We design and develop new technologies that are sensitive to the social environments within which they will be used and that leverage and support those relationships.
We are a research group within the McGill School of Information Studies studying, designing, and building new technologies that can better accommodate a diversity of needs. Funding sources for our work include NSERC, CRC, AGE-WELL, FQRNT, GRAND, and Google.
Our paper, "Co-Designing QuickPic: Automated Topic-Specific Communication Boards from Photographs for AAC-Based Language Instruction"with Mauricio Fontana de Vargas as lead author has been published at CHI 2024.
Our paper, "Navigating the Maze of Routine Disruption: Exploring How Older Adults Living Alone Navigate Barriers to Establishing and Maintaining Physical Activity Habits" with lead author, Muhe Yang, has been published at CHI 2024.
Congratulations to all the students finishing up projects with ACT Lab this year.
Among our MISt students, Sam Staves, Sihan Wang, and Grace Ferguson completed their MISt Research Projects, while Tsan Hsi Hseuh and Marzieh Zeberjad completed independent research courses.
Undergraduate students, Miriam Xia (Cognitive Science), Eugene Guo (Cognitive Science), Daniel Zhou (Cognitive Science), Charlene Yin (Cognitive Science), and Yutong Quan (Computer Science) all completed undergraduate research courses with the lab.
We wish Sam, Sihan, Grace, Tsan Hsi, Marzieh, Eugue, Daniel, Miriam, and Yutong all the best in their future pursuits!
PhD student, Muhe Yang, has been awarded a scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec; Nature et Technologies scholarship, for her research, Supporting Physical Activity in Later Life: Co-Design of Activity Promoting Technologies. Muhe was also recently awarded a Wolfe Chair fellowship.
Congratulations, Muhe, on these accomplishments!
Prof. Karyn Moffatt was awarded an NSERC Discovery grant to support research on Ethical and appropriate AI enhanced services to support active aging in later life.
Our paper, "Guidelines for Designing Social Networking Sites for Older Adults: A Systematic Review with Thematic Synthesis" with Amira Ghenai as lead author was published in ACM TACCESS.
Lab members Carrie Dai, Mauricio Fontana de Vargas, and Robert Ferguson received their PhDs at convocation today.
Congratulations Drs. Dai, de Vargas, and Ferguson!
Postdoc, Armel Ayimdji, is leaving ACT Lab to join Quantiphi as a Senior Conversation Bot Engineer.
We wish him the best in this new pursuit!