Tangible Embodied Child-Computer Interaction Lab
Director Dr. Alissa N. Antle School of Interactive Arts and Technology Simon Fraser University
About TECI

At TECI we conduct design-oriented research and train the next generation of researchers to design, build and evaluate technical innovations that improve, augment, and support children’s cognitive and emotional development.
In the TECI lab we are committed to working with diverse populations of children, particularly those that may be vulnerable or hard to reach. At TECI we are working to ensure diversity and inclusivity in our team and in our research participants across a range of social, economic, cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender groups.
Primary Research Foci: Design research, tangible interaction, embodied interaction, child-computer interaction
Application Areas: Literacy, social-emotional learning, mindfulness, sustainability education, social justice, aboriginal heritage

Current Projects





People

Dr. Antle is a tenured Professor in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Dr. Antle holds the highest honour for a Canadian scholar through her induction as a member of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, which acknowledges her as one of Canada's intellectual leaders. Dr. Antle's impact extends to the international community through her recognition as a leader in ethical child-centered technology research.
News & Events
Congratulations are in order for Dr. Alexandra Kitson. She has been selected to join SFU’s Postdoctoral Association (PDA) Executive Committee this fall.
We are excited to celebrate Dr. Kitson in her upcoming role within the PDA as she brings years of service in past roles dedicated to building a stronger community and support for graduate students. Dr. Kitson continually demonstrates a passion for community building and advocacy for the SFU community. One of her goals as VP is to bring together postdocs across all SFU’s campuses. Keep up the great work Alex!
@alexandrakitson #AlexKitson #tecilab #sfu #snapshotsofsiat #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #researcher #postdoc #SFUcommunity #SFUpostdoctoralassociation #sfugraduatestudent
We are proud of TECI’s PhD student Annemiek Veldhuis for hosting a successful workshop at this year`s ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems that took place in Hamburg, Germany, at the end of April. Annemiek, alongside Kim Sauvé, Hans Brombacher, Rosa van Koningsbruggen, Steven Houben, and Jason Alexander, hosted a workshop on the practical implementation of Data Physicalizations across the domains of personal informatics, office vitality, sustainability, and education. Keep an eye open for future installments of this workshop!
CHI is an annual conference that brings together researchers and practitioners from all over the world and from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and positionalities, who have as an overarching goal to make the world a better place with interactive digital technologies.
#CHI2023 #SIGCHI #sfusiat #tecilab #technologyresearch #tecilabontheroad #tecilabconference #dataphysicalization #HCI #phys_fromt2p #informatics #officevitality #education #sustainability
Exciting news from the TECI Lab!
Congratulations Alexandra Kitson, Alissa N. Antle and Petr Slovak on your recently accepted publication to the 22nd annual ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference.
This year, IDC will take place at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois from June 19-23. IDC is the premier international conference for researchers, educators and practitioners to share the latest research findings, innovative methodologies and new technologies in the areas of inclusive child-centered design, learning and interaction. IDC’23 is hosted by the Center for Computer Science and Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.
#AlexKitson #tecilab #sfu #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #humancenteredcomputing #HCItheory #psychology #postivepsychology #virtualreality #VR #VRresearch #virtualrealityresearch #idc2023
We are excited to share that Sadhbh Kenny, a current Masters student at the TECI lab, is the recipient of the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Masters award.
We are thrilled to see Sadhbh being recognized for her academic excellence, research potential and active involvement in academic life. She is excited to use this award to support her research investigating youth critical digital literacies and empowerment.
#tecilab #teciresearch #tecilabawards #sfu #snapshotsofsiat #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #sfugraduatestudent #researcher
Dr. Alexandra Kitson, a Postdoc Researcher at the TECI lab, getting ready to do a practice run of her co-design workshop, Virtual Reality to Support Cognitive Reappraisal, happening in early April. Dr. Kitson’s research explores the potential of VR to provide unique opportunities for cognitive reappraisal skills development in youth.
