Chen Chen



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Email: chenchen@ucsd.edu
Office: Room 337 @The Design & Innovation Building

La Jolla 🌴🥑🏄 | San Diego | California | USA

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science from UC San Diego advised by Prof. Nadir Weibel. My thesis committee also includes Prof. James D. Hollan, Prof. Haijun Xia, Prof. William G. Grisworld, Prof. Yang Zhang and Dr. Cuong Nguyen. I am affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Design Lab, as well as Qualcomm Institute @CalIT2.

My research interest is on Human-Computer Interactions (HCI), Accessibility (A11y) and Healthcare. My thesis aims to transform today's 2D document interactions into an immersive information experience.

In summer 2022, I was a former research scientist intern at Adobe Research, working with Dr. Cuong Nguyen, Dr. Jane E. Hoffswell, Dr. Jennifer Healey and Dr. Trung Bui. During 2016 to 2018, I was a research assistant and associate at Carnegie Mellon University, working with Prof. Yuvraj Agarwal, Prof. Chris Harrison, Prof. Yang Zhang (now @UCLA), Prof. Anind K. Dey (now @UW), and Dr. Gierad Laput (now @). In summer 2015, I was a research intern at UoN's Power Electronics and Machines Center, working with Prof. Mark Sumner, Dr. Richard Davies, and Dr. Seksak Pholboon.

I received my M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), and a B.Eng. degree with first class honor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, UK).

If you are interested in my work, feel free to email me!

Last Updated on June 1, 2023

Publications Main venues include HCI (e.g., CHI, UIST), A11y (e.g., ASSETS), XR (e.g., ISMAR), and Sensing (e.g., SenSys, IPSN, IMWUT).


Mites: Design and Deployment of a General-Purpose Sensing Infrastructure for Buildings

Sudershan Boovaraghavan, Chen Chen, Anurag Maravi, Mike Czapik, Yang Zhang, Chris Harrison, Yuvraj Agarwal
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT/UbiComp '23), Cancun, Mexico

Real-world deployment of building-scale, general-purpose and high-fiedlity sensing system is challenging! Mites is the first scalable end-to-end hardware-software system for supporting and managing distributed general-purpose sensors in buildings, and has been successfully deployed in Carnegie Mellon University of more than five years.

 Project Page


VRContour: Bringing Contour Delineations of Medical Structures Into Virtual Reality

Chen Chen, Matin Yarmand, Varun Singh, Michael V. Sherer, James D. Murphy, Yang Zhang, Nadir Weibel
The 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR '22), Singapore (Acceptance Rate = 21.6%)

Contour delineation is an indispensable step in radiotherapy treatment planning, yet today’s contouring software (such as Eclipse) is constrained to only work with a 2D display, which is less intuitive and requires high task loads. VRContour is the first effort that aims to explore how to use VR to support an easier and more intuitive contour delineation workflow.

 Teaser  Talk  Project Page


Investigating Input Modality and Task Geometry on Precision-first 3D Drawing in Virtual Reality

Chen Chen, Matin Yarmand, Zhuoqun Xu, Varun Singh, Yang Zhang, Nadir Weibel
The 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR '22), Singapore (Acceptance Rate = 21.6%)

Precision-first 3D drawing refers to the 3D drawing process where the precision is prioritized, which is indispensable for many precise 3D tasks. However, due to lack of physical support, limited depth perception, and the non–planar nature of 3D curves, it is challenging to adjust mid–air strokes to achieve high precision. We demonstrated a first effort to understand how task geometric shapes and input modalities affect such precision–first drawing performance in a within–subject study (n = 12) focusing on 3D target tracing in commercially available VR headsets.

 Dataset


Understanding Barriers and Design Opportunities to Improve Healthcare and QOL for Older Adults through Voice Assistants

Chen Chen, Janet G Johnson, Kemeberly Charles, Alice Lee, Ella T Lifset, Michael Hogarth, Alison A Moore, Emilia Farcas, Nadir Weibel
The 2021 ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21), Virtual Event, USA (Acceptance Rate = 29%)

One key challenge of aging-in-place is to allow older adults to easily access and interact with digital information, which however is challenging! We conducted a first qualitative study with real-world older adults, geriatricians and senior care nurses to understand potential design opportinuity to improve healthcare and quality of life for older adults through voice assistants.

 Teaser  Project Page  News


EXGsense: Toward facial gesture sensing with a sparse near-eye sensor array

Chen Chen, Ke Sun, Xinyu Zhang
The 2021 ACM International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN '21), Nashville, TN, USA (Acceptance Rate = 24.5%)

Immersive face-to-virtual-face telecommunication is one unique use case for virtual reality (VR) technologies. Existing camera-based telephony systems cannot be used for such immersive VR video chat, due to the physical occlusions of head-mounted displays (HMDs) and/or unwieldy positioning of cameras. We present ExGSense, a new VR input modality that can sense and reconstruct both upper and lower facial gestures, by only using lightweight biopotential sensors embedded within the HMDs.


