Centers and Labs
Human-centered research collaborations start with us. The following interdisciplinary centers and research labs are affiliated with our HCII faculty.
Centers
Center for Transformational Play
The Center for Transformational Play at Carnegie Mellon University brings together world-class expertise from across the university to design, build, and study transformational games.
Details: Website
Contact: Jessica Hammer
Extended Reality Technology Center
The CMU Extended Reality Technology Center (XRTC) brings together faculty across campus and industry partners to drive the technological and conceptual development of advanced interactive technologies, including Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.
Details: Website
Contact: David Lindlbauer (HCII), Fernando De La Torre (RI), Kris Kitani (RI)
Knowledge Accelerator
The Knowledge Accelerator is a new center at Carnegie Mellon University that is building tools to help people gather, stitch together, and make decisions on information spread across the internet in 10-100x less time than it takes today. Not only will these tools help people make better and more personalized decisions, but by capturing the work they do they can accelerate future users with similar interests instead of them having to start from scratch, creating a virtuous cycle of knowledge acceleration.
Details: Website
Contact: Niki Kittur
Labs
4A (AI Accountability, Awareness, and Action) Lab
4A Lab aims to empower users of AI systems, particularly those who belong to marginalized communities or those users whose decisions impact marginalized communities, to make transparent, fair, and informed decisions in interaction with algorithmic systems.
Contact: Motahhare Eslami
Augmented Design Capability Studio
We use new technology, product design methods, interaction design, human-robot interaction, and mechatronic engineering to build tools and methods that allow designers to understand people better and to create more human-centered products.
Details: Augmented Design Capability Studio
Contact: Nik Martelaro
Augmented Perception Lab
We aim to understand how users perceive and interact with digital information beyond the flat displays of PCs and smartphones. Our goal is to create and study enabling technologies and computational approaches that make Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality interfaces beneficial for users.
Details: Augmented Perception Lab
Contact: David Lindlbauer
AXLE Lab
We develop technology solutions to support, enhance, understand, and celebrate Ability in its many forms. The research we conduct aims to improve the quality of human lives through the thoughtful application of technology and social interventions.
Details: AXLE Lab
Contact: Patrick Carrington
Big Lab
We work to advance Human-AI Collaboration, mostly in (i) accessibility (esp. access technologies), (ii) crowdsourcing and human computation (esp. systems that combine AI and human intelligence together, and work to improve the worker experience), and (iii) dialog systems (esp. those that deeply integrate human computation and dialog together). This is the research lab of Jeffrey Bigham.
Details: Big Lab
Contact: Jeffrey Bigham
CARE (Collective AI Research and Evaluation) Lab
We develop innovative tools, methods, and processes that empower impacted communities, everyday users and the general public to collectively evaluate and mitigate harmful machine behaviors across digital platforms and algorithmic systems.
Contact: Hong Shen
CHIMPS Lab
We do research in smartphone privacy, usable security, and AI bias and fairness, drawing on ideas and methods from human-computer interaction, machine learning, systems, and social psychology.
Details: CHIMPS Lab
Contact: Jason Hong
CoALA Lab
We study how humans and AI systems can augment each other’s abilities (co-augmentation) and learn from each other (co-learning). We create new technologies to complement and bring out the best of human ability in fundamentally human endeavors. And we develop new methods and tools to broaden who is able to participate in shaping emerging technologies.
Details: CoALA Lab
Contact: Ken Holstein
Computation & Collective Lab
My lab focuses on improving our understanding of, and the quality of, collective actions arising from interactions between people and machines within social networks. We aim to yield important scientific insights on human-computer interactions and develop new research tools for social good.
Contact: Hirokazu Shirado
Connected Experience Lab
The CoEX lab addresses social, technical, and policy issues emerging around new forms of technology supported work, communication and creative collaboration.
Details: Connected Experience Lab
Contact: Laura Dabbish
CMU Data Interaction Group (DIG)
Our group conducts research at the intersection of human-computer interaction, machine learning, data science, programming languages, and data management, with the mission of empowering everyone to analyze and communicate data with interactive systems.
Details: CMU DIG
Contacts: Adam Perer, Dominik Moritz
d.form and d.stable Labs
We explore how people experience emerging and future technology, particularly human-AI interaction and human robot interaction. d.form has fabrication tools for building room sized prototypes including 3D printers, laser cutter, CNC machine, as well as crafting materials and tools. d.stable is where we simulate different environments such as a home, retail store, hospital, or hotel in order to evaluate possible futures.
