Lonnie Chien

HCI Researcher

I am a pre-doctoral master's student studying computer science at the University of Chicago, where I am advised by Pedro Lopes.

My research in human-computer interaction (HCI) explores mental models and human cognition using interactive devices. Specifically, I am designing haptic interactions to improve input accuracy of wearable and gestural user interfaces. My work has been published at ACM CHI (the top venue in HCI).

Previously, I spent a year at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developing signal processing algorithms for wireless sensors to characterize Alaskan snowpacks. I received my BS in engineering and applied mathematics from Swarthmore College.

lonniechien@uchicago.edu

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Selected Works

View Full Profile on Google Scholar

Increasing Input Accuracy of Embodied Devices via Electrical Muscle Stimulation

Lonnie Chien, Yudai Tanaka, Noor Amin, Jas Brooks, Pedro Lopes

Proc. ACM CHI 2026

pdf doi talk video

Characterizing Snowpack with 60 GHz FMCW Millimeter-Wave Radar Sensors

Stijn Wielandt, Ivo Marković, Lonnie Chien, Diana Morales, Ryan Landon Crumley, Baptiste Dafflon, Reynold Cooper

Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers 2023

pdf doi

View Past Publications

Determination of nonlinearity parameter B/A of liquids by comparison with solutions of the three-dimensional Westervelt equation

Lonnie Chien, John M. Cormack, E. Carr Everbach, Mark Hamilton

Proc. Meetings on Acoustics 2021

pdf doi

Projects

SecureWear: Usable Security and Privacy Study on Wearable Fitness Trackers

Administered surveys, interviews, and educational interventions with users of wearable fitness trackers (e.g., Apple Watch, Strava) to highlight privacy and security concerns. 2nd place project out of 8 groups (people's choice). Teammates: Kevin Davis, Oliver Fong, Parnika Saxena.

HCI, Usable Security, User Study

Screen Saviors: Promoting Healthy Screen Habits

Surveyed and interviewed partially visually impaired users to design application with integrated posture tracker to remind users to practice healthy screen viewing habits. Teammates: Jun Asano, Sylvia Kim, Andrew Sun.

Accessibility, Python

Eyes-Free Pong Game

Inclusive 2-player (via OSC) eyes-free pong game operating on vocal input and audio output. Gave a blind-folded demonstration.

User-Centered Design, Accessibility, Python

Watch Demo

View Past Coursework & Projects

Jeopardy! Embedded Systems Game

Playable trivia game with interactive buzzers, joystick shield, LED matrix, and LCD screen using NUCLEO development board. Teammates: Cara Lee, Quinn Okabayashi.

Hardware, Embedded Systems, C++

GitHub

Robot Slalom

Autonomous robot that navigates an obstacle course using computer vision and PID control. Teammates: Suraj Kalidindi, Toby Le.

Mobile Robotics, ROS, Python

GitHub YouTube

Panoramic Images from Video

Generate panoramic images from video streams using computer vision techniques. Top-scoring project in class of 16 students. Teammate: Suraj Kalidindi.

Computer Vision, OpenCV, Python

Deepnote