Franklin Mingzhe Li is a NSERC Postgraduate Fellow and a PhD Candidate advised by Prof. Patrick A. Carrington in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He obtained Master of Science degree supervised by Prof. Khai N. Truong in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Assistive Technology, and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp). His research focuses on exploring, designing, and deploying Assistive Technologies for physical space and Activities of Daily Living for people with disabilities. His dissertation aims to support and enable non-visual cooking for people with vision impairments through AI and Assistive Technologies.

Oct 2024, Attending ASSETS 2024 (St John's, Canada)!
Oct 2024, Attending to UIST 2024 (Pittsburgh, USA)!
Jun 2024, Traveling to HCIC 2024 (Wisconsin, USA)!
May 2024, Traveling to CHI 2024 (Hawaii, USA)!
Jan 2024, Four papers accepted to CHI 2024!
Oct 2023, Invited Talk at University of Notre Dame (Topic: Building Usable Systems for People with Disabilities in Physical Activities )
Oct 2023, Traveling to Ubicomp 2023 (Cancun, Mexico)
Jul 2023, One paper and one poster got accepted to ASSETS 2023!
Apr 2023, Traveling to CHI 2023 (Hamburg, Germany)
Mar 2023, Invited Talk at APEX Lab, HKUST (Topic: Leveraging AI for Accessibility in Physical Space)
Feb 2023, Invited Talk at DGP, University of Toronto (Topic: Leveraging AI for Accessibility in Physical Space)
Feb 2023, Two papers accepted to CHI 2023!
Nov 2022, Traveling to ASSETS 2022 (Athens, Greece)
Aug 2022, Google's Research Collabs got accepted!
Jul 2022, one paper accepted to ASSETS 2022!

A Recipe for Success? Exploring Strategies for Improving Non-Visual Access to Cooking Instructions
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Ashley Wang, Patrick Carrington, Shaun K Kane
In Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2024 [PDF]

A Contextual Inquiry of People with Vision Impairments in Cooking
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Michael Xieyang Liu, Shaun K Kane, Patrick Carrington
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024 [PDF]

Co-design Accessible Public Robots: Insights from People with Mobility Disability, Robotic Practitioners and Their Collaborations
Howard Ziyu Han, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Alesandra Baca Vazquez, Daragh Byrne, Nikolas Martelaro, Sarah E Fox
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024 [PDF]

Designing Upper-Body Gesture Interaction with and for People with Spinal Muscular Atrophy in VR
Jingze Tian, Yingna Wang, Keye Yu, Liyi Xu, Junan Xie, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Yafeng Niu, Mingming Fan
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024 [PDF]

Selenite: Scaffolding Online Sensemaking with Comprehensive Overviews Elicited from Large Language Models
Michael Xieyang Liu, Tongshuang Wu, Tianying Chen, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Aniket Kittur, Brad A Myers
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024 [PDF]

Embodied Exploration: Facilitating Remote Accessibility Assessment for Wheelchair Users with Virtual Reality
Siyou Pei, Alexander Chen, Chen Chen, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Megan Fozzard, Hao-Yun Chi, Nadir Weibel, Patrick Carrington, Yang Zhang
In Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2023 [PDF]

Understanding Visual Arts Experiences of Blind People
Franklin Mingzhe Li*, Lotus Zhang*, Maryam Bandukda, Abigale Stangl, Kristen Shinohara, Leah Findlater, Patrick Carrington (*Equal contribution)
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023 [PDF]

Breaking the "Inescapable" Cycle of Pain: Supporting Wheelchair Users' Upper Extremity Health Awareness and Management with Tracking Technologies
Yunzhi Li, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Patrick Carrington
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023 [PDF]

Freedom to Choose: Understanding Input Modality Preferences of People with Upper-body Motor Impairments for Activities of Daily Living
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Michael Xieyang Liu, Yang Zhang, Patrick Carrington
In Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2022 [PDF]

“It Feels Like Taking a Gamble”: Exploring Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges of Using Makeup and Cosmetics for People with Visual Impairments
Franklin Mingzhe Li*, Francheska Spektor*, Meng Xia*, Mina Huh*, Peter Cederberg, Yuqi Gong, Kristen Shinohara, Patrick Carrington (*Equal contribution)
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2022 [PDF]

Understanding How Older Adults Comprehend COVID-19 Interactive Visualizations via Think-Aloud Protocol
Mingming Fan, Yiwen Wang, Yuni Xie, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Chunyang Chen
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction (IJHCI), 2022 [PDF]

An Exploration of Captioning Practices and Challenges of Individual Content Creators on YouTube for People with Hearing Impairments
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Cheng Lu, Zhicong Lu, Patrick Carrington, Khai N. Truong
In Proceedings of ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), Volume 6, Issue CSCW1, Article 75, 2022 [PDF]

Non-Visual Cooking: Exploring Practices and Challenges of Meal Preparation by People with Visual Impairments
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Jamie Dorst, Peter Cederberg, Patrick Carrington
In Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2021 [PDF]

