Smit Desai is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His primary research focus centers around comprehending the mental models of users as they engage with conversational agents, utilizing innovative research techniques such as metaphor analysis. He leverages this valuable insight to advance the development of conversational agents in diverse social roles, including educators and storytellers. Smit is a Provocation Papers Co-Chair at the upcoming ACM CUI 2024 conference. His research has yielded publications in esteemed HCI forums like CHI, TOCHI, CSCW, and CUI.
Christina Wei is a Ph.D. student in the School of Information at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on designing conversation architecture for AI agents in human-AI collaborative decision-making scenarios. She has previously organized a workshop at ACM CUI 2023, and she is on the organizing committee for the upcoming ACM CUI 2024 conference.
Jaisie Sin is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Okanagan Visualization and Interaction Lab at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on the inclusive design of conversational interfaces for underrepresented users, with a primary focus on ageing. She is an Accessibility Chair at the upcoming CUI 2024 conference. She has also been a Full Papers Co-Chair at CUI ’23, and co-organizer of previous CUI conferences related workshops at CHI ’19–’23 (lead in ’23), IUI ’20–’21, and CSCW ’20.
Mateusz Dubiel is a Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Luxembourg, where he works on development and evaluation of conversational agents. Specifically, his current research focuses on assessment of cognitive and usability implications of interfaces that feature speech, and exploration of their potential to persuade and inspire positive behavioural change in users. He served as Short Papers Chair for CUI ’22 and will be one of General Chairs for the upcoming CUI ’24.
Nima Zargham is a Ph.D. student in the Digital Media Lab at the University of Bremen. His research focuses on human-centered approaches for designing speech-based systems that elicit desirable user experiences. Nima has previously organized CUI-related workshops at notable conferences such as ACM/IEEE HRI 2023 and ACM CUI 2023. Additionally, he served as a local chair at the ACM CHI-PLAY 2022 conference. His research efforts have resulted in publications featured in prestigious HCI venues, including CHI, CUI, and CHI-PLAY.
Shashank Ahire is a PhD candidate in Mensch Computer Interaktion group at Leibniz University Hannover. He is interested in developing CUIs to improve the health and well-being of knowledge Workers while at work. Previously, he has also researched on designing and developing CUIs for marginalized populations in the global south
Martin Porcheron is a Senior UX Researcher at Bold Insight UK, based in London. His recent work focuses on the user experience of interactive “AI” systems—from voice interfaces through to robot interfaces. In his Ph.D., he also studied public places like cafés and pubs, to understand how we use devices like smartphones while we are socialising. As well as organising a number of workshops at international conferences, he was Full Papers Chair for the inaugural CUI ’19 conference and Programme Chair for CUI ’20 and ’21, and was General Chair for CUI ’23.
Anastasia Kuzminkyh is an Assistant Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Information and the Director of the Toronto Human-AI Interaction Research School (THAI RS). Her work touches on diverse technologies, including conversational agents, large language models, and AI-based decision support systems, exploring the mechanisms driving the perceptions of different types of AI systems, such as trust, anthropomorphization, or perceived reliability to inform the system and algorithm design requirements for effective, efficient, and ethical AI.
Minha Lee is an assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Department of Industrial Design, with a background in philosophy, digital arts, and HCI. Her research concerns morally relevant interactions with various agents like robots or chatbots, exploring moral concepts like compassion and trust. She organized workshops such as CHI 2022 workshop on CUI Ethics, CSCW 2022 workshop on Activism in Academia, HRI 2021 workshop on Artificial Identity and more, as well as serving as a General Chair for CUI ’23, Full papers for Chair CUI ’21, and Provocation papers Chair for CUI ’20,
Heloisa Candello is a research scientist and a manager of the Human-centered and Responsible technologies group at IBM Research. Her work focuses on human and social aspects of Artificial Intelligence systems, particularly conversational user interfaces. Currently, Heloisa is leading a project that aims to bring “conscious” access to micro-credit by enhancing non-traditional financial practices of low-income small business owners with AI technology in the Global South. Her research resulted in several publications in leading conferences (CHI, CUI, CSCW, DRS) and recognition in the HCI and Design field.
Joel Fischer is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Nottingham, and Research Director of two national programmes on Responsible and Trustworthy AI (TAS and RAI UK). Joel’s interests include close studies of conversational interaction by adopting a conversation analytic perspective. He has published widely and co-organised many workshops on the topic at CHI, CUI, CSCW, and HRI.
Cosmin Munteanu is an Associate Professor and Schlegel Research Chair in Technology for Healthy Aging at the Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, and Director of the Technologies for Ageing Gracefully lab. Cosmin takes a primarily ethnomethodological approach to study how voice- and language-enabled interfaces should be designed in a safe, effective, inclusive, and ethical manner, in order to empower digitally underrepresented groups such as older adults. Cosmin is the co-founder of the new ACM Conversational User Interfaces conference series and one of the early researchers to bring speech processing and interface design research together. He is also serving as a member of the ACM SIGCHI Ethics Committee where he contributes perspectives on ethical research with underrepresented user groups.
Benjamin Cowan is an Associate Professor at University College Dublin’s School of Information and Communication Studies. His research focuses on understanding user interaction with speech-based conversational user interfaces. He is co-founder of the ACM Conversational User Interfaces conference (ACM CUI) and has published extensively on user interaction issues with speech interfaces within the HCI community. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, has served as CHI AC, and was one of the inaugural SCs of the Understanding People: Quantitative Methods subcommittee at CHI 2023.