Joe Michaelis
@joemichaelis.bsky.social
Asst. prof at UIC. Investigating supporting social learning processes for interest and learning from a Learning Sciences and HCI perspective. Now with more robots! HRI, Social Robots, Ed Tech
https://jmich.people.uic.edu/
https://www.uiclitlab.com/
https://jmich.people.uic.edu/
https://www.uiclitlab.com/
Shell shocked at how ubiquitous turning in LLM writing is. Knew it would be a lot, but literally every paper (1-2 pages) I read today was fully authored by an LLM. I thought if I made it clear I just wanted ideas, thoughts, feeling, and didn't care about grammar or structure, it would help, but nope
September 17, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Shell shocked at how ubiquitous turning in LLM writing is. Knew it would be a lot, but literally every paper (1-2 pages) I read today was fully authored by an LLM. I thought if I made it clear I just wanted ideas, thoughts, feeling, and didn't care about grammar or structure, it would help, but nope
The second explores an intuition I've had for some time - kids often tell us the robot didn't judge them. Lauren Wright's article, "Robotic reading companions can mitigate oral reading anxiety in children" demonstrates the actual impact of that feeling on reading anxiety.
September 10, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The second explores an intuition I've had for some time - kids often tell us the robot didn't judge them. Lauren Wright's article, "Robotic reading companions can mitigate oral reading anxiety in children" demonstrates the actual impact of that feeling on reading anxiety.
Two fresh articles out in Science Robotics www.science.org/journal/scir..., and on the website banner! First is a focus article "How can educational robots enhance family life? Through careful integration." We look at what it will take for in-home robots to actually be adopted by families. #HRI #HCI
September 10, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Two fresh articles out in Science Robotics www.science.org/journal/scir..., and on the website banner! First is a focus article "How can educational robots enhance family life? Through careful integration." We look at what it will take for in-home robots to actually be adopted by families. #HRI #HCI
This summer, LIT Lab undergrads Gaeun Lee and Hope Jo presented their poster “You Can Grow Here” at ACM SIGGRAPH.
Their project explored how anxiety-management techniques can be reimagined as immersive VR experiences that feel emotionally resonant and non-clinical.
doi.org/10.1145/3721....
Their project explored how anxiety-management techniques can be reimagined as immersive VR experiences that feel emotionally resonant and non-clinical.
doi.org/10.1145/3721....
September 4, 2025 at 4:10 PM
This summer, LIT Lab undergrads Gaeun Lee and Hope Jo presented their poster “You Can Grow Here” at ACM SIGGRAPH.
Their project explored how anxiety-management techniques can be reimagined as immersive VR experiences that feel emotionally resonant and non-clinical.
doi.org/10.1145/3721....
Their project explored how anxiety-management techniques can be reimagined as immersive VR experiences that feel emotionally resonant and non-clinical.
doi.org/10.1145/3721....
Was a great place to meet new friends
April 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Was a great place to meet new friends
Announcers said he “missed his chance” but any good Cubs fan knows you don’t mess around with a ball down the left side. Ghost of Bartman lives.
April 8, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Announcers said he “missed his chance” but any good Cubs fan knows you don’t mess around with a ball down the left side. Ghost of Bartman lives.
Adorable animal shaped cookies in my captcha is the technological innovation I never knew I needed until now. Screwed up a few just to see some more.
April 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Adorable animal shaped cookies in my captcha is the technological innovation I never knew I needed until now. Screwed up a few just to see some more.