ThumbTrak: Recognizing Micro-finger Poses Using a Ring with Proximity Sensing
Wei Sun, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Congshu Huang, Zhenyu Lei, Benjamin Steeper, Songyun Tao, Feng Tian, Cheng Zhang
In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI), 2021 [PDF]

"I Choose Assistive Devices That Save My Face" A Study on Perceptions of Accessibility and Assistive Technology Use Conducted in China
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Di Laura Chen, Mingming Fan, Khai N. Truong
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021 [PDF]

TeethTap: Recognizing Discrete Teeth Gestures using Motion and Acoustic Sensing on an Earpiece
Wei Sun*, Franklin Mingzhe Li*, Benjamin Steeper*, Songlin Xu, Feng Tian, Cheng Zhang (*Equal contribution)
In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), 2021 [PDF]

Eyelid Gestures on Mobile Devices for People with Motor Impairments
Mingming Fan*, Zhen Li*, Franklin Mingzhe Li* (*Equal contribution)
In Proceedings of the 22th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2020 [PDF] Best Artifact Award

FMT: A Wearable Camera-Based Object Tracking Memory Aid for Older Adults
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Di Laura Chen, Mingming Fan, Khai N. Truong
In Proceedings of ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 2019 [PDF]

Face Recognition Assistant for People with Visual Impairments
Mohammad Kianpisheh, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Khai N. Truong
In Proceedings of ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 2019 [PDF]

BrailleSketch: A Gesture-based Text Input Method for People with Visual Impairments
Franklin Mingzhe Li, Mingming Fan, Khai N. Truong
In Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2017 [PDF]

The Living Room: Exploring the Haunted and Paranormal to Transform Design and Interaction
Michelle Annett, Matthew Lakier, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Daniel Wigdor, Tovi Grossman, George Fitzmaurice
In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), 2016 [PDF]

2019.05 - 2019.09
Research Intern at Apple (Turi). Mentored by Dr. Jeffrey P. Bigham, and Dr. Xiaoyi Zhang
2016.05 - 2017.08
Hardware Engineer at AMD

Graduate Student Assembly/Provost Conference Funds, Carnegie Mellon University ($750), Oct 2022
Google's Research Collabs (with Dr. Patrick Carrington and Dr. Shaun Kane), Google Inc. ($80,000 Plus $20,000 in Google Cloud), Aug 2022
Graduate Student Assembly/Provost Conference Funds, Carnegie Mellon University ($750), Mar 2022
Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) ($63,000 over 36 Months), April 2021
Inclusive Design Challenge Award (Co-applicant), US Department of Transportation ($300,000), Jan 2021
Best Artifact Award, ASSETS 2020 ($500), Oct 2020
Faculty of Arts And Science Tuition Fellowship, University of Toronto ($18,558), Sept 2018
Faculty of Arts And Science Program-Level Fellowship, University of Toronto ($1000), Nov 2018
Markham Intern of the Year Award Nominee, AMD, Aug 2017
UTRECS Scholarship, University of Toronto ($6000), Aug 2015

Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science: Accessing Recipe Information Without Looking (2024.12)
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science: New Search Engine Tool Helps Users Make Sense of Unfamiliar Topics (2023.06)
Carnegie Mellon University: Accessibility Enables Equality (2022.08)
Communications of the ACM: Eyelid gestures for people with motor impairments (2022.01)
US Patent: On-the-fly calibration for improved on-device eye tracking (2021.08)
IEEE Spectrum: The Next Frontier for Gesture Control is Teeth (2021.05)
Mobility21: Mobility21 Researchers Win US Department of Transportation Inclusive Design Challenge Award (2021.01)
New Scientist: Where have I left my wallet? This smart camera can remind you (2019.09)

SIGCHI Executive Committee
Vice-Chair (2024-present)
Member of Accessibility Committee (2023-2024)

Organizing Committee
Publication Chair (CHI 2025), Accessibility Chair (CHI 2024, CSCW 2023, HCOMP/CI 2023, C&C 2023, C&C 2022, C&C 2021), Inclusion and Broad Participation Chair (Ubicomp 2024), Student Volunteer Co-chair (ASSETS 2022)

Program Committee
Associate Chair (CHI 2025, ASSETS 2024, CHI 2024, Chinese-CHI 2021, CHI 2020 Late Breaking Works)

Reviewers
ASSETS 2024 (7), UIST 2024 (2), IMWUT 2024 (2) CHI 2024 (13), ASSETS 2023 (2), CHI 2023 (5), TACCESS 2023 (1), IMWUT 2023 (1), UIST 2023 (1), TACCESS 2022 (1), ISS 2022 (2), CHI 2022 (7), CHI 2022 Late Breaking Works (1), ISS 2021 (1), UIST 2021 (1), CSCW 2021 (3), CHI 2021 (4), Chinese-CHI 2021(3), IDC 2021 (1), EICS PACM 2021 (1), UIST 2020 (1), IJHCS (1), CHI 2020 (2), CHI 2020 Late Breaking Works (8), CHI 2019 Late Breaking Works (5)

Student Volunteer
ASSETS 2020