Contacts: Jodi Forlizzi, John Zimmerman
Dev Lab
We develop new fabrication techniques for creating sensors and interactive devices, build digital tools that enable novices to make functional and usable objects, and study how people use and interact with technology.
Contact: Scott Hudson
eHeart Lab
We study the transformative impact of interaction technologies, games, and storytelling platforms that aim to enhance personal expression and improve social dynamics.
Details: eHeart Lab
Contact: Geoff Kaufman
Equity and Health Innovations (EHI) Design Lab
We focus on the evaluation and design of technologies that support health-related experiences and position design as a catalyst for social change related to health and racial equity.
Contact: Christina Harrington
Future Interfaces Group
We create new sensing and interface technologies that foster powerful and delightful interactions between humans and computers. These efforts often lie in emerging use modalities, such as smart environments, wearable computing, augmented reality, and gestural interfaces.
Details: Future Interfaces Group (FIG Lab)
Contact: Chris Harrison
Human-Centered Data Lab
The Human-Centered Data Lab's research focuses on using big data collected from educational systems to improve student learning and spans several areas: data mining, artificial intelligence, machine learning, intelligent tutoring systems, cognitive modeling, CS education, game development, and instructional design.
Details: Human-Centered Data Lab
Contact: John Stamper
Interactive Structures Lab
We investigate and develop interactive computational design tools that enable digital fabrication of complex structures for novice users. Interactive structures embed functionality within their geometry such that they can react to simple input with complex behavior.
Details: Interactive Structures Lab
Contact: Alexandra Ion
Kittur Lab
We combine human and machine intelligence to help people make sense of overwhelming information and accelerate innovation.
Details: Kittur Lab
Contact: Niki Kittur
LearnLab
LearnLab brings learning science and technology to bear on real-world challenges in learning, spanning K12 and college topics in math, science, and language learning. We provide innovative techniques and technologies to support iterative engineering of highly effective, efficient, and enjoyable learning experiences.
Details: LearnLab
Contact: Ken Koedinger
McLearn Lab
The McLearn Lab does research in the areas of Learning Science and educational technology. The lab has developed and conducted experiments with digital learning games, intelligent tutors, and collaborative learning systems. We are interested in supporting education in many novel and impactful ways.
Details: Website
Contact: Bruce McLaren
Morphing Matter Lab
We advance science and society with the design of morphing materials.
Details: Morphing Matter Lab
Contact: Lining Yao
Natural Programming Lab
We take a human-centered approach as we focus on making programming languages, APIs, and programming environments easier to learn, more effective, and less error prone.
Details: Natural Programming Lab
Contact: Brad Myers
The Optimized Algorithms and Knowledge (OAK) Lab
The OAK Lab investigates how people learn and how learner characteristics (such as motivation, knowledge, and metacognition) impact learning processes and outcomes. The lab uses experiments and data analytics to study cognitive processes, develop computational models, and apply these insights to educational technology and interventions.
Details: OAK Lab
Contact: Paulo Carvalho
Smart Sensing for Humans (SmaSH) Lab
The SmaSH Lab develops innovative sensing systems to develop solutions with immediate impact in the fields of health, accessibility, novel interactions, activity recognition, and technologies for the developing world. We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers from ISR and HCII.
Details: Smart Sensing for Humans Lab
Contact: Mayank Goel
Social AI Group
Social AI Group is an interdisciplinary research group within Carnegie Mellon University. In our research, we aim to study and design socially sensitive AI. We combine in-depth empirical research with design methods in order to create, deploy and evaluate innovative AI tools that better support humans to complete complicated tasks, that promote positive human interactions, and that improve group and community wellbeing.
Contact: Haiyi Zhu
Tech Solidarity Lab
Tech Solidarity Lab seeks to open new opportunities for community-driven technology development and extend theoretical frameworks that further our understanding of design, politics, and justice.
Details: Tech Solidarity Lab
Contact: Sarah Fox
Technology Research for Augmenting Creativity in Educational Spaces (TRACES Lab)
We focus on co-design partnerships with educators in creative learning and project based learning contexts. We collaboratively design learning technologies by bringing together an interdisciplinary team across HCI, design, architecture, educational research and computing.
Details: TRACES Lab
Contact: Marti Louw
WInE Lab
WInE stands for Watch, Inspect, and Enrich. We design, evaluate, build, and interact with AI systems that are compatible with actual human goals.
Details: WInE Lab
Contact: Sherry Tongshuang Wu