Neeta Khanuja, CMU Portugal Dual Ph.D. student, co-wrote the winning paper at the ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026), the leading international conference on Human-Computer Interaction, taking place in Barcelona, April 13-17, 2026.
The paper titled “Towards Fluent Interaction with Cyber-Physical Architecture” explores human-robot interaction in architectural-scale, shape-changing environments through two studies: speculative design workshops and a task-based Wizard-of-Oz elicitation study. Workshop findings revealed user desires and critical tensions between proactive automation/user autonomy and personalization/public ownership. The paper proposes grounded solutions for creating collaborative and trusted robotic environments for everyday life.
Neeta Khanuja enrolled in the CMU Portugal Dual Degree Ph.D. Program in Human-Computer Interaction in the 2021-2022 academic year, pursuing her doctorate at Instituto Superior Técnico. With her background in computer engineering, media studies and architecture, her research focuses on interaction design. Her work is supervised by Valentina Nisi (Técnico / Interactive Technologies Institute) and Jodi Forlizzi (CMU / Human-Computer Interaction Institute).
For Neeta, this recognition is “a reflection of the learning and shared journey that made the work possible”, not only emphasizing the successful outcome of both teamwork but also a dedicated pursuit of a deeply interesting personal field of study.
Neeta plans to graduate in 2027, looking forward to advancing her research in interaction design, building on this work to explore how emerging technological systems can shape human experiences across diverse contexts and cultures.
Joining Neeta at CHI’ 2026 was Shuhao Ma, a CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. Student in Human-Computer Interaction. He submitted the paper “Revisiting Worker-Centered Design: Tensions, Blind Spots, and Action Spaces” exploring how existing labor dynamics shape design. His work is supervised by Nuno Jardim Nunes (Técnico / Interactive Technologies Institute) and co-supervised by Valentina Nisi and John Zimmerman (CMU).