Research Projects

Learning Coding through Play

How to make the learning of computational thinking be more personally meaningful for children? In this project, we focus on engaging children’s body motion and interaction with peers, teachers, and parents in their projects through computing. We aim to design kits for children to explore computing through embodied learning.

Parents & Computational Toys

This study aims to learn parents’ perspectives on their young children’s use of computational toys and apps. The findings of this qualitative study provide insights for designers and researchers of computational kits to better understand parents’ expectations and include adult caregivers in computational kit design.

Computational Toys & Kits Survey

We present a survey of computational toys and kits that enable young children to explore computational ideas and practices. The survey reveals the commonalities across existing kits and highlights ways for designers and researchers to expand the possibilities for children to create, explore, and play with computing.

Civic Engagement & Computing

To better understand the role of computing in youth civic engagement, this study examines programs that are designed to support civic engagement of youth through computing. Based on the analysis of these programs, we discussed how to better support youth civic engagement through computing.

Localization of Text CAPTCHA

Taking the usability investigation of Chinese CAPTCHAs as a case study, we compared the usability of CAPTCHAs based on English and Chinese languages, explored the intrinsic factors that may affect the usability of Chinese CAPTCHAs, and proposed a generalized procedure for designing usable localized text CAPTCHAs.