Pourang Polad Irani
E2-580 EITC II
Department of Computer Science
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 2N2
Canada

Phone: +1 (204) 474-8995
Fax: +1 (204) 474-7609
Email: irani [at] cs.umanitoba.ca

Pourang P. Irani

I am an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manitoba. My research is in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Information Visualization. More details of some of the projects I have worked on can be found on the HCI lab web page. My current interests are in the following areas:

Mobile and Ubiquitous Interfaces
Interaction Techniques
Navigation Interfaces
Visual Analytics
Animated Visualizations
Input Devices
Gaming Applications
Distributed User Interfaces

I have had the opportunity to work with a good number of collaborators and bright students. I am currently seeking graduate students (PhD) and post-doctoral fellows to work in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

Courses

Current Courses

Comp 4020 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Winter 2013)

Previous Courses

Comp 3020 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2012)
Comp 1020 - Introductory Computer Science II (Winter 2012)
Comp 4020 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Winter 2012)
Comp 4020 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Fall 2010)
Comp 7920 - Advanced HCI (Fall 2010)
Comp 3020 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2008)
Comp 7570 - Advanced HCI (Fall 2008)
Comp 1020 - Introductory Computer Science II (Winter 2008)
Comp 4020 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Winter 2008)
Comp 7570 - Computer Supported Collaborative Work (Winter 2008)

Comp 3020 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2007)

Comp 4020 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Fall 2007)

Comp 7920 - Advanced Human-Computer Interaction (Fall 2006)

Comp 3020 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2006)

74.302 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2005)

74.216 - Progamming Practices (Fall 2005)

74.402 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Winter 2005)

74.792 - Advanced Human-Computer Interaction (Winter 2005)

74.402 - Human-Computer Interaction II (Winter 2004)

74.302 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2004)

74.792 - Advanced Human-Computer Interaction (Winter 2003)

74.302 - Human-Computer Interaction I (Fall 2003)

74.371 - User Interface Design (Fall 2002)

CS 2685 (@UNB) - C++ Programming (Fall 2001)

CS 2685 (@UNB) - C++ Programming (Winter 2002)

See less.

Publications

Zahid Hossain, Khalad Hasan, Hai-Ning Liang and Pourang Irani.. 2012. EdgeSplit: Facilitating the Selection of Off-Screen Objects.. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2012). San Francisco, CA. ACM.

Daniel Rea, James E. Young and Pourang Irani. 2012. The Roomba Mood Ring: An Ambient-Display Robot. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI2012). Boston, Massachusetts. ACM, 217-218.

Khalad Hasan, Xing-Dong Yang, Hai-Ning Liang and Pourang Irani.. 2012. How to Position the Cursor? An Exploration of Absolute and Relative Cursor Positioning for Back-of-Device Input.. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2012). San Francisco, CA. ACM.

Jason Alexander, Teng Han, William Judd, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2012. Putting your best foot forward: investigating real-world mappings for foot-based gestures. In Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2012). Austin, Texas. ACM, 1229-1238.

Hong Zhang, Xing-Dong Yang, Barrett Ens, Hai-Ning Liang, Pierre Boulanger and Pourang Irani. 2012. See Me, See You: A Lightweight Method for Discriminating User Touches on Tabletop Displays. In Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2012). Austin, Texas. ACM, 2327-2336.

Hina Aman, Pourang Irani and Hai-Ning Liang. 2012. A Review of Common Tasks Supported by Information Communication Technology for Times of Emergency. In Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2012). Vancouver, Canada. ISCRAM.

Khalad Hasan, Xing-Dong Yang, Andrea Bunt and Pourang Irani. 2012. A-Coord Input: Coordinating Auxiliary Input Streams for Augmenting Contextual Pen-Based Interactions. In Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2012). Austin, Texas. ACM, 805-814.

Teng Han, Jason Alexander, Abhijit Karnik, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2011. Kick: Investigating the Use of Kick Gestures for Mobile Interactions. In Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services (MobileHCI '11). Stockholm, Sweden. ACM.

