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.

Spring 2019 Research Groups

• Distributed mentoring and fanfiction data analytics (Aragon, Frens)
• The internet of light (Craft)
• Problematic futures (Craft, Fox)
• Human centered design in London preparatory seminar (for students participating in study abroad program) (Craft, Fox)
• HCD charrette for K-12 outreach (Davidson, Bipat)
• Design Opportunities for Adaptive Fitness (Findlater, Kientz, Tartaro)
• Cloud-based design and prototyping for collaborative management of regional mobility (Haselkorn, Savelli)
• Implementing Mental Health Strategies in Everyday Life (Hsieh, Agapie)
• Children’s digital media design toolkit (Kientz, Tartaro)
• The Final Frontier: Human-Centered Space Technologies (Kolko)
• Do conflicts make the Spanish editions of Wikipedia better? (McDonald, Zachry, Bipat)
• Do conflicts make the French editions of Wikipedia better? (McDonald, Zachry, Bipat)
• A design space for mindfulness technologies (Munson, Lukoff, Hiniker)
• Memes of Production (Peek)
• Fabricatable machines: rapid prototyping of rapid prototyping machines (Peek)
• Figure and ground: amplifying the public imagination of the central area (Rosner, Cox)
• Exploring the Shadow (Turns, Peil)
• Talking about teaching (in HCDE) (Turns)
• Critical Design of HCI Ethical Guidelines, Tools, and Methods (Turns, Mainwaring, Beach, Langevin, Mejia)

Full in Spring 2019

• Human-robotic interaction DRG team (Björling, Xu)
• Virtual relaxation environment for teens (Björling, Sonney)
• Interactive tangible printed displays: designing and displaying narratives of women in gaming (Alternative Spring Break DRG) (Craft, Bjørn, Jensen)
• Research advances in ubiquitous computing and accessibility (Findlater)
• Do conflicts make the English editions of Wikipedia better? (McDonald, Zachry, Bipat)
• Technology design for goal-directed migraine tracking (Munson, Schroeder, Fogarty)
• HCI, journalism and misinformation: understanding how journalists process, analyze and make sense of data (Starbird, McClure Haughey, Williams)

Winter 2019 Research Groups

All winter groups are underway and no longer accepting students

• Making and mapping: Learning to laser-cut and visualizing our making experiences (Atman, Drouhard, Shroyer)
• Games for Good: Designing a Data Science Ethics Game (Aragon, Herman)
• Cultural differences in data privacy perspectives on social media (Aragon)
• Distributed mentoring and fanfiction data analytics (Aragon, Frens)
• Human-robotic interaction DRG team (Björling, Xu)
• Robot designer (virtual reality game) DRG team (Björling, Kim)
• Virtual relaxation environment for teens (Björling, Sonney)
• Designing bioluminescent displays (Craft, Fox)
• Alternative spring break: HCDE workshop (Davidson, Bhattacharya)
• HCD charrette for K-12 outreach (Davidson, West)
• Research advances in ubiquitous computing and accessibility (Findlater)
• Implementing mental health strategies in everyday life (Hsieh, Munson, Agapie)
• Gender in HCI (Kientz, Keyes)
• Everyday personal tracking: an exploration through practice (Kientz, Munson, Liang, Kirchner-Adelhardt)
• The psychology of user experience (UX) (Kim, Sanocki)
• Creepy technology (Lee, Mainwaring)
• Developing UX maturity in the corporate world (McDonald, Ribes, Lin)
• Do conflicts make the French, Spanish and English Editions of Wikipedia better? (McDonald, Zachry, Bipat)
• A design space for mindfulness technologies (Munson, Lukoff, Hiniker)
• Fabricatable machines: rapid prototyping of rapid prototyping machines (Peek)
• Designing interactive critical design artifacts to celebrate the women of Atari (Rosner, Bjørn)
• The internet of evocative objects: a deployment of public IoTs (Rosner, Kinnee, Silva, Fox)
• Establishing longevity in resource constrained projects (Spyridakis, I)
• Exploring visual notetaking (Turns, Roldan, Sequeira)
• Making visible student experience with reflection (Turns)