#AlexKitson #tecilab #sfu #lablife #snapshotsofsiat #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #virtualreality #VR #VRresearch #virtualrealityresearch #postdoc #criticalmaking #technologyethics #psychology #postivepsychology #emotionalregulation #cognitivereappraisal
Dr. Alissa Antle, SFU SIAT Professor and TECI Director, has been recognized alongside two previous graduate students for their research contributions to the field of Tangible Computing at the ACM 17th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (ACM TEI) that occurred over February 26 to March 1 in Warsaw, Poland. Ms. Lesley Xie (MSc, 2008), Dr. Alissa Antle and Mr. Nima Motamedi (MA 2008) received the 2023 TEI Long Term Impact Award for their 2008 paper "Are Tangibles More Fun?: Comparing Children’s Enjoyment and Engagement Using Physical, Graphical and Tangible User Interfaces". Awards given in this category recognize significant and long-term impacts of a research paper in the field of tangible, embedded and/or embodied human-computer interaction. In particular, this paper challenged early ideas of some of the potential benefits of tangible computing and put forward a rigorous methodology for studying benefits in the context of children’s spatial problem solving.
First Picture: Dr. Antle, pictured with TECI lab members, with her award which was brought back from the TEI conference from PhD student Annemiek Veldhuis
Second Picture: 2023 TEI Long Term Impact Award for the 2008 paper "Are Tangibles More Fun?: Comparing Children’s Enjoyment and Engagement Using Physical, Graphical and Tangible User Interfaces".
#TEI2023 #SIGCH I#AlissaAntle #tecilab #tecilabawards #childcomputerinteraction #interactiondesign #designingforchildren #canadianresearcher #sfu t #siat #SFUSurrey #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #technologydesign #technologyresearch #surreybc
We are excited to share that TECI’s PhD student Annemiek Veldhuis got to present her work at the ACM 17th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction that occurred over February 26 to March 1 in Warsaw, Poland. Her poster showcased an initial design exploration for her PhD on supporting elementary school students` social regulation during collaborative design projects. We are continually inspired by the research work happening in the lab and are proud that Annemiek got to share her work to the community at large. Way to go Annemiek!
About the TEI Conference
The ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) addresses issues of human-computer interaction, novel tools and technologies, interactive art, and user experience. The work presented at TEI has a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems. The intimate size of this single-track conference provides a unique forum for exchanging ideas and presenting innovative work through talks, interactive exhibits, demos, hands-on studios, posters, art installations, and performances.
#TEI2023 #SIGCHI #sfusiat #tecilab #technologyresearch #collaborativedesign #tangibleinteraction #designbasedlearning #tecilabontheroad #tecilabconference
Lab members got to experience some of the augmented reality and light installations of the Winter Arts Fest yesterday. This annual event is hosted by the Vancouver Mural Festival and is a great opportunity to see current works of digital media artists in the form of AR, projection and sculptural mediums. It was a fun lab outing! #labsocial #tecilab #tecilablife #newmediaart #augmentedreality #winterartfest2023 #technology #vmf
Skill share! Annemiek, one of TECI’s PhD students, gave an Intro to Arduino workshop in the lab today. It was a great opportunity for lab members to learn from each other`s experiences and expertise.
#tecilab #skillshare #tecilablife #sfusiat #siat #arduino #learntocode #snapshotofsiat #technology
The Tech Support (on call) position will assist researchers in technical hardware troubleshooting and diagnosis and software troubleshooting and installation. Most of the research done at TECI uses Unity and you will need to have a strong working knowledge of how to troubleshoot issues when Unity based projects are used on Android and IOS operating systems.
To apply, please submit your cover letter and resume to tta75@sfu.ca.
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#tecilab #childcomputerinteraction #technologyresearch #teciishiring #research #werehiring #academiclife #humancomputerinteraction #tangibleinteraction #embodiedinteraction #interfacedesign #braininterfaces #wearables #tech #siatspotlight #siat #simonfraseru #simonfraseruniversity #canadianresearch #canadianuniversities
The TECI lab is proud to see our very own @alissaantle being honored with the Community-Engaged Research award at the @fcatatsfu 2022 Research Excellence Awards that took place December 1st. We are proud that she represented the lab and @siatsfu by being recognized as a “continuing faculty member at any stage of their career who has made a recent or sustained outstanding contribution to a community in which they are designing and conducting their research studies”. This is not the first time Dr. Antle has been recognized by her peers. In 2019 she was also honored with the Distinguished Researcher award at FCAT’s 2019 Research Excellence Awards for her “outstanding career and body of work as a distinguished artist and researcher in the field of interaction design for children”.