Gearing up for my UX course at UIC this Spring, and I always try to gather examples of good and bad design. Maybe I'll regale you all with my findings. First up, the "its a fancy EV, so lets just plop an iPad in there for the center console" edition. Just wow... It's like Tesla but somehow lazier
December 20, 2024 at 3:51 PM
Gearing up for my UX course at UIC this Spring, and I always try to gather examples of good and bad design. Maybe I'll regale you all with my findings. First up, the "its a fancy EV, so lets just plop an iPad in there for the center console" edition. Just wow... It's like Tesla but somehow lazier
Updating the lab website today. Out with the bad(X) in with the newsky for our social media links. Also, don't be shy about visiting. We're a small but mighty bunch of CS/LS folks working to integrate robots in learning without making a mess of it. www.uiclitlab.com #HRI #LearningSciences
December 17, 2024 at 11:26 PM
Updating the lab website today. Out with the bad(X) in with the newsky for our social media links. Also, don't be shy about visiting. We're a small but mighty bunch of CS/LS folks working to integrate robots in learning without making a mess of it. www.uiclitlab.com #HRI #LearningSciences
So far as I can tell, Google's AI Overview is just warmed over Wikipedia? They sort of disclose that with the sources box to the right, but its almost always been Wikipedia. So, pretty much the first writing assignment I gave to a 9th grade chemistry class.
December 10, 2024 at 2:36 PM
So far as I can tell, Google's AI Overview is just warmed over Wikipedia? They sort of disclose that with the sources box to the right, but its almost always been Wikipedia. So, pretty much the first writing assignment I gave to a 9th grade chemistry class.
One thing I miss about the old ugly site... Comradery during conference deadlines. Anyone else running on fumes for the ACM HRI Deadline? #AcademicSky #HCIsky
October 1, 2024 at 2:45 PM
One thing I miss about the old ugly site... Comradery during conference deadlines. Anyone else running on fumes for the ACM HRI Deadline? #AcademicSky #HCIsky
Demo at #HRI2024 was fun showing off PATHWiSE teacher authoring tool to allow teachers direct access to creating their own robot-assisted lessons. GPT enhanced features to auto-suggest robot comments based on selected text and to auto-select a robot behavior from our custom suite of actions.
March 22, 2024 at 5:36 PM
Demo at #HRI2024 was fun showing off PATHWiSE teacher authoring tool to allow teachers direct access to creating their own robot-assisted lessons. GPT enhanced features to auto-suggest robot comments based on selected text and to auto-select a robot behavior from our custom suite of actions.
I guess I'm posting about my analysis journey for a paper I'm working on? Newest fun - working on a Thematic Analysis with 450 quotes from transcripts in Atlas.ti. I exported them to excel and copy/pasted to Mural. Sorting them into three/four major theme-y-ish groups took ~2.5 hours. efficiency!
January 5, 2024 at 8:03 PM
I guess I'm posting about my analysis journey for a paper I'm working on? Newest fun - working on a Thematic Analysis with 450 quotes from transcripts in Atlas.ti. I exported them to excel and copy/pasted to Mural. Sorting them into three/four major theme-y-ish groups took ~2.5 hours. efficiency!
Had some fun making ridgeline plots today using ggrideges. I've been settling into a mix of ggplot in R and Illustrator to make my figures lately.
December 22, 2023 at 8:18 PM
Had some fun making ridgeline plots today using ggrideges. I've been settling into a mix of ggplot in R and Illustrator to make my figures lately.
Final grades are in... this was one toooough semester.
December 12, 2023 at 3:49 PM
Final grades are in... this was one toooough semester.
more wet snow today... I really need some GIFs on here to fully express the slog this review process has been. woof.
October 25, 2023 at 2:40 PM
more wet snow today... I really need some GIFs on here to fully express the slog this review process has been. woof.
Let's do this, Mingos! #USL#MingoPlayoffs
October 22, 2023 at 2:30 AM
Let's do this, Mingos! #USL#MingoPlayoffs
The UIC LIT lab joined the first Midwest #HRI meetup this week. Our amazing hosts at uChicago put on a great day of connecting for students and PIs. Students organized the event to build community and it served as a needed bit of humanity. When you pick collaborators wisely good things hsppen.
October 21, 2023 at 11:49 PM
The UIC LIT lab joined the first Midwest #HRI meetup this week. Our amazing hosts at uChicago put on a great day of connecting for students and PIs. Students organized the event to build community and it served as a needed bit of humanity. When you pick collaborators wisely good things hsppen.