therapy for Stroke Survivors. Government of Malaysia
  • 2007-2008: Principal Investigator, Inhibited Exploration of Older Customers of Digital Services. Arts and Humanities Research Council and BBC
  • 2006-2007: Co-Principal Investigator, Adapting support to sustain autonomy: understanding the implications of changing capabilities for older ICT users. New Dynamics of Ageing, Preparatory Network Grant, cross-research councils
  • 2006-2007: Principal Investigator, Investigating Accessibility Requirements for Digital TV. BBC
  • 2005: Principal Investigator, Making Mobile Phones More Useful for Older People. The British Society of Gerontology’s Averil Osborne Award
  • 2002-2005: Principal Investigator, Quantitative Modelling of Older Adults’ Motor, Cognitive and Perceptual Abilities and Suitable Computer’s Accessibility Level. The Nuffield Foundation’s Newly Appointed Lecturers Grant
  • 2000-2001: Co-Principal Investigator, Health Web- Increasing the Usability of Online Health Information for Seniors. Wayne State University – Target of Opportunity Grant

Research Interests

My primary research interest can be described as HCI for people with special needs. Specifically, my research focuses in three main areas:

  1. Developing a series of theories to predict how older persons and people with disabilities interact with computers and their applications (including the Internet)-and developing artefacts to validate those theories/models.
  2. Developing theory-driven systems that alleviate functional limitations experienced by young children, older persons, people with disabilities, and people in extraordinary circumstance (e.g., people whose first language is not English needing to access English websites).
  3. Evaluating existing or designed artefacts with people with special needs (in a controlled experiment or in context) to observe usability problems, and user behaviour and attitude, for the purpose of gaining a truer and deeper understanding of the problems experienced by these people.

Publications

I feel that Google Scholar will be better than me in updating my publications, so please check the Google Scholar page of my publications.