Janet X. Chen

Hi, I’m a 1st year PhD student in Information Science at Cornell. I earned my BA in computer science and economics at the University of British Columbia. My BA had a co-op program, which means I spent about 12 months at startups as a software engineering intern.

I’m advised by Dr. Qian Yang. I’m interested in designing data-driven technologies using intimate data and mediating intimacy. Some of my past work touches on preparing digital data in preparation of death, designing for possible data management futures, and creating AR/VR applications.

In my spare time, I enjoy reading self-help books (got any recommendations? ), climbing, and being outside. I’m happy to answer questions or point to recommendations about grad school, admissions, and Cornell for prospective students. In particular, I welcome questions from underrepresented minorities.

Interests: Human-computer interaction, interaction design, designing with AI

Publications

What Happens After Death? Using a Design Workbook to Understand User Expectations for Preparing their Data, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021) (24% acceptance rate) [Best Paper Honorable Mention Award - top 5%]. [download] By Janet Chen, Francesco Vitale, Joanna McGrenere
Data Dashboard: Exploring Centralization and Customization in Personal Data Curation, Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2020) (24% acceptance rate). [download] By Francesco Vitale, Janet Chen, Will Odom, Joanna McGrenere

Projects

Trauma-informed Design [Jan 2021 - Present] Advised by Nicola Dell and Thomas Ristenpart. In collaboration with NortonLifeLock and UMichigan. Supervised Spring'21 research for masters students Rui Maki and Jeremy Hazan.
Understanding intimate data's potential as a design material [Oct 2020 - Present] Advised by Qian Yang. Supervised Spring'21 research term for Cornell undergrads and MPS students: Emily Chan, Connie Liu, Meryl Ye, and Emma Wang.
Designing for Death and Data [Jan - Aug 2020] Advised by Francesco Vitale and Joanna McGrenere. We all have copious amounts of data that won’t be easy to deal with when we’re dying (or dead). How can novel prototypes support preparing data for death? We created 12 design concepts to explore promising approaches, and what to avoid.
Personalized Data Management [Sep - Dec 2019] Assisting Francesco Vitale. Advised by Joanna McGrenere. Thinking about how centralization and customization can help people manage their overwhelming amount of data.
Developing Design Guidelines for AR-based Assembly Instructions [Jan - Aug 2019] Advised by Dongwook Yoon. We worked on developing robust and useful design guidelines for AR-based assembly instructions. Think IKEA instructions but through a HoloLens. For this project, I interviewed AR experts, used Unity to code AR protoypes, created an interactive website, and got my first taste of research.

Selected TA Experience

APSC 160: Introduction to Computation in Engineering Design, UBC [ Spring 2020 ] Lab TA. Teaching first-year engineering students how to think about programming programs using C. Not a very friendly first-time language.
TA for CPSC 344: Introduction to Human Computer interaction, UBC [ Fall 2019 ] Lab TA. Teaching in workshops, giving design reviews, providing detailed feedback on prototypes.