Faculty and research scientists in the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering run directed research groups, which offer students a wide range of opportunities to do hands-on work, from conducting usability tests for local companies all the way to collecting data on communication issues internationally.

Students interested in participating in directed research must get permission directly from the faculty member leading the group. Students enroll in course HCDE 496/596. For details on how to register, please visit the Variable Credit Registration Policy. Check this webpage frequently as Directed Research Groups are added leading up to the beginning of the quarter.

Winter 2021 Research Groups

• Tracking The Rise and Fall of Mask-Related COVID-19 Theories (Beers, Nguyen, Starbird)
• Understanding the collaborative behaviors of Spanish Wikipedia editors (Bipat, McDonald, Zachry)
• The UX of Climate Change: Western Red Cedar Dieback (Fox)
• Community, Capacity, and Collective Care in Practice (Hoy, Rosner)
• Participatory Design for Family-Centered Innovation (Michelson, DeWitt, Kientz)
• Creative Automation (Peek)
• Memes of Production (Peek)

Winter 2021: no longer accepting applicants

• Human Centered Natural Language Processing and Text Visualization (Aragon)
• Design Awareness App: Research and Testing (Barar, Sweem, Yoon-Buck, Anem, Jordan, Washington, Atman)
• Speculating the Future of Sports Technology (Winter-Spring 2021) (Kolovson, Munson)

Autumn 2020: no longer accepting applicants

• Human Centered Natural Language Processing and Text Visualization (Aragon)
• Dear Design (Atman, Shroyer, Jordan)
• POST(-)HUMAN HAZMAT: Design fiction for multispecies care and collaborative survival in cataclysmic climates (Beach, Fox)
• Project RESeT: Relaxation Environment for Stress in Teens (Björling, Sonney, Rodriguez)
• Project EMAR (Björling, Cakmak)
• Race, Culture, Gender & Ethics in Technology (Cunningham, Kientz)
• Discursive Design Inquiry with Home Cameras (Herrera Tan, Munson, Desjardins)
• Interactive mobile app to support individuals with tuberculosis (TB) (Iribarren, Kientz)
• Human-Centered Gaming (Kientz, Kolko)
• Research through Collaboration: Understanding How Journalists Analyze and Report on Online Misinformation (McClure Haughey, Starbird)
• Current Trends in Accessibility Research (McDonnell, Zhang, Findlater)
• Creative Automation (Peek)
• Memes of Production (Peek)
• SCAN Research Group: Improving usability of a home-based respiratory virus sample collection process for community surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 (Pothan, Björling)
• Designing to Support Reflection on the Identities We Hold (Roldan, Peil, Liang, Berry, Turns )
• Exposing trails of misinformation: How did this content reach me? (Zade, Hsieh, Starbird)