In This Story
CHI is the world’s leading venue for HCI research, attended by thousands of faculty and industry leaders in their field across the globe. George Mason University faculty and their students will be sharing exciting and groundbreaking research, shaping emerging conversations in HCI, and strengthening Mason’s presence in this globally influential community.
A unifying theme across many of these projects is work at the cutting edge of AI that explores both its profound opportunities for accessibility, healthcare, youth online safety, and emergency response, as well as its more complex implications for youth development and personal autonomy.
Accepted Papers and Author Overviews
Co-designing MESA-Bot: Enhancing Accessibility, Privacy, Security, and Trust in a Mental Health Chatbot for Older Adults
Authored by George Mason faculty Sanchari Das along with other collaborators at University of Denver/Medical group management association (MGMA)
Older adults are increasingly turning to chatbot-based mental health support, but adoption is limited by barriers in accessibility, privacy, security, and trust. This paper reports on a co-design and study of MESA-Bot (Mental and Emotional Support Assistant for Older Adults), a non-diagnostic chatbot tailored to later-life needs.
Expert-led Debunking of Health Misinformation on TikTok
Authored by George Mason faculty Sanchari Das along with other collaborators at DePaul University
This paper investigates the impact of healthcare debunking videos on TikTok through large survey study and qualitative interviews finding that they succeed in undermining misinformation claims.
Designing Multi-Robot Ground Video Sensemaking with Public Safety Professionals
Authored by George Mason student Alignment Lab members Puqi Zhou, Amit Paudyal, Sameep Shrestha, Michael Hieb, Xuesu Xiao; George Mason faculty Sungsoo Ray Hong and other collaborators from Virginia Tech and George Mason University Police Department
This paper investigates how video streams from fleets of ground robots can be effectively integrated into public safety workflows and enhance police intelligence. In collaboration with six police agencies in Northern Virginia, MRVS—an interactive system that leverages LLM-based video understanding models—was developed to process up to 10 concurrent video streams and support real-world public safety operations.
Lost in Translation: Understanding Autistic–Neurotypical Communication Style Differences in Job Postings
Authored by George Mason Alignment Lab members Huining Feng, Zinat Ara; George Mason faculty Sungsoo Ray Hong and other collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University, Temple University, and Midjourney
This paper examines communication styles differences between autistic and neurotypical individuals in job postings and develops guidelines and design implications to reduce autistic-neurotypical communication gaps.
Designing for Upstream Work: Learnings from Co-Design for Preventative Solutions with Urban Fire Departments
Authored by George Mason student Hiba Siraj; George Mason faculty Myeong Lee and other collaborators at Arizona State University and UC Irvine
Through deep engagement with fire departments building alternate EMS response programs, this paper reports on work co-designing a prototype data dashboard that helps different stakeholders track program outcomes, offering practical design guidance for supporting data work in local community organizations.
Care Workers' Risk Work: How Nannies Manage Invisible Threats in Employers' Homes
Authored by George Mason faculty Myeong Lee and other collaborators at UC Irvine
Nannies face and manage physical, emotional, and financial risks at work, shaped by the power dynamics and constraints of working inside employers’ homes. This paper reports on interviews with full-time nannies that explore the strategies they employ to keep these tensions and the risks hidden and outlines the need for sociotechnical and public-awareness solutions that make these workplace risks more visible and manageable.
From A to Zines: Narrative Threat Modeling in U.S. Reproductive Health Media
Authored by George Mason student Cora Sula; George Mason faculty Nora McDonald along with other collaborators at Barnard University and University of Maryland.
This paper analyzes reproductive healthcare–related zines—a DIY, subversive, and collectively produced media genre—to explore alternative forms of healthcare privacy guidance. From this analysis, it derives a template for narrative threat modeling: a situated practice that communicates privacy strategies through story, tone, and form rather than through technical instructions or prescriptive checklists.
Rehearsing the Self with AI: Teen Cross-Domain Use of Chatbots
Authored by George Mason students Cora Sula and Umama Dewan; George Mason faculty Nora McDonald
Based on interviews with U.S. teens, this paper examines how chatbots are used across academic, emotional, and social domains. It introduces the concept of ambient trust to describe how repeated interactions foster a subtle sense of alignment with AI systems that can quietly shape self-expression and self-concept.
Accepted Posters and Additional Engagement
Grant, Verify, Revoke: A User-Centric Pattern for Blockchain Compliance (Poster)
George Mason faculty Sanchari Das and colleagues will present a poster about privacy preserving identity and age verification tool ZK-Compliance, a prototype leveraging browser-based zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to prove specific attributes (e.g., "over 18") and provide early evidence that regulatory compliance need not come at the cost of user privacy or autonomy.
Meet ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction: Submitting, Getting Accepted, and Being Involved (Meet-up)
George Mason faculty Sanchari Das and colleagues will meet-up with fellow CHI attendees to learn and talk about the ACM’s flagship SIGCHI journal, Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI).
Rethinking Productivity Support for Workers with ADHD in the Construction: Preliminary Insights (Poster)
George Mason students Zinat Ara and George Mason faculty Sungsoo Ray Hong will present a poster on their qualitative study with construction workers, safety managers, and ADHD experts about the unique productivity and safety challenges faced by construction workers with ADHD and design implications for AI and VR support systems.