The department of Human Centered Design & Engineering has a robust agenda with notable breadth supported by 24 faculty working with their students in 15 labs and two centers.

Center for Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety, and Regional Resilience (CoSSaR)

The Center for Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety, and Regional Resilience, directed by Dr. Mark Haselkorn, is a multi-disciplinary environment where professionals from a wide range of entities (Federal, State, County, City, Tribal, International, Public and Private) team with university experts to align strategies, processes and investments in systems for security, safety and resilience.

Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching (CELT)

The Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching, directed by Dr. Cindy Atman, focuses on two synergistic activities: research on engineering education and improving engineering teaching through instructional development.

Communicative Practices in Virtual Workspaces (CommPrac) Laboratory

The Communicative Practices in Virtual Workspaces Laboratory, directed by Dr. Mark Zachry, investigates emergent uses of digital technologies to coordinate work activities. Research topics include uses of shared web services for the conduct of distributed work, visualizations of work activity mediated by online contributor systems, and automated detection of social behaviors based on language use in online systems.

Computer Supported Collaboration (CSC) Laboratory

The Computer Supported Collaboration Laboratory, directed by Dr. Charlotte Lee, conducts research to inform the design of information systems for collaboration. Researchers investigate the development and use of information infrastructures in science and engineering, and the relationship between changes in practice and changes in technology.

Computing for Healthy Living and Learning (CHiLL) Laboratory

The Computing for Healthy Living and Learning Laboratory, directed by Dr. Julie Kientz, designs and develops mobile, persuasive, and collaborative technologies that help individuals, families, and teachers record and review their educational and health goals.

The Data Ecologies Lab (DeLAB)

The Data Ecologies Lab, directed by Dr. David Ribes, focuses on the sociotechnical organizations that support scientific practices, studying the ways that data inhabit heterogeneous, interlinked spaces through the use of data science ethnography and other digital ethnographic methods.

Disaster Science as Design Lab (DisSci:gn Lab)

The Disaster Science as Design Lab, Directed by Dr. Scott Miles, conducts research on disasters, the processes and tools communities and professionals use to solve wicked disaster problems, and how to improve those processes and tools. DisSci:gn Lab researchers use systemically-focused, equity-centered, community-driven design and other problem-solving processes to understand and improve how disaster professionals and communities can work together to reduce disaster risk, impacts, and recovery more justly.

Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation (emCOMP) Laboratory

The Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation Laboratory, directed by Dr. Kate Starbird, examines the dynamics of and applications for massive interaction facilitated by social media and other online platforms. Focusing on specific events and issues that bring people together on a large scale, researchers both examine the flow of interactions and explore possibilities for applying online participation to problem-solving on a massive or even global scale.

Human Centered Data Science (HCDS) Laboratory

The Human Centered Data Science Lab, directed by Dr. Cecilia Aragon, conducts research on human-computer interaction in scientific collaborations, collaborative creativity, cyberinfrastructure, eScience, information visualization, and how social media and computer-mediated communication are changing scientific practice.

Inclusive Design Laboratory 

The Inclusive Design Lab, directed by Dr. Leah Findlater, focuses on lowering barriers to technology use and information access for users with a range of physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities. 

Laboratory for Human-Centered Engineering Education

The Laboratory for Human-Centered Engineering Education, directed by Dr. Jennifer Turns, focuses on applying the practices of user-centered and human-centered design to the challenges of helping engineering students learn more effectively and helping engineering educators teach more effectively.

Laboratory for Influence in SocioTechnical Systems (LISTS)

The Laboratory for Influence in SocioTechnical Systems, directed by Dr. Sean Munson, designs, builds, and evaluates systems designed to nudge people toward socially desirable outcomes while respecting individual autonomy.

Machine Agency

Machine Agency, directed by Dr. Nadya Peek, explores harnessing the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals.

Prosocial Computing Laboratory

The Prosocial Computing Laboratory, directed by Dr. Gary Hsieh, focuses on the study, design, and development of technologies that enable people to interact in ways that are efficient and welfare-improving.

Social Computational Systems Lab (SoCS)

The Social Computational Systems Lab, directed by Dr. David McDonald, focuses on the design and implementation of systems that support large-scale collaboration.

Tactile and Tactical (TAT) Design Laboratory

The Tactile and Tactical (TAT) Design Laboratory, co-directed by Drs. Beth Kolko and Daniela Rosner, seeks to open new opportunities for sustainable technology development, broaden the diversity of design and engineering education, and extend theoretical frameworks that further our understanding of design and social change.