Selected projects
Selected projects
Selected projects
Voice User Interfaces (VUIs)
VUIs offer a wonderful hands free and eye-free solution for circumstances in which typing is problematic: for mobile devices, for people with temporary impairments or permanent disabilities, for illiterates or for those who hate typing.
Challenges: design for non-persistent content; system personality design using voice quality, intonation and accent
IDA - an Intelligent Parking App
IDA - Intelligent Driver Assistant - is a multi-modal application that promotes sustainable driving by helping drivers to find quickly suitable parking. Using speech for interaction, IDA becomes an active helper during navigation by checking periodically car park availabilities.
Challenges: multi-modal interaction design for noisy environments (cognitive loaded scenarios (driving); expert evaluation
Multi-modal Info Kiosk
Multimodal interactions provide users with more engaging experiences. Our multi-modal kiosk uses visual information and natural language for interaction. Visitors can connect to it using their mobile phone by scanning a QR code displayed on the kiosk screen.
Challenges: Field work study; observations in crowded environments, design for multiple users; design for large displays; graphic design
UX for Autonomous Vehicle
Autonomous vehicles are inevitable as technology advances. In this project, I am focusing on a participatory design study on UX concepts for autonomous vehicles, as well as on user perspective on autonomous drive.
Challenges: participatory design, paper prototyping, robotic head mockup, UX design
Video storytelling
Video storytelling is effective way to explain complex matters to a large public using live action videos or short animation. I am using this technique to explain goals and technical challenges in our research projects to a non-technical audience.
Challenges: mock-ups; scenario scripts; acting direction; audio & video editing; graphic design & animation
Designing Chatbots
Recently, new strategies using deep learning algorithms seem to enable chatbots to achieve better performances. This project focuses on the development of DigiMo, a chatbot that uses emotions to respond to users. DigiMo is part of a larger project aiming at building the next-generation integrative systems capable of recognizing emotions from multiple modalities (visual, audio, and text) in the Asian sociocultural context.
Challenges: data collection; emotion annotation; training; demonstrator; qualitative and quantitative user studies
HCI4D Education Technology
In October 2017, I was very fortunate to participate to a HCI4D field trip in India aiming to uncover parental perspectives on education technology in one of the biggest Mumbai's slums: Dharavi. The field trip was offered as part of the INTERACT2017 conference
Challenges: semi-structured interviews; design for illiterate users; design low-income households with limited access to network and electricity.
Redesigning RodentEye Platform - a case study
RodentEye is a platform that offers rodent surveillance in real-time. Equipped with smart sensors and data analytics, the system locates rodents entry points and informs clients by sms or by weekly reports about the unwanted visitors. For this project, I re-designed the entire user experience with Rodent Eye platform, such as the user interface, communication with the clients and report generation
Challenges: clients intervies, observations, requirements analysis, information architecture, sketches, interactive mock-up, UI design, report generation (python implementation).
Talking to Industrial Robots
Technological advances made possible the development of complex robotic systems in many industry areas. Such systems often require skilled operators undergoing long hours of training. In this project, I am focusing on designing an intuitive multi-modal interface for a robot welder. The interface should help welder operating the robot without undergoing specialized training.
Challenges: field research, data collection, ethnographic studies, contextual enquiry, sketches, multi-modal design;
Workshops
HUMIC-DIAL special session @ IWSDS 2018
Organised a special session on Humour in Dialogue (HUMIC-DIAL) at the Int. Workshop on Spoken Dialogue System (IWSDS), 12-14th May, 2018 Singapore. HUMIC-DIAL session was organised a as follow-up event of the HUMIC workshop held at INTERACT 2017 Mumbai India (see below) with special focus on dialogue.
