About Me

Hello! I am Jack Shen-Kuen Chang (張昇崑). My research interests are: human-computer interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), tangible and embodied interaction (TEI), and spatial cognition.

I apply user-centered design, ethnographic approaches, and cognitive evaluations to build and study multimodal interfaces and systems. With my interdisciplinary background, I explore outside-the-box design opportunities and assess down-to-earth impacts. Using mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches, I study users’ attitudes, opinions, and behaviors, which iteratively inform and inspire how I design and build new technologies.

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at National Cheng Kung University, following my Assistant Research Professor appointment (as a “NCKU 90 and Beyond” Scholar). Previously, I worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Pennsylvania State University, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow in SynLab (Synaesthetic Media Lab) at Ryerson University.

I obtained my PhD from Purdue University (Polytechnic Institute's Dept. of Computer Graphics Technology). During my PhD: My team and I won 2 IEEE VAST Challenge (part of IEEE VIS) awards in the same year, both for Outstanding Creative Design; I worked as a PhD HCI/UX Research Intern at Xerox PARC, supervised by Dr. Victoria Bellotti (ACM SIGCHI Fellow, PARC Fellow), on a NSF-funded research; I worked at PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) twice as a PhD HCI Research Intern (one time as a NSIP recipient, both times with merit-based extensions) on exploratory research funded by USA's Department of Defense; supported by Canada’s national SHHRC grant, I worked at SynLab at Ryerson University as a Visiting PhD Student Researcher, with other researchers from University of Toronto and Georgia Tech.

I have 2 master’s degrees. One is from Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Media (formerly Dept. of Telecommunications) where I, with 2 years of full funding, studied/created interactive multimedia. The other one is from Dept. of Power Mechanical Engineering in National Tsing-Hua University . Between these 2 master’s degrees, I worked as an Associate Research Engineer at Taiwan’s ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) (a semi-governmental, R&D 100 research institution). My team and I at ITRI got technology transfers and 20+ international patents (with 4 US patents) for our work on using new ICT (information and communications technology) and testing services to improve industrial and fire safety.