"Alexa, stop spying on me!" Speech Privacy Protection Against Voice Assistants

Ke Sun, Chen Chen, Xinyu Zhang
The 2020 ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys '20), Virtual Event, Japan (Acceptance Rate = 18%)

Voice assistants (VAs) are becoming highly popular recently as a general means of interacting with the Internet of Things. However, the use of always-on microphones on VAs imposes a looming threat on users' privacy. We propose MicShield, the first system that serves as a companion device to enforce privacy preservation on VAs.

Short Papers & Posters

How do Older Adults Set Up Voice Assistants? Lessons Learned from a Deployment Experience for Older Adults to Set Up Standalone Voice Assistants

Chen Chen, Ella T. Lifset, Yichen Han, Arkajyoti Roy, Michael Hogarth, Alison A. Moore, Emilia Farcas, Nadir Weibel
The 2023 ACM International Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '23 Companion), Pittsburgh, PA, USA

 Teaser  Project Page

Design and Development of a Training and Immediate Feedback Tool to Support Healthcare Apprenticeship

Matin Yarmand, Borui Wang, Chen Chen, Michael V. Sherer, Larry Hernandez, James D. Murphy, Nadir Weibel
The 2021 ACM International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23 Late Breaking Work), Hamburg, Germany


Towards Visualization of Time–Series Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) Data on Standalone Voice–First Virtual Assistants

Yichen Han, Christopher Bo Han, Chen Chen, Peng Wei Lee, Michael Hogarth, Alison A Moore, Nadir Weibel, Emilia Farcas
The 2022 ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22), Athens, Greece

 Project Page

Exploring Needs and Design Opportunities for Virtual Reality-based Contour Delineations of Medical Structures

Chen Chen, Ke Sun, Xinyu Zhang
The 2022 ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS '22), Sophia Antipolis, France


Toward a Unified Metadata Schema for Ecological Momentary Assessment with Voice-First Virtual Assistants

Chen Chen, Khalil Mrini, Kemeberly Charles, Ella Lifset, Michael Hogarth, Alison Moore, Nadir Weibel, Emilia Farcas
The 2021 ACM International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI '21), Bilbao (online), AA, Spain

 Project Page

Facilitating remote design thinking workshops in healthcare: the case of contouring in radiation oncology

Matin Yarmand, Chen Chen, Danilo Gasques, James D. Murphy, Nadir Weibel
Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21 Case Study), Yokohama, Japan


CapTag: toward printable ubiquitous internet of things

Chen Chen, Ke Sun, Xinyu Zhang
Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys '20), Yokohama, Japan

Professional Experience

Research Scientist Intern, Adobe Research, Remote/San Francisco, CA, USA, Summer '22

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, CSE 118/218 Ubiquitous Computing (Fall '22), UC San Diego [CSE 118 Student Evaluation] [CSE 218 Student Evaluation]

Teaching Assistant, WES 237A Introduction to Embedded Computing (Winter '21), UC San Diego [Student Evaluation] [Instructor Evaluation]

Teaching Assistant, CSE 291H Data Center System (Fall '19), UC San Diego [Student Evaluation] [Instructor Evaluation]

Teaching Assistant, CSE 112 Advanced Software Engineering (Fall '20), UC San Diego [Student Evaluation]

Teaching Assistant, COGS 118 AI Algorithms (Summer '19), UC San Diego [Student Evaluation]

Teaching Assistant, 08-672 Web Application Development (Fall '16, Fall '17), Carnegie Mellon University

Student Mentored

Arkajoyti Roy, Math + CS Undergrad Student @UCSD, Fall '22 - Summer '23

Varun Singh, CS Undergrad Student @UCSD, Fall '21 - Summer '23

Yichen Han (now MS Student @Carnegie Mellon University), Winter '22 - Summer '22

Christopher B. Han, Winter '22 - Summer '22

Peng W. Lee, Winter '22 - Summer '22

Ella T. Lifset, Biology Undergrad Student @UCSD, Summer '20 - Summer '21

Robin Z. Xu (now Staff Engineer @Intuitive), Winter '21 - Summer '21

Services

IMWUT/UbiComp Video Co-Chair ('23)

UCSD CSE Ph.D. Visit Day Area Lead (HCI) ('22 - '23)

UCSD CSE Ph.D. Admission Committee ('19 - '23')

Program Committee/Associate Chair (AC) for ACM CHI '23 (Late Breaking Work Track)

Conference Reviewers for CHI, UIST, CSCW, IUI, DIS, EICS, IEEE VR, ISMAR, ICMI, SUI, VRST ('20 - Now)

Journal Reviewers for IMWUT, IJHCI, PLOS Digital Health ('20 - Now)

Student Volunteer at ASSETS '21, '22

Co-Host for DLab Research Meeting, UCSD

Volunteer at the International Humanity Foundation, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Summer '13


© CHEN CHEN | 2023