Other 2022 Research Award winners to join Dr. Antle include: Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez (Emerging Researcher), Svitlana Matviyenko (Researcher of the Year), Judy Radul (Distinguished Researcher) and Elspeth Pratt (Service Award). Congratulations to all the winners!
#AlissaAntle #tecilab #tecilabawards #childcomputerinteraction #interactiondesign #designingforchildren #canadianresearcher #sfu #snapshotsofsiat #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #technologydesign #technologyresearch #surreybc
New and exciting from the TECI Lab!
Congratulations Petr Slovák, Alissa N. Antle, Nikki Theofanopoulou, Claudia Dauden Roquet, and Katherine Isbister on your recently accepted publication to ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI).
Designing for experience-led technology-mediated mental health interventions: Theory and research agenda for HCI.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3569898
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#tecilab #sfu #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #humancenteredcomputing #HCItheory #emotionregulation #mentalhealth #technologyenabledintervention
TECI Talk Announcement
Who: Dr. Petr Slovak
When: Monday, November 21, 2022 from 12:30 PM to 1:20 PM
Where: SFU Surrey Campus, SRYC 5360
Followed by a reception from 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM in the TECI lab in SRYC 3930
The TECI lab and IAT 804, Foundations of Research Design for Human-Centred Design of Interactive Technologies, would like to invite you to a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Petr Slovak. This in-person presentation is being held on Monday November 21st from 12:30 - 1:20 in rm SRYC 5360. Registration is required as space is limited. Following the presentation, the TECI lab will be hosting a reception open to all students, faculty and staff.
Dr. Petr Slovak is a senior lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Human Computer Interaction and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Department of Informatics at the King’s College London. His research involves envisioning, designing, and evaluating new technology-enabled interventions for youth, targeting core protective factors underpinning personal wellbeing (e.g., emotion regulation and parenting). As such, his research is positioned at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Mental Health, and Prevention Science. This research agenda so far led to ACM Best Paper awards at leading venues in the HCI field (e.g., CHI, CSCW); as well as a transfer of a novel emotion regulation intervention from a research prototype to a commercial product funded by the largest US non-profit developer of social-emotional learning programs, Committee for Children.
Register for the presentation as space is limited by sending TECI a DM through Instagram with your name and email address.
There will be a reception following the presentation with coffee, tea and snacks in the TECI lab in rm SRYC 3930 between 1:45 and 3:00, no registration required.
Dr. Petr Slovak and @alissaantle recently published “Designing for emotion regulation interventions: an agenda for HCI theory and research” in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI). To learn more about Dr. Petr Slovak and his research please visit his website at https://petrslovak.com/
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#PetrSlovak #tecilab #tecilabtalks
Going into National Day for Truth and Reconciliation week, members of the TECI lab would like to continue to honor those impacted by Canada’s residential school system. We would like to acknowledge and give thanks for the use of traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples for higher education and continued learning in our lab @siatsfu and @sfusurrey.
Below we share 7 ways to show continued support that were provided by @indiginews writers Anna McKenzie and Jacqueline Ronson last year. We’ve updated links to reflect upcoming remembrance week events and to share fundraising efforts that help ensure reconciliation happens year round:
1. Donate to organizations that support residential school survivors and their families. To help @indiginews meet their fundraising goal to support Indigenous voices year round, please see the following link to become a supporter: https://tinyurl.com/2p958snk
2. Learn about the residential school system and its ongoing impacts. Educate yourself and others. Looking for resources? Go to: www.lib.sfu.ca/about/reach-us/news-events/everychildmatters
3. Call on your MP and other elected representatives to take action. Start with asking for accountability.
4. Demand action from the Catholic Church.
5. Prioritize the safety of survivors and their families when sharing this story and others like it. Lead with content warnings if sharing sensitive or triggering materials.
