I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida and direct the Ruiz Human-Computer Interaction Lab. I was previously an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University. I received my doctorate degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in 2012 where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Edward Lank. I also hold a MS in Computer Science from San Francisco State University and a BS in Psychology from UC Davis.
The main goal of my research in human-computer interaction is to develop an understanding of users and technology to support user interaction. For more information about some of my research projects visit my Projects section or the Ruiz HCI Lab website.
Recent Highlights
12-2018 - Paper with Isaac Wang on embodiment of AR agents accepted to CHI 2019.
10-2018 - Serving on the CHI PC again for second year
04-2018 - NSF CAREER Award on Next Generation Multimodal Natural User Interfaces funded.
02-2018 - My student Julia Woodward highlighted in a CRA article.
12-2017 - Paper on assisted video labeling with Isaac Wang accepted to IUI 2018.
11-2017 - Paper with Alex Shaw and Lisa Anthony wins Best Student Paper at ICMI 2017.
09-2017 - Serving as a member of the PC for CHI 2018.
08-2017 - Serving as a mentor for the ICMI Doctoral Consortium.
07-2017 - Two papers in collaboration with the INIT Lab accepted to ICMI.
Current Funding
Communication through Gestures, Expression and Shared Perception. Role: Co-PI. Agency: DARPA. 2015-2020. $2,133,844
CAREER: Next Generation Multimodal Interfaces. Role: PI. Agency: NSF. 2018-2023. $504,104