Inclusive Interaction Lab

02/17/2026

We finally had our 2025 annual holiday dinner yesterday! Although usually held in December, we had to push it back a few months this year for a variety of reasons. It was still the perfect chance to share personal stories, let loose, and enjoy time together without worrying about research for a change. A perfect way to celebrate the end of the year with a brilliant group of students!

01/26/2026

A really well-written article about our Summer Internship Program for high school students. It's wonderful to see the program getting this kind of recognition. Thank you to Patty for the write-up, and thanks to Anna, Advay, Hasini, Jasamarbir, and Veena for their thoughtful comments. I'm truly touched by their reflections and by seeing the impact the program has had on the lives and careers of our alumni.

By Patty Guerra, UC MercedJanuary 22, 2026The program runs for 12 weeks.High school students have an extraordinary opportunity to explore software development through a summer internship program at UC Merced. Computer science and engineering Professor Ahmed Arif started the High School Internship pr...

12/18/2025

Congratulations to Ghazal Zand on successfully defending her dissertation! Ghazal joined the Inclusive Interaction Lab in 2020, right in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite prolonged lockdowns and severe restrictions on human-subjects research, she persevered with remarkable resilience and focus. During her PhD, she co-authored six publications at top venues in and , with another currently under review, all centered on her dissertation research: "Designing Safe, Secure, and Effective Control Interfaces for Telepresence Robots." Her expertise spans not only software development, but also signal processing, sensing, and robotics. Ghazal is currently on the job market, an outstanding researcher and collaborator I enthusiastically recommend.

10/22/2025

We launched our Summer Internship Program for local high school students back in 2018 to give young minds early exposure to research and software development. Each year, I personally mentor four high school interns, teaching them how to conduct research responsibly, uphold strong ethical standards, and gain hands-on experience in building real-world software systems.

The program was briefly paused during the pandemic but returned virtually in 2021, a shift that made it far more accessible. Since then, applications have grown from just 10-15 to over 100 each year, primarily from students across the Bay Area.

Last Saturday, we held the Certificate Ceremony for our 2025 cohort! The event brought together interns, graduate students, and families (parents, guardians, and siblings) to celebrate the interns’ accomplishments. Each student presented their research, interacted with our graduate team, and received their certificates.

This year’s group was truly exceptional, working on a range of innovative projects involving gestural interaction, stress detection, personal assistants, and emotion recognition. Their curiosity, creativity, and dedication continue to inspire me every summer!

10/15/2025

We were thrilled to host Dr. Julia Woodward at the Inclusive Interaction Lab last week! Dr. Woodward delivered an invited talk titled "Designing AR Headset Interfaces for Adults and Children," where she shared valuable insights on eliciting gestures from child users and incorporating their feedback to improve interactions, not just for children, but for a wider range of users. The talk was well attended and sparked lively discussions among participants. Following the presentation, she toured the lab, interacted with our members, explored their demos, and offered thoughtful feedback. Both the students and I greatly enjoyed her visit and left feeling inspired by her work and perspective! Thanks, Julia!

10/03/2025

We explored how users perceive information quality on Facebook, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn. Findings showed that users trusted posts similarly across all three platforms, with no significant differences in perceived reliability, accuracy, or shareability. However, participants consistently struggled to detect fake news, raising concerns about misinformation and platform accountability. Notably, frequent social media users and those with higher education reported greater trust in and willingness to share posts, yet they were less accurate at identifying fake content.

This paradox highlights a pressing challenge in the digital era: those who engage most actively may be the least equipped to recognize misinformation.

The study was led by PhD student Zoe Loh and presented at in Kelowna, BC, Canada. A preprint of the work is available.

�https://theiilab.com/pub/Loh_GI2025_Social_Media_Perception.pdf

09/24/2025

We are excited to welcome Dr. Julia Woodward from the University of South Florida to our lab. She will be delivering an invited talk at our Graduate Seminar titled "Designing AR Headset Interfaces for Adults and Children" on Friday, October 3, 2025, from 11:30 AM to 12:20 PM in Kolligian Library 209. Following the seminar, Dr. Woodward will participate in lab demonstrations and engage with students.

Augmented reality (AR) headsets, identified as one of the most critical and emerging technologies by the National Science and Technology Council, supplement the real world by combining virtual objects with the natural environment; therefore, providing mobility and hands-free capabilities that deepen...

08/27/2025

Yesterday, UC Merced celebrated Scholars Bridge Crossing, our tradition of welcoming new students. I am delighted to also welcome two brilliant PhD scholars to the Inclusive Interaction Lab.

Jingquan Li joins us after completing her BE in Computer Science & Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Sardar Mehtab Bin Murtaza comes to us from Michigan State University, where he earned his BS in Computer Science & Human Biology. He begins his PhD with the distinction of a Graduate Dean's Recruitment Fellowship. We are excited to begin this journey of discovery and innovation together.

Picture: A welcome message from one of our lab members, Qhelile Ozias Sibanda.

08/26/2025

We conducted a review of control interfaces for remotely operated robots, with a special focus on telepresence robots. In the paper, we present three tables that highlight key gaps in the literature, in other words, opportunities for researchers to develop more effective control interfaces. We encourage you to explore these tables and use them as inspiration for your next research project! It will be presented at IEEE Telepresence 2025. Here's a short video overview by Ghazal, who led the survey.

🎥 https://youtu.be/K0hP8-v--W8
📄https://theiilab.com/pub/Zand_TELE2025_Control_Systems_Review.pdf

IEEE TELEPRESENCE 2025. September 8-10, 2025. Leiden, The Netherlands.Abstract—We present a comprehensive review of control interfaces for telepresence robot...

08/03/2025

I had the opportunity to give an invited talk titled "Beyond Algorithms: Human Behaviors and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction" at the 2025 DCSE Summer Course on AI and Robotics in Society 5.0, organized by the Department of Computer Science and Electronics at Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia.

While I've given many invited talks and guest lectures over the years, this was my first on human-robot interaction or robotics. My interest in the field began with my PhD student Ghazal Zand, who had a strong background in robotics before joining my lab. I'm pleased that our work over the past five years has resonated enough for others to invite us to speak on these topics, especially among such accomplished researchers!

The event was thoughtfully organized and warmly hosted by Isna Bustoni. I received some thought-provoking questions afterward, making it a great experience.

07/31/2025

How can smartwatches be used to control large vertical displays? Our recent study, presented at by my former student Yuan, compared four input methods: taps, directional flicks, wrist gestures, and force-based input. Directional flicks performed nearly as well as taps in speed, accuracy, and usability, but interestingly, force-based input outperformed wrist gestures in both usability and perceived task load. Link to a short presentation below.

🎥 https://youtu.be/HlWm0_I0qZE
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1145/3733155.3736602

PETRA 2025. June 25-27, 2025. Corfu Island, Greece.Abstract—This work compares four methods for interacting with large vertical displays via a smartwatch. In...