6. Talk to non-Indigenous friends, family and children about the residential school system and its ongoing impacts
7. Attend memorial events where non-Indigenous people are invited. SFU events this coming week can be found at (www.sfu.ca/aboriginalpeoples/sfu-reconciliation/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation.html)
We understand that content about residential schools may be triggering. Support for survivors and their families is available. Call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (https://www.irsss.ca) at 1-800-721-0066 or 1-866-925-4419 for the 24-7 crisis line. The KUU-US Crisis Line Society (https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com) also offers 24-7 support at 250-723-4050 for adults, 250-723-2040 for youth, or toll-fre
Congratulations to @alissaantle for being awarded a $205,000 five year NSERC Discover Grant to investigate the design and evaluation of mobile and biowearable technologies to support children’s emotion regulation skills development in everyday life. To learn more about ongoing projects related to this work, please visit our website:
1. Virtual Reality Emotion Regulation for Youth (http://antle.iat.sfu.ca/vr-youth/)
2. The Mind-Full Series: Neurofeedback Tablet Games for Self-Regulation (http://antle.iat.sfu.ca/research/mind-full/)
#tecilab #tecilabawards #AlissaAntle #sfu #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #mentalhealth #socialemotionalwellbeign #VR #mindfulness #neurofeedback #biowearables
📸: @siatsfu website
Today @idc_acm 2022 @alexandrakitson, on behalf of her co-authors, presented a full paper on the ways in which adolescents reflect, through processes of making their own biowearable, on potential negative impacts of biowearables on their developing senses of identity, agency, autonomy and authenticity. Thank you to Brilliant Labs, our funding agencies - @nserc_crsng + @sshrc + @simonfraseru - and our participants for supporting this project. We appreciate the presentation attendees for coming, listening and asking questions!
Paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501712.3529717
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#tecilab #tecilabontheroad #IDC2022 #socialemotionalwellbeing #interactiondesign #sfu #snapshotsofsiat #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #childcomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #technologyresearch #biowearables
Inspired by Alissa N. Antle and Juan Pablo Hourcade’s publication “Research in Child–Computer Interaction: Provocations and envisioning future directions” in the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction - an industry panel @idc_acm 2022 is currently underway to discuss questions on COVID-19, methodological challenges, participatory design, and long-term responsibility for vulnerable populations. The panel and paper hope to inspire conversation about future research connections in child-computer interaction between industry, non-profits, and academics.
Find the paper at: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212868921000787
Thank you to panelists Samantha Bindman (Director of Research, Foundry10), Randy Gomez (Senior Scientist, Honda Research Institute Japan), Chris Payne (Director, Digital Responsibility, Government and Public Affairs, The Lego Group), and Kiley Sobel (Senior UX Researcher, Duolingo) and the moderators Vicky Charisi (European Commission, JRC, Centre for Advanced Studies) and Jason Yip (The Information School, University of Washington – Seattle) for bringing this conversation to the table.
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#tecilab #childcomputerinteraction #research
Fresh off the presses!
Congratulations @alissaantle @uptownyumiko (Yumiko Murai), @alexandrakitson ,Yves Candau, Zoe Minh-Tam Dao-Kroeker, and Azadeh Adibi for your full paper publication @idc_acm 2022:
“There are a LOT of moral issues with biowearables” ... Teaching Design Ethics through a Critical Making Biowearable Workshop
Published in proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children (IDC `22) conference. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 327–340.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3501712.3529717
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#tecilab #sfu #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #biowearables #criticalmaking #technologyethics #wearablecomputing #remotestudies #makereducation #remotefacilitation
Fresh off the presses!
Congratulations @jillian_lane_warren @alissaantle @alexandrakitson and Alireza Davoodi for your full paper publication @idc_acm 2022!
“Lessons Learned and Future Considerations for Designing Remotely Facilitated Co-Design Studies with Children Focused on Socio-Emotional Experiences”
Published in proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children (IDC `22) conference. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 37–49.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501712.3529722
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#tecilab #tecipublications #sfu #siat #SFUSurrey #simonfraserU #SFUgram #hci #humancomputerinteraction #hciresearch #researcher #childcomputerinteraction #technologydesign #technologyresearch #codesign #methodology #remoteresearch #socioemotionalwellbeing