Barrett Ens, David Ahlstr�m, Andy Cockburn and Pourang Irani. 2011. Characterizing User Performance with Assisted Direct Off-Screen Pointing. In Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services (MobileHCI '11). Stockholm, Sweden. ACM.

Jessica R. Cauchard, Markus L�chtefeld, Pourang Irani, Johannes Schoning, Antonio Kr�ger, Mike Fraser and Sriram Subramanian. 2011. Visual Separation in Mobile Multi-display Environments. In Proceedings of the 23rd ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '11). Santa Barbara, U.S.A. ACM.

Taylor Sando, Melanie Tory and Pourang Irani. 2011. Impact of Group Size on Spatial Structure Understanding Tasks. In Proceedings of the IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium PacificVis '11). Hong Kong, China. IEEE.

Erum Tanvir, Andrea Bunt, Andy Cockburn and Pourang Irani. 2011. Improving cascading menu selections with adaptive activation areas. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69(11), 769-785.

Cary Williams, Xing-Dong Yang, Grant Partridge, Joshua Usiskin-Miller, Arkady Major and Pourang Irani. 2011. TZee: Exploiting the Lighting Properties of Multi-touch Tabletops for Tangible 3D Interactions. In Proceedings of the 29th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2011). Vancouver, BC. ACM, 1363-1372.

Barrett Ens, Rasit Eskicioglu and Pourang Irani. 2011. Visually Augmented Interfaces for Co-located Mobile Collaboration. In Distributed User Interfaces: Designing Interfaces for the Distributed Ecosystem. Springer, 169-176.

Khalad Hasan, Tovi Grossman and Pourang Irani. 2011. Comet and Target Ghost: Techniques for Selecting Moving Targets. In Proceedings of the 29th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2011). Vancouver, BC. ACM, 839-848.

Xing-Dong Yang, Tovi Grossman, Pourang Irani and George Fitzmaurice. 2011. TouchCuts and TouchZoom: Enhanced Target Selection for Touch Displays using Finger Proximity Sensing. In Proceedings of the 29th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2011). Vancouver, BC. ACM, 2585-2594.

Fouad Alallah, Dean Jin and Pourang Irani. 2010. OA-graphs: Orientation Agnostic Graphs for Improving the Legibility of Charts on Horizontal Displays. In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces(ITS' 10). Saarbrucken, Germany. ACM, 211-220.

KyungTae Kim, Waqas Javed, Cary Williams, Niklas Elmqvist and Pourang Irani. 2010. Hugin: A Framework for Awareness and Coordination in Mixed-Presence Collaborative Information Visualization. In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces(ITS' 10). Saarbrucken, Germany. ACM, 231-240.

David Ahlstr�m, Andy Cockburn, Carl Gutwin and Pourang Irani. 2010. Why It's Quick to be Square: Modelling New and Existing Hierarchical Menu Designs. In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '10). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. ACM, 1371-1380.

Eleanor Jones, Jason Alexander, Andreas Andreou, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2010. GesText: Accelerometer-Based Gestural Text-Entry Systems. In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '10). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. ACM, 2173-2182.

Xing-Dong Yang, Edward Mak, David C. McCallum, Pourang Irani, Xiang Cao and Shahram Izadi. 2010. LensMouse: Augmenting the Mouse with an Interactive Touch Display. In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '10). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. ACM, 2431-2440.

Feng Wang, Xiang Cao, Xiangshi Ren and Pourang Irani. 2009. Detecting and Leveraging Finger Orientation for Interaction with Direct-Touch Surfaces. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST'09). Victoria, BC, Canada. ACM, 23-32.

David C. McCallum and Pourang Irani. 2009. ARC-Pad: absolute+relative cursor positioning for large displays with a mobile touchscreen. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '09), 153-156.

Kurosh Zarei-nia, Xing-Dong Yang, Pourang Irani and Nariman Sepehri. 2009. Evaluating Factors that Influence Path Tracing with Passive Haptic Guidance. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design (HAID '09), 21-30.

