I am an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Simon Fraser University.

My research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, robotics, and haptics. Specifically, I design and build affective tangible interfaces to enable new interaction and facilitate physical and mental well-being. My work has received best paper and best paper honorable mention awards at CHI, UIST, and HRI conferences, and a Fast Company's honorable mention award in Innovation by Design.

Prior to joining SFU, I was a postdoc in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. I also completed my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a Ph.D. Minor in Computer Science at Stanford, with support from Samsung Scholarship. I received MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have interned at Facebook building 8 (thru Pro Unlimited).

I am actively looking for exceptional students at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering. If you are interested in working with me, please email me with your CV and transcript.

Research


Co-Designing Programmable Fidgeting Experience with Swarm Robots for Adults with ADHD
Samira Pulatova, Lawrence Kim

ASSETS 2024

Details Presentation PDF
multiple square robots moving in different patterns followed by an anthropomorphic robot moving its head

React to This! How Humans Challenge Interactive Agents using Nonverbal Behaviors
Chuxuan Zhang, Bermet Burkanova, Lawrence Kim, Lauren Yip, Ugo Cupcic, Stéphane Lallée, Angelica Lim

IROS 2024

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multiple square robots moving in different patterns followed by an anthropomorphic robot moving its head

Impact of Multi-Robot Presence and Anthropomorphism on Human Cognition and Emotion
Jiadi Luo, Veronika Domova, Lawrence Kim

CHI 2024

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a person fidgeting with robot(s)

SwarmFidget: Exploring Programmable Actuated Fidgeting with Swarm Robots
Lawrence Kim, Veronika Domova, Yuqi Yao, Parsa Rajabi

UIST 2023

Details Video Presentation PDF
a white women pressing a button on a standing desk to move it up

Shared Autonomy to Reduce Sedentary Behavior Among Sit-Stand Desk Users in the United States and India: Web-Based Study
Lawrence Kim, Gourab Saha, Annel Amelia Leon, Abby C. King, Matthew L. Mauriello, Pablo E. Paredes

JMIR Formative Research 2022

Details PDF
a moving robot next to dragging task

Effects of a Co-Located Robot and Anthropomorphism on Human Motivation and Emotion across Personality and Gender
Lawrence Kim, Veronika Domova, Yuqi Yao, Pablo E. Paredes

RO-MAN 2022

Details PDF
a moving robot next to modular arithmetic task

Robotic Presence: The Effects of Anthropomorphism and Robot State on Task Performance and Emotion
Lawrence Kim, Veronika Domova, Yuqi Yao, Chien-Ming Huang, Sean Follmer, Pablo E. Paredes

RA-L 2022

Details PDF
a hand holding and moving a mouse

Linear Predictive Coding for Acute Stress Prediction from Computer Mouse Movements
Lawrence Kim, Rahul Goel, Jia Liang, Mert Pilanci, Pablo E. Paredes

EMBC 2021

Slides PDF
four different types of legible swarm robot motion

Generating Legible and Glanceable Swarm Robot Motion Through Trajectory, Collective Behavior, and
Pre-Attentive Processing Features
Lawrence Kim, Sean Follmer

THRI 2021

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The Haunted Desk: Exploring Non-Volitional Behavior Change with Everyday Robotics
Lawrence Kim, Annel Amelia Leon, Ganapathy Sankararaman, Blake M. Jones, Gourab Saha, Amanda Spyropolous, Akshara Motani, Matthew L. Mauriello, Pablo E. Paredes

HRI 2021 Companion | Best LBR Award Nominee Best Paper Honorable Mention Icon

Details Slides PDF
comparing performance of our cross-modality based algorithm vs. saliency-based algorithm

Automatic Generation of Spatial Tactile Effects by Analyzing Cross-modality Features of a Video
Kai Zhang, Lawrence Kim, Yipeng Guo, Sean Follmer

SUI 2020

Details Video PDF

When to Add Human Narration to Photo-Sharing
Social Media
Lawrence Kim, Abena Boadi-Agyemang*, Alexa F. Siu,
John Tang

ASSETS 2020 poster

Video PDF
A person stretching arm to control a swarm of robots

User-defined Swarm Robot Control
Lawrence Kim, Daniel Drew, Veronika Domova, Sean Follmer

CHI 2020 | Best Paper Honorable Mention Best Paper Honorable Mention Icon

Details Video PDF
a row of VPS taxels

VPS Display: Tactile Information Transfer through Vibration, Pressure, and Shear
Lawrence Kim, Pablo Castillo, Sean Follmer, Ali Israr

IMWUT 2019

Details Video PDF
Robots pushing on forearm

SwarmHaptics: Haptic Display with Swarm Robots
Lawrence Kim, Sean Follmer

CHI 2019 | Best Paper Honorable Mention Best Paper Honorable Mention Icon

Details Video PDF
Plane assembled by robots

Robotic Assembly of Haptic Proxy Objects for
Tangible Interaction and Virtual Reality
Yiwei Zhao, Lawrence Kim, Mathieu Le Goc, Sean Follmer

ISS 2017

Details Video PDF
robots moving toward a mobile phone

UbiSwarm: Ubiquitous Robotic Interfaces and
Investigation of Abstract Motion as a Display
Lawrence Kim, Sean Follmer

IMWUT 2017

Details Video PDF
robots rendezvousing

Human Perception of Swarm Robot Motion
Griffin Dietz, Jane L. E, Peter Washington, Lawrence Kim, Sean Follmer

CHI 2017 Extended Abstract

PDF

Zooids: Building Blocks for Swarm User Interfaces
Mathieu Le Goc, Lawrence Kim, Ali Parsaei,
Jean-Daniel Fekete, Pierre Dragicevic, Sean Follmer

UIST 2016 | Best Paper Award Best Paper Icon

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finger placed on haptic edge display

Haptic Edge Display for Mobile Tactile Interaction
Sungjune Jang, Lawrence Kim, Kesler Tanner, Hiroshi Ishii,
Sean Follmer

CHI 2016

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three circles showing two operators and one operating tool

Design and evaluation of a trilateral shared-control architecture for teleoperated training robots
Kamran Shamaei, Lawrence Kim, Allison M. Okamura

EMBC 2015

Details PDF
two pictures each showing different types of tool misalignment

Effects of Master-Slave Tool Misalignment in a Teleoperated Surgical Robot
Lawrence Kim*, Clifford Bargar*, Yuhang Che*,
Allison M. Okamura

ICRA 2015

Details PDF

Press

Open-Source Project

Zooids Github

ZOOIDS
Build your own swarm of robots

Details

Lawrence Kim

HCI Resesarcher