CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute

Hats off to the MHCI Class of 2026! 🎓✨
The 1-year Master of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University is both a marathon and a sprint. Students, thank you for showing up every day and bringing so much energy, curiosity and empathy to our community this year.

Wicked Problems lie ahead, but we know you are ready to tackle them.
Just Thinking Aloud here, the future of HCI looks bright thanks to you all.
Oh - Yes, and - we are so proud of you! Congratulations and keep in touch, !

📸: MHCI students, faculty and staff at the farewell party yesterday

Today we are kicking off the 2026 LearnLab Summer School! We are so excited to spend the week with 100+ friends while building learning solutions with real-world impact.

Our LearnLab tracks this year include:

🧠🤖 Intelligent Tutoring Systems

🔎📈 Educational Data Mining

🛠️💻 Building online courses with OLI

💻📑 Computer Science Education Research and

📊📚 Data Science for Education.

We look forward to building and learning with you all this week.

From advancements in machine knitting to AI design sprints, HCII and CMU authors contributed to several research papers accepted to DIS 2026. Congratulations, authors!

The ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) is an interdisciplinary conference where research can focus on design theory, methods and technologies, as well as cultural, economic and political impacts.

🏆 Best Paper Award
Knit Joinery: Incorporating Multifunctional Materials with Single-bed Machine Knitting
Yi-Chin Lee, Vernelle A. A. Noel, Scott E Hudson, James McCann, Lea Albaugh

🏅Honorable Mention Award
Designing Worker-Led Documentation Practices: How Unionized Cleaners Articulate Harm Beyond Reporting
Franchesca Spektor, Shivani Kapania, Minjung Park, Olivia Terry, Jodi Forlizzi, Sarah E Fox

Scroll through to see the first pages of several of our papers at DIS.

🔗 Details: https://hcii.cmu.edu/news/cmu-dis-2026

AI is taking over the toy aisle. Are our kids ready? 🤖🧸

Don't miss this new, must-watch TED Talk, "How to raise kids who question AI," featuring HCII Assistant Research Professor Randi Williams.

After thousands of conversations with children worldwide, AI education researcher Williams explains how kids interact with technology and why the next era of digital literacy starts at your dinner table.

🔗 Learn more and watch the Play at TED Talk: https://hcii.cmu.edu/news/williams-ted-talk-kids-ai

Welcome, undergraduate researchers! Today we are kicking off our 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) program.

We're excited to spend the summer with these talented undergraduates from around the country. They will spend the summer doing research with the HCII community in a variety of human-computer interaction subject areas, including educational technologies, accessibility, privacy tools, human-centered AI, data vis and the future of work, just to name a few.

This program is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Today we celebrate one of our favorite holidays: Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

The goal of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about the future of digital inclusion and accessibility.

We thank Computing Services for bringing the CMU community together to explore how we can create more inclusive digital experiences. Highlights of today's event included:
🧑‍💻 hands-on workshops (on Neurodivergence & Emerging Technology and Accessible Content),
🎤 announcements from CMU leadership,
🔥 and "Who carries the torch?" an inspiring and personal keynote presentation by Lex Huth.
Lex (who holds a Master of Professional Writing from CMU) is a Minneapolis-based writer, speaker, and accessibility advocate whose work sits at the intersection of AI, emerging technology, and disability inclusion.

We hope you'll remember to join us next year on the 3rd Thursday in May to celebrate the next GAAD. Until then, let's keep building the future with accessibility in mind!

Visit our website to learn more about HCII's current accessibility and assistive technology work.
🔗 https://hcii.cmu.edu/research-areas/accessibility