A glimpse into the future at the 2026 CHCI Student Research Symposium

The future impact of today's research in human-computer interaction was on display at the 2026 CHCI Student Research Symposium, organized by the CHCI Student Council. Held on Friday, April 24, CHCI students, faculty and community members came together to discuss a range of HCI research, which showcased an impressive 22 presentations highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of human-computer interaction.

Topics embraced a broad, human-centered exploration of computing that included AI, robotics, XR, cybersecurity, education, and creative technologies. The research aims to enhance how people learn, work, and communicate, and emphasizes the effort to design technology that is inclusive, trustworthy, and responsive to human needs. The event gave students the opportunity to present their work and answer questions from fellow researchers and the community. The symposium concluded with an awards ceremony.

Best Student Presentation Award

Awarded by a panel of judges, this $250 research award honors the most outstanding research presentation of the day. It was awarded to Panayu Keelawat and Caleb Wohn.

ArguScale: Multi-Level Sensemaking for Monitoring Collaborative Reasoning Quality in Classrooms at Scale

Abstract:

Monitoring parallel online breakout rooms is challenging, as class instructors must track multiple conversations while interpreting subtle interactional dynamics that shape the quality of the discussion. Existing tools primarily surface high-level indicators. Fully automating this process with AI is also insufficient, as effective intervention depends on context-sensitive human judgment. We present ArguScale, a system that supports real-time sensemaking of parallel classroom discussions through multi-level representations that link discussion content with interactional context. ArguScale centers on a dynamic, aggregated discourse structure that expands across multiple levels, enabling instructors to stay focused across groups while surfacing relevant content and audio to ground their understanding. We evaluated ArguScale on a dataset collected from real classroom sessions in a mixed-design study with 12 participants. Compared to a baseline without structured representations and an ablated single-level version, ArguScale improved participants’ ability to effectively and accurately identify breakdowns in collaborative reasoning.

People's Choice Award

The student researchers invited the public to vote for the presentations that most resonated with them. The poster by Mungyeong Choe, Jillian Tran, and Owen Fang received the highest number of votes.

From Monologue to Dialogue: Enhancing In-Vehicle Empathy with Interactivity

Abstract:

This study investigates how conversational interactivity influences the effectiveness of empathic in-vehicle agents. Prior work has shown that empathic utterances can support drivers’ emotion regulation, but most systems rely on pre-scripted, one-way communication that lacks flexibility and responsiveness. In contrast, recent advances in large language models (LLMs) enable dynamic, real-time dialogue, potentially enhancing perceived authenticity and social presence. To examine this, the study compares a traditional pre-scripted agent with an LLM-powered conversational agent, while also varying empathy style (cognitive, affective, and non-empathic). The research explores how these factors shape drivers’ perceptions of the agent, emotional responses during frustrating driving situations, and driving performance. Additionally, it analyzes how drivers naturally interact with conversational agents. By integrating theories of social presence and human-AI interaction, this work aims to clarify whether interactivity strengthens the impact of machine-delivered empathy and to inform the design of safer, more effective in-vehicle systems.

Full List of Contributions

1. “A Human-Centered Taxonomy of Driver Responses to Cyber-Attacks in Automated Vehicles”, by Gayoung Ban and Phoebe Zhang

2. “AI Assisted Cross-border Cybersecurity Literacy for Immigrants and International Students”, by Norah Ondus

3. “AI-Augmented Human Decision Making in Secure Space Operation”, by Sadman Saif

4. “ArguScale: Multi-Level Sensemaking for Monitoring Collaborative Reasoning Quality in Classrooms at Scale”, by Panayu Keelawat, Caleb Wohn

5. “CanvasInsight”, by Sanjay Shankar, Jairaj Sharma, Anne Fu, Prathyush Manda, Arnav Tiwari

6. “Capturing and Logging Ecological Virtual Experiences and Reality”, by Qidi "Joanne" Wang

7. “DBWorkout: Support Formative SQL Learning Through Real Time Competitive Sessions”, by Tien Nguyen, Jaren Goldberg

8. “Evaluating the Effects of Personality Type on Constructive and Destructive Virtual Reality Tasks”, by Juanita Richards (Benjamin)

9. “Examining the Effects of Humor Personalization in Human-Robot Interaction”, by Akash Reddy Mallepally

10. “EyeSpy: Inferring Eye Gaze via Side-Channel Attacks Against Foveated Rendering”, by Paul Maynard

11. “Farewell: Not Forgotten: Designing Meaningful Goodbyes to the Things We Keep”, by Yanlan Cai, Mungyeong Choe

12. “Finding RSEs: Challenges in Recruiting Research Software Engineers for Research”, by Minhyuk Ko

13. “From Monologue to Dialogue: Enhancing In-Vehicle Empathy with Interactivity”, by Mungyeong Choe, Jillian Tran, Owen Fang

14. “From Slides to Space: Interactive Scale Navigation for XR Presentations”, by Matthew Gallagher, Mason Szczesniak, Jasmine Walker, Nakul Kumar

15. “Gender, Culture, and Privacy: Navigating Social Media Concerns in Saudi Arabia”, by Khoulood Alharthi

16. “Investigating Impacts of Audiobook Listening on Driving Performance, Comprehension, and Situation Awareness”, by Rachel Ivany, Kelly Kim, Dayna Rohmann

17. “Multimodal Emotion Perception in Social Robots: Testing the ‘Emotional McGurk Effect’ with Facial and Vocal Expressions”, by Eojin Kim, Tryam Mangalam

18. “Responsible Robotics and AI Literacy: Embodied Informal Learning on Ethical Robotics and AI through a Creative Afterschool Program”, by Masiath Mubassira, Irene Zhao

19. “Supporting Autistic Workers Through Industrial Robots: An Exploratory Self-Determination Theory Analysis of Requirements and Design Principles”, by Eojin Kim, Victoria Izaac, Katerina Stastny

20. “Symphony of the Mind: EEG-Driven Emotional Communication for Shared Experience”, by Licong Liu

21. “VISTA: Virtual Interactive Simulation for Teaching Assistants”, by Fatemeh Sarshartehrani

22. “When Failure Happens: How Attribution and Team Configuration Shape Trust Repair in Human-Robot Team”, by Anthony Tran