HCIL Director’s Letter
HCIL’s 41st Annual Symposium | May 2024
And just like that, another year has passed. This is my third director’s letter, but in many ways, the first one — which I wrote in May 2022 while attending my first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic — feels like it was written yesterday. While many things have changed in the last two years, one remains constant: HCI research is alive and well at the University of Maryland.
Probably the biggest change in the last year has been the explosion of AI — particularly large language models like ChatGPT — and UMD has been quick to take a leading role in AI research. TRAILS (the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society) launched last May with HCIL faculty member Hal Daumé III directing and several HCIL faculty as members. TRAILS has spent this last year ramping up its research, education, and outreach, including multiple seed funding opportunities for researchers working on AI problems. More recently, the university launched the AI Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), also with Hal at the helm (he’s a very busy man!), but also with HCIL faculty Sheena Erete as the Associate Director of Research. I am excited and heartened to see faculty I deeply respect being tapped for such important roles.
At the same time, these appointments should be a surprise to no one, as many of our HCIL faculty have been long thinking about AI in their work. In fact, HCIL founder Ben Shneiderman published his book “Human-Centered AI” in 2022, highlighting the deep connections between HCI and AI. And as a privacy and data ethics scholar, I think it is more critical now than ever before for us to remember the humans that shape technological advances and those affected by it. HCI researchers at UMD and around the world should play a central role in developing AI technology that is usable, accessible, and ethical. I am excited to look back at this time next year to see what progress we have made in this space.
Beyond AI, HCIL researchers have been taking on a wide range of topics this year, ranging from core design work to exploring collaboration and creativity, usable privacy, accessibility, and more. In total, today’s symposium features 29 lightning talks, three plenary talks, and two panels, as well as demos, trivia, and a poster session. These talks involve students and faculty from across campus, representing numerous undergraduate and graduate programs. Our students and faculty work hard throughout the year on these research projects; in fact, many are in Hawaii as I write this to participate in the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). HCIL members are authors on 15 CHI papers, two workshops, and one SIG (Special Interest Group), and three papers have won prestigious awards. Special congrats to Utkarsh Dwivedi, Salma Elsayed-Ali, Beth Bonsignore, Hernisa Kacorri, and Michelle Mazurek for being awarded honorable mentions, and to Zeyu Yan, Jiasheng Li, Zining Zhang, and Huaishu Peng for receiving a special recognition for sustainable practice.
There is much to celebrate this year, and I encourage you to check out the back of the program, which includes a detailed list of awards earned by HCIL faculty and students. I’d also like to call out a few extra-noteworthy items. First, congrats to Amanda Lazar, who earned tenure and promotion to associate professor this spring and to me (yes, that feels weird to write) for being promoted to full professor. Promotion in academia is a very long and involved process, so these promotions are a testament to research impact. Congrats to our seven graduating PhD students and four graduating HCI Master’s students involved in research in the lab — we look forward to hearing about the next steps you take in your career journey! And congrats to the four HCIL faculty who were among the inaugural winners of the UMD Do Good Innovator Awards: Beth Bonsignore, Carol Boston, Bill Kules, and Galina Reitz. Each of you plays a critical role in us achieving our educational goals and in enhancing our community.
Today’s symposium would not be possible without support from campus units, funding agencies, and industry sponsors. I want to offer my sincere gratitude to our industry sponsor (VEX Robotics) and our campus sponsors (College of Information Studies; Philip Merrill College of Journalism; Computer Science Department; College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences; Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security; and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies). I am deeply grateful for the support of Paris Lane, who joined the HCIL last summer to support me in the day-to-day operations of the lab. I’d also like to thank the various staff members, including Rachael Bennett, Sarah Grun, Craig Allan Taylor, Mia Hinckle, and the INFO Comms team for helping organize the symposium, as well as all the students, faculty, and staff who volunteered this week.
Every year, our annual symposium amazes me anew at the creative and innovative research HCIL students and faculty are undertaking, and each year I feel inspired by the future of the field. I hope you are similarly inspired by today’s talks, panels, posters and demos.
Welcome to the 41st annual HCIL symposium!
Jessica Vitak
Director, Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL)