Website: HUMIC-DIAL 2018 special session
HUMIC workshop & tutorial @ INTERACT 2017
Main organizer of the HUMIC workshop (Humor in Human Computer Interaction) held at INTERACT 2017 Mumbai India. The full day workshop incorporated traditional approaches such as a keynote, several presentations, plenary discussions etc., but tried to also add innovative elements, such as video compilations of relevant documentaries and stand-up comedy shows and a hands-on practical session where participants could apply what they had learned during the workshop.
Website: HUMIC 2017 workshop
FINE-R Workshop @ IROS 2015
Co-organiser of the "FINE-R 2015 Workshop: the path to success - failure in real robots". The workshop was held in conjunction with IROS 2015, Hamburg, Germany
Website: FINE-R 2015 workshop
Tutorials
Designing and Implementing chatbots @ A*STAR
Main organizer of a 3 days course on designing and implementing chatbots for undergraduates students. The course was part of the RAP program - an internships A*STAR internship program students did in May 2018 and Nov.-Dec 2019. The students learned how to apply design thinking techniques to create an own chabot. They designed, implemented and evaluated their prototypes using Dialogue Flow. One of the student groups published a paper at IWSDS 2020.
Info: Towards a Humorous Chat-Bot Companion for Senior Citizens
Humour in interactive applications @ HUMIC 2017
Conducted a course session on design interactive humours applications. The session was part of the HUMIC workshop (held at INTERACT 2017, Mumbai India). Three teams of designers competed against each other for designing the most creative humour application. Details about the course methodology and results were published in a conference paper available below.
Info: Design Humor in Interaction
User Experience Design in Human-Robot Interaction @ HAI 2016
As tutorial co-organiser: “Natural language in Human Robot Interaction (HRI)" at the Int. Conference on Human Agent Interaction (HAI) 4th-7th Oct. 2016, Biopolis, Singapore I gave a tutorial on design and evaluating human-robot interactions, 'do's and 'don't's when aiming for an improved user experience.
Info: Natural Language in Human-Robot Interaction
Invited talks
Academy of Romanian Scientist (AOSR) and eBio-hub Research Center Webinar 2023
Invited Speaker at an online event organized by AOSR and eBio-hub of the National Science and Technology University (Politehcnica Bucuresti), October 31st 2023.
Talk: "From simple interactive systems to complex AI machines: the importance of understanding user needs, perceptions, and context of use when designing for human experiences – a tale from a Romanian researcher working in Singapore"
AI Research, Development and Innovation Network for Sustainable Cities (AISC) Webinar 2021
Invited Panelist at
Talk: “Intelligent Transportation Systems in Singapore: user
perspective on technology adoption"
CoDE-2017 Summit
Invited Speaker at CoDE-2017 SUMMIT, Dec.16-18th 2017, Mapletree Business City, Singapore. CoDE-2017 was a three day event focusing on UX design, Software and User Experience Creation and comprised conference talks, workshops and an online hackathon.
Talk: “User Experience Design for Speech and Natural Language Interfaces"
ASIAN Robotics Week 2015
Invited Speaker at ASIAN Robotics Week, Nov. 12-13th, 2015, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Talk: "Why Industrial Robots Should Become More Social?"
IALP 2009
Invited speaker at the Int. Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP 2009) , 7th-9th Dec. 2009, Singapore
Talk: "Multimodal Conversational Interfaces in Human Computer Interaction: what Influences Their Quality Assessment?"
Awards
April 2016: A*STAR Borderless Award
Group award as member of the Autonomous Vehicle Department for contributions made towards developing an Autonomous Vehicle at A*STAR"
Sept. 2014: Best Paper Award at I-USER '14
The award was given for the paper: “Understanding welding practices on shipyards: An ethnographic study for designing an interactive robot welder”. The paper was presented at the Int. Conference on User Science and Engineering, Malaysia (I-USER '14)
Dec. 2011: Best Paper Award at I-USER '11
The award was given for the paper: “Understanding welding practices on shipyards: An ethnographic study for designing an interactive robot welder”. The paper was presented at the Int. Conference on User Science and Engineering, Malaysia (I-USER '14)
