The number of smart devices is expected to reach billions in the coming decade. Our mission is to make these networked devices more pervasive, intelligent, and interactive. Our research focuses on ambient data acquisition, analysis, and presentation to enhance human-centric systems design.

[Pervasive Sensing] Seamless and continuous monitoring of physical and behavioral conditions is crucial for human-centric smart applications. We convert everyday objects into sensors, enabling contact-based sensing without disrupting their regular usability.

• Vibration of Everything

• Physical Augmentation for Sensing 

[Ambient Intelligence] The complexity of the physical world causes variability in sensing quality and data distributions, leading to potential inaccuracies. We leverage multimodal sensor data with complementary characteristics to develop efficient inference and model transfer schemes tailored to these conditions.

• Multi-Modal Collaborative Learning for Internet of Things (IoT)

• Physics and Data-Driven Spatiotemporal Modeling

[Ubiquitous Interaction] To enable efficient interaction between humans and intelligent systems, we explore new ways to acquire user input, present system output,  and model user preferences.

• Structure-Assisted Surface Tactile Interface

• Unvoiced Speech (with Stony Brook and UMass)

• Visual and Language Interfaces for IoT Sensing Systems

UC Merced is located between Silicon Valley and the beautiful Yosemite National Park
Established in 2005 and achieved R1 in 2025

I'm looking for highly motivated PhD students. 

Please contact me via email (span24@ucmerced.edu)

Sponsors

Spin-off Startups