While You’re Still Busy: Context-Aware Approach Optimization for Proactive Mobile Robots

Ziru Wei, Di Wen, Leyuan Chen, Hassan Shahzad, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’26. Detroit, MI, USA. November 2-5, 2026

Priors of U: Dynamic Preference Learning for Embodied Interaction

Violet Yinuo Han, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’26. Detroit, MI, USA. November 2-5, 2026

MetaBeads: Enabling Shape- and Stiffness-Changing Interfaces through Beaded Metamaterials

Yujia Liu, Yuyu Lin, Xie He, Victoria Sun, Trevor Jones, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’26. Detroit, MI, USA. November 2-5, 2026

FlexiFab: Laser-Cutting Volumetric Compliant Structures with Tunable-Stiffness

Deying Pan, Fanqi Zhou, Yitao Fan, Guanyun Wang, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’26. Detroit, MI, USA. November 2-5, 2026

Objects with Arms: How Robot Embodiment Shapes Perception in Physical Collaboration

Violet Yinuo Han, Ziru Wei, Aiden Yiliu Li, Chris Wu, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of the 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2026). August 24-28, 2026. Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan.

Inverse Design of Metamaterials With Adaptable Force-Displacement Characteristics

H. Gökçen Güner, Kaushik Dayal, Alexandra Ion.

ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics. July 2026; 93(7):071006.

Towards Accessible Mobility Support: User-Centered Design of a Passive, Multi-Functional, Low-Cost Knee Exoskeleton

Yuyu Lin, Yujia Liu, Emma Kim, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of CHI ’26. Barcelona, Spain. April 13–17, 2026

InSense3D: Designing Smart 3D-Printed Structures Leveraging Ferromagnetic Filaments for Inductive Deformation Sensing

Rahul Bhaumik, Camilo Ayala-Garcia, Niko Münzenrieder, Michael Haller, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of CHI ’26. Barcelona, Spain. April 13–17, 2026

Towards Fluent Interaction with Cyber-Physical Architecture

Jesse T Gonzalez, Neeta M Khanuja, Michael Mingxuan Li, Maggie Guo, Layomi Olaitan, Emily Lau, Jenny Pugh, Alexandra Ion, Scott E Hudson.

In Proceedings of CHI ’26. Barcelona, Spain. April 13–17, 2026

Best Paper Award at CHI'26

Sculptable Mesh Structures for Room-Scale Form-Finding

Jesse T. Gonzalez, Yanzhen Zhang, Dian Zhu, Alice Yu, Sapna Tayal, Nazm Furniturewala, Ziying Qi, Somin Ella Moon, Leyi Han, Alexandra Ion, Scott E. Hudson.

In Proceedings of UIST ’25. Busan, Republic of Korea. Sept. 28 - Oct. 01, 2025

Towards Unobtrusive Physical AI: Augmenting Everyday Objects with Intelligence and Robotic Movement for Proactive Assistance

Violet Yinuo Han, Jesse T. Gonzalez, Christina Yang, Zhiruo Wang, Scott E. Hudson, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’25. Busan, Republic of Korea. Sept. 28 - Oct. 01, 2025

Transforming Everyday Objects into Dynamic Interfaces using Smart Flat-Foldable Structures

Violet Yinuo Han, Amber Yinglei Chen, Mason Zadan, Jesse T. Gonzalez, Dinesh K. Patel, Wendy Fangwen Yu, Carmel Majidi, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’25. Busan, Republic of Korea. Sept. 28 - Oct. 01, 2025

Personalized Bistable Orthoses for Rehabilitation of Finger Joints

Yuyu Lin, Dian Zhu, Anoushka Naidu, Kenneth Yu, Deon Harper, Eni Halilaj, Douglas Weber, Deborah Ellen Kenney, Adam J. Popchak, Mark Baratz, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’25. Busan, Republic of Korea. Sept. 28 - Oct. 01, 2025

Best Demo Honorable Mention at UIST'25 (Jury's choice)

Wearable Material Properties: Passive Wearable Microstructures as Adaptable Interfaces for the Physical Environment

Yuyu Lin, Hatice Gokcen Guner, Jianzhe Gu, Sonia Prashant, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of CHI ’25. Yokohama, Japan. April 26 – May 01, 2025

A Dynamic Bayesian Network Based Framework for Multimodal Context-Aware Interactions

Violet Yinuo Han, Tianyi Wang, Hyunsung Cho, Kashyap Todi, Ajoy Savio Fernandes, Andre Levi, Zheng Zhang, Tovi Grossman, Alexandra Ion, Tanya Jonker.

In Proceedings of IUI ’25. Cagliari, Italy. March 24 -27, 2025

Robotic Metamaterials: A Modular System for Hands-On Configuration of Ad-Hoc Dynamic Applications

Zhitong Cui, Shuhong Wang, Violet Yinuo Han, Tucker Rae-Grant, Willa Yunqi Yang, Alan Zhu, Scott E. Hudson, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of CHI ’24. Honolulu HI. May. 11 – May. 16, 2024

ConeAct: A Multistable Actuator for Dynamic Materials

Yuyu Lin, Jesse T Gonzalez, Zhitong Cui, Yash Rajeev Banka, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of CHI ’24. Honolulu HI. May. 11 – May. 16, 2024

BlendMR: A Computational Method to Create Ambient Mixed Reality Interfaces

Violet Yinuo Han, Hyunsung Cho, Kiyosu Maeda, Alexandra Ion, David Lindlbauer.

