Human Computer Integration Lab

Computer Science Department, University of Chicago

Essays (long-form writings from our lab)

6. Shared data across research by Prof. Pedro Lopes

29th April, 2026, Pedro Lopes: This essay argues that progress at the intersection of neuroscience and HCI is bottlenecked by the lack of shared, structured, multimodal nervous system data linking sensing, stimulation, and outcomes. It advances the hypothesis that solving this would be decisive, either opening a path toward reusable models and cumulative progress, or revealing fundamental limits that push the field toward alternative approaches like personalization. Click here to read the full essay.

29th April, 2026, Pedro Lopes: This essay argues that progress at the intersection of neuroscience and HCI is bottlenecked by the lack of shared, structured, multimodal nervous system data linking sensing, stimulation, and outcomes. It advances the hypothesis that solving this would be decisive, either opening a path toward reusable models and cumulative progress, or revealing fundamental limits that push the field toward alternative approaches like personalization. Click here to read the full essay.

6. Our Lab at CHI 2026 by Prof. Pedro Lopes

April 28th, 2026, Pedro Lopes: This April, our lab traveled to Barcelona to take part in ACM CHI 2026, the premier international conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Our presence at CHI spanned across 5 CHI papers, 2 demos, 1 poster, 1 panel (as speaker), 1 meetup (as organizers), and 2 workshop (as organizers). Below is a reflection on our time at CHI, what we presented, and what made this conference special for us. Click here to read the full essay.

April 28th, 2026, Pedro Lopes: This April, our lab traveled to Barcelona to take part in ACM CHI 2026, the premier international conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Our presence at CHI spanned across 5 CHI papers, 2 demos, 1 poster, 1 panel (as speaker), 1 meetup (as organizers), and 2 workshop (as organizers). Below is a reflection on our time at CHI, what we presented, and what made this conference special for us. Click here to read the full essay.

5. Our Lab at UIST 2025 by Prof. Pedro Lopes

Nov 27th, 2025, Pedro Lopes: This September, our lab traveled to Busan, Korea to take part in ACM UIST 2025, one of the premier international conference in interface technology. Our presence at UIST spanned across 3 UIST papers, a very special UIST vision keynote (which you can also watch), and a UIST workshop with our international colleagues all over the globe. This essay shows what we presented at UIST 2025, including videos of our talks and the exciting feelings we brought home from UIST! Click here to read the full essay.

Nov 27th, 2025, Pedro Lopes: This September, our lab traveled to Busan, Korea to take part in ACM UIST 2025, one of the premier international conference in interface technology. Our presence at UIST spanned across 3 UIST papers, a very special UIST vision keynote (which you can also watch), and a UIST workshop with our international colleagues all over the globe. This essay shows what we presented at UIST 2025, including videos of our talks and the exciting feelings we brought home from UIST! Click here to read the full essay.

4. UIST in the era of AI: reflections by Yudai Tanaka

Oct 5th, 2025, Yudai Tanaka: This reflection on UIST 2025 explores how the community is redefining its identity in the era of AI. Rather than embracing generative tools for speed and efficiency alone, several talks, including the keynotes by Takeo Igarashi and Choong-Wan Woo, emphasized creativity, intentionality, and the uniquely human capacities of reflection, embodiment, and intrinsic motivation. These themes resonated with recent research on computational scaffolding and embodied assistance. Click here to read the essay.

Oct 5th, 2025, Yudai Tanaka: This reflection on UIST 2025 explores how the community is redefining its identity in the era of AI. Rather than embracing generative tools for speed and efficiency alone, several talks, including the keynotes by Takeo Igarashi and Choong-Wan Woo, emphasized creativity, intentionality, and the uniquely human capacities of reflection, embodiment, and intrinsic motivation. These themes resonated with recent research on computational scaffolding and embodied assistance. Click here to read the essay.

3. "What happens at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Neuroscience?" by Prof. Pedro Lopes

21st June, 2025, Pedro Lopes: In only a few decades, computers went from highly specialized tools to everyday tools, innovation driven by researchers and companies in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). However, while computer scientists are striving to create new interface paradigms (evolution from desktop, to mobile and now to wearable), we are close to hitting a hard barrier: the complexity of the human body and biology. Thus, I argue that designing the next generation of interfaces requires more than just knowledge from computer science, it requires neuroscience. Click here to read the full essay.

21st June, 2025, Pedro Lopes: In only a few decades, computers went from highly specialized tools to everyday tools, innovation driven by researchers and companies in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). However, while computer scientists are striving to create new interface paradigms (evolution from desktop, to mobile and now to wearable), we are close to hitting a hard barrier: the complexity of the human body and biology. Thus, I argue that designing the next generation of interfaces requires more than just knowledge from computer science, it requires neuroscience. Click here to read the full essay.

2. "Our lab's reflections and participation at ACM CHI 2025" by Prof. Pedro Lopes

May 5th, 2025 Pedro Lopes: This April, our lab traveled to Yokohama, Japan to take part in ACM CHI 2025, the premier international conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Our presence at CHI spanned across 4 CHI papers (ranging from adaptive electrical muscle stimulation to inductive power transfer), 1 TOCHI journal presentation (on e-waste), 1 hands-on course (on electrical muscle stimulation), 4 demos (which you can watch in this video), and a very special ACM SIGCHI Special Recognition Award for Jasmine Lu for her "pioneering research in ecological HCI through novel hardware interfaces and fostering communities around sustainable computing". This essay is a reflection on our time at CHI 2025, what we presented, and what made this conference special for us. Click here to read the full essay.

May 5th, 2025 Pedro Lopes: This April, our lab traveled to Yokohama, Japan to take part in ACM CHI 2025, the premier international conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Our presence at CHI spanned across 4 CHI papers (ranging from adaptive electrical muscle stimulation to inductive power transfer), 1 TOCHI journal presentation (on e-waste), 1 hands-on course (on electrical muscle stimulation), 4 demos (which you can watch in this video), and a very special ACM SIGCHI Special Recognition Award for Jasmine Lu for her "pioneering research in ecological HCI through novel hardware interfaces and fostering communities around sustainable computing". This essay is a reflection on our time at CHI 2025, what we presented, and what made this conference special for us. Click here to read the full essay.

1. Ask-me-anything at UIST 2022 about "Being a new faculty/starting a new lab" by Prof. Pedro Lopes

Oct 28th, 2023, Pedro Lopes: At the ACM UIST 2022 conference I was humbled by being invited to give a special Ask-Me-Anything talk about my experience of starting on the tenure track and starting a new lab. Recently, I was immensely moved by the support of my colleagues at the University of Chicago's Computer Science Department who granted me early tenure in July 2023. This whole tenure adventure, plus the fact that UIST 2023 is starting now, motivated me to finally summarize my AMA for those who were not able to attend UIST 2022, many of whom wrote me or the UIST 2022 Social Chairs asking if the AMA would be publicly available, happy to say that despite how it makes me nervous to share this online, it now is available and you can watch the first half of the AMA here (25 minutes with slides). Click here to read the full essay.

Oct 28th, 2023, Pedro Lopes: At the ACM UIST 2022 conference I was humbled by being invited to give a special Ask-Me-Anything talk about my experience of starting on the tenure track and starting a new lab. Recently, I was immensely moved by the support of my colleagues at the University of Chicago's Computer Science Department who granted me early tenure in July 2023. This whole tenure adventure, plus the fact that UIST 2023 is starting now, motivated me to finally summarize my AMA for those who were not able to attend UIST 2022, many of whom wrote me or the UIST 2022 Social Chairs asking if the AMA would be publicly available, happy to say that despite how it makes me nervous to share this online, it now is available and you can watch the first half of the AMA here (25 minutes with slides). Click here to read the full essay.