Xing-Dong Yang, Pourang Irani, Pierre Boulanger and Walter F. Bischof. 2009. A Model for Steering with Haptic-Force Guidance. In Proceedings of the 12th IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT '09), 465-478.

Nabeel Hassan, Md. Mahfuz Rahman, Pourang Irani and Peter Graham. 2009. Chucking: A One-handed Document Sharing Technique. In Proceedings of the 12th IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT '09), 264-278.

Xing-Dong Yang, Edward Mak, Pourang Irani and Walter F. Bischof. 2009. Dual-Surface Input: Augmenting One-Handed Interaction with Coordinated Front and Behind-the-Screen Input. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI '09). Bonn, Germany. ACM, 1-10.

Taylor Sando, Melanie Tory and Pourang Irani. 2009. Effects of Animation, User-Controlled Interactions, and multiple static views in Understanding 3D Structures. In Proceedings of the 6th Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization (APGV '09). Chania, Crete, Greece. ACM, 69-76.

Kang Shi, Sriram Subramanian and Pourang Irani. 2009. PressureMove: Pressure input with mouse movement. In Proceedings of the 12th IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT '09), 25-39.

Grant Partridge, Pourang Irani and Gordon Fitzell. 2009. Let loose with WallBalls, a collaborative tabletop instrument for tomorrow. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME '09), 78-81.

Tyler J. Gunn, Pourang Irani and John Anderson. 2009. An Evaluation Of Techniques For Selecting Moving Targets. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 3329-3334.

Mahfuz Rahman, Sean Gustafson, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2009. Tilt Techniques: Investigating the Dexterity of Wrist-based Input. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '09), 1943-1952.

David C. McCallum, Edward Mak, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2009. PressureText: Pressure Input for Mobile Phone Text Entry. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 4519-4524.

Xing Dong Yang, Pourang Irani, Pierre Boulanger and Walter Bischof. 2009. One-Handed Behind-the-Display Cursor Input on Mobile Devices. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 4501-4506.

Tyler J. Gunn, Hong Zhang, Ed Mak and Pourang Irani. 2009. An Evaluation of One-handed Techniques for Multiple-target Selection. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 4189-4194.

Nivedita Kadaba, Xing Dong Yang and Pourang Irani. 2009. Facilitating Multiple Target Tracking using Semantic Depth of Field (SDOF). In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 4375-4380.

Grant Partridge and Pourang Irani. 2009. IdenTTop: A Flexible Platform for Exploring Identity-Enabled Surfaces. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '09), 4411-4416.

Maruthappan Shanmugasundaram and Pourang Irani. 2008. The effect of animated transitions in zooming interfaces. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '08), 396-399.

Bowen Hui, Sean Gustafson, Pourang Irani and Craig Boutilier. 2008. The Need for an Interaction Cost Model in Adaptive Interfaces. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '08), 458-461.

Carson Kai-Sang Leung, Pourang Irani and Christopher L. Carmichael. 2008. FIsViz: A Frequent Itemset Visualizer. In Proceedings of the Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD '08), 644-652.

Erum Tanvir, Jonathan Cullen, Pourang Irani and Andy Cockburn. 2008. Improving Selection in Cascading Pull-Down Menus. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08), 1381-1384.

Dzmitry Aliakseyeu, Pourang Irani, Andr�s Lucero and Sriram Subramanian. 2008. Multi-Flick: An Evaluation of Flick-Based Scrolling Techniques for Pen Interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08), 1689-1698.

Kang Shi, Pourang Irani, Sean Gustafson and Sriram Subramanian. 2008. PressureFish: A Method to Improve Control of Discrete Pressure-based Input. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08), 1295-1298.

Sean Gustafson, Patrick Baudisch, Carl Gutwin and Pourang Irani. 2008. Wedge: Clutter-Free Visualization of Off-Screen Locations. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08), 787-796.

Nivedita Kadaba, Pourang Irani and Jason Leboe. 2007. Visualizing Causal