In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 7, Issue ISS, Article No. 436, pp 217–241

Best Paper Award at ISS'23

Constraint-Driven Robotic Surfaces, at Human-Scale

Jesse T. Gonzalez, Juhi Kedia, Sapna Tayal, Sonia Prashant, Alexandra Ion, Scott E. Hudson.

In Proceedings of UIST ’23. San Francisco, CA. Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2023

Best Demo Award at UIST'23 (Jury's choice)

Reprogrammable Digital Metamaterials for Interactive Devices

Yu Jiang, Shobhit Aggarwal, Zhipeng Li, Yuanchun Shi, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’23. San Francisco, CA. Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2023

Parametric Haptics: Versatile Geometry-based Tactile Feedback Devices

Violet Yinuo Han, Abena Boadi-Agyemang, Yuyu Lin, David Lindlbauer, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’23. San Francisco, CA. Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2023

MiuraKit: A Modular Hands-On Construction Kit For Pneumatic Shape-Changing And Robotic Interfaces

Zhitong Cui, Shuhong Wang, Junxian Li, Shijian Luo, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of DIS ’23. Pittsburgh, PA. July 10 – 14, 2023

Permeable Thermistor Temperature Sensors Based on Porous Melamine Foam

Hugo de Souza Oliveira, Niloofar Saeedzadeh Khaanghah, Violet Yinuo Han, Alejandro Carrasco-Pena, Alexandra Ion, Michael Haller, Giuseppe Cantarella, Niko Münzenrieder.

In IEEE Sensors Letters, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1-4, Art no. 2500904, May 2023

Reconfigurable Elastic Metamaterials

Willa Yunqi Yang, Yumeng Zhuang, Luke Darcy, Grace Liu, Alexandra Ion.

In Proceedings of UIST ’22. Bend, Oregon. Oct 29 – Nov 2, 2022

Developable Metamaterials: Mass-fabricable Metamaterials by Laser-Cutting Elastic Structures

Madlaina Signer, Alexandra Ion, Olga Sorkine-Hornung.

In Proceedings of CHI ’21. Virtual conference (formerly Yokohama, Japan). May 8 – 13, 2021

Shape Approximation by Developable Wrapping

Alexandra Ion, Michael Rabinovich, Philipp Herholz, Olga Sorkine-Hornung.

ACM Transactions on Graphics 39, 6. (In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ASIA 2020. Virtual conference, December 4 – 13, 2020)

Understanding Metamaterial Mechanisms

Alexandra Ion, David Lindlbauer, Philipp Herholz, Marc Alexa, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’19. Glasgow, UK, May 4 – 9, 2019

TrussFormer: 3D Printing Large Kinetic Structures

Robert Kovacs, Alexandra Ion, Pedro Lopes, Tim Oesterreich, Johannes Filter, Philip Otto, Tobias Arndt, Nico Ring, Melvin Witte, Anton Synytsia, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of UIST’18. Berlin, Germany, October 14 – 17, 2018

Metamaterial Textures

Alexandra Ion, Robert Kovacs, Oliver Schneider, Pedro Lopes, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’18. Montreal, Canada, April 21 – 26, 2018

Adding Force Feedback to Mixed Reality Experiences and Games using Electrical Muscle Stimulation

Pedro Lopes, Sijing You, Alexandra Ion, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’18. Montreal, Canada, April 21 – 26, 2018

Digital Mechanical Metamaterials

Alexandra Ion, Ludwig Wall, Robert Kovacs, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’17. Denver, CO, May 6 – 11, 2017

Metamaterial Mechanisms

Alexandra Ion, Johannes Frohnhofen, Ludwig Wall, Robert Kovacs, Mirela Alistar, Jack Lindsay, Pedro Lopes, Hsiang-Ting Chen, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of UIST'16. Tokyo, Japan, October 16 – 19, 2016

Best Paper Honorable Mention (top 2%)

Impacto: Simulating Physical Impact by Combining Tactile Stimulation with Electrical Muscle Stimulation

Pedro Lopes, Alexandra Ion, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of UIST’15. Charlotte, NC, November 8 – 11, 2015

Skin drag displays: dragging a physical tactor across the user’s skin produces a stronger tactile stimulus than vibrotactile

Alexandra Ion, Edward Wang, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’15. Seoul, Korea, April 18 – 23, 2015

Proprioceptive Interaction

Pedro Lopes, Alexandra Ion, Willi Mueller, Daniel Hoffmann, Patrik Jonell, Patrick Baudisch.

In Proceedings of CHI’15. Seuol, Korea, April 18 – 23, 2015

Canyon: Providing location awareness of multiple moving objects in a detail view on large displays

Alexandra Ion, Yu-Ling Chang, Michael Haller, Mark Hancock, Stacey Scott.

In Proceedings of CHI’13. Paris, France, April 27 – May 2, 2013

Best Paper Honorable Mention (top 5%)