Hi! I'm Panda. I design.
I work at the intersection of design, engineering, and research to study the future of collaborative work, with a specific focus on tools for thought using GenAI and spatial computing technologies.

As a Design Engineering Researcher, I lead artefact-led research in the BREW team at Microsoft Research. I disseminate to both academic and general audiences. My work has been awarded patents, best paper awards, and recognized by senior leadership in Microsoft Research.

Here's my resume, updated January 2024 (full CV upon request). Longer project and paper list below, with some writeups and external links. Feel free to get in touch for more details about specific projects and tenures.

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Projects, papers, updates

Grinding the paper mill... 😣

Please reach out for more info about these (in prep or under review) papers:

• 📄 Simple and lo-fidelity sketching tool for rapid ideation in VR.
• 📄 Handling avatars from dissimilar physical spaces in shared virtual space.
• 📄 Avatar animation and meeting success.

2024

• 📄 (to appear) Hybridge: Bridging Spatiality for Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meetings. CSCW 24.
  📄pre-print
• 📄 (to appear) CoExplorer Technology Probe: A Generative AI-Powered Adaptive Interface to Support Intentionality in Planning and Running Video Meetings. DIS 24.
  📰MSR Blog 📄pre-print
• 📄 Comparing the Agency of Hybrid Meeting Remote Users in 2D and 3D Interfaces of the Hybridge System. CHI 24.
  📰MSR Blog 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 CoExplorer Generative AI Powered 2D and 3D Adaptive Interfaces to Support Intentionality in Video Meetings. CHI 24.
  📰MSR Blog 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI 24.
  📰MSR Blog 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 Virtual Games, Real Interactions: A Look at Cross-reality Asymmetrical Co-located Social Games. CHI 24.
  📄pdf 🔗doi

2023

• 🏆 Beyond Audio: Towards a design space of headphones as a site for interaction and sensing. DIS 23, best paper.
  📰MSR Blog 📄pdf 🏆doi
• ©️ Patent: Headset virtual presence
  🔗US11792364B2
• ©️ Patent: Computing device headset input
  🔗US11669294B2
• 📖 Attended the Dagstuhl seminar on Social XR: The Future of Communication and Collaboration. (November)
  🔗Seminar page
• 📖 Invited talk at Virginia Tech on "Technology at the Intersection of Design and Research". (October)
  ▶️Video (YouTube)
• 🔧 Led a workshop on tech tinkering and AI for the undergrad and graduate design programmes at Virginia Tech and NC State University. (October)

2022

• 📄 RemoteLab: A VR remote study toolkit. UIST 22.
  🔗GitHub 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 AllTogether: Avatars in mixed-modality conferencing. CHIWORK 22.
  🔩Project page 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 💼 Started at Microsoft Research Cambridge as Design Engineering Researcher in the BREW team @ Collaborative Intelligence!
  ☕BREW team page

2021

• 🎓 Received my PhD in Design!
• 📄 Morphaces: Exploring morphable surfaces for tangible sketching in VR. C&C 21.
  🔩Project page 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 Immersive Analytics: A user-centered perspective. VRST 21.
  📄pdf 🔗doi
• ⚙️ MXR Lab: Projects.

2020

• 📄 MoveBox: MoCap for RocketBox Avatars. AIVR 2020.
  🔗GitHub 📄pdf 🔗doi
• 📄 MR in Edu: Hybrid SVEs as Collaborative Learning Spaces for Design Education.
• 📖 August: I'm teaching an advanced graduate seminar on Virtual Reality and tech tinkering to masters and PhD students.
  📖Syllabus
• 📖 March: Gave an invited lecture at Meredith College to introduce Interior Design students to Graphic Design.
  📖Lecture

2019

• 💼 Summer. I interned at Google Brain Robotics, working on a VR interface for remotely controlling industrial robotic arms.
• 📄 Multisensory Reality-Virtuality Continuum in VR.
  
• ⚙️ Valdese Weavers: AR factory tour application.
• 🎨 From Teosinte to Tomorrow: VR corn maze @Gregg and @NCMA.

2018

• 💼 Summer. I interned with the Google Editors team, working on autocorrect suggestions for Docs and Gmail, and building a unified editor for Docs x Sheets.
• 🔧 Moogfest 2018, May: Led a workshop on "Coding 3D Landscapes of Sound".
  🔗Workshop

2017

• ⚙️ Panoform
• 🎨 Aestheticizing Audio
• ⚙️ InnovateNC: Data visualizations for government policy.

2016

• 🎨 Play-Play
• 🎓 Received my Masters in Graphic Design!
  📄Thesis document (pdf)
• ⚙️ Helping Designers Understand Code
• ⚙️ VR Function Generator

2015

• 🔧 Developed and led multiple workshops through NC State University Libraries.
  🔗Creative coding learnathon 🔗Data viz w/ D3.js 🔗Web dev fundamentals
• ⚙️ Institute for Emerging Issues: Thinkerspace
• ⚙️ Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
• ⚙️ Demonstrating Augmented Reality

I've been known to turn heads with my clean, organized desks and workspace.

Want to exchange ideas about education, learning, technology, the future, and life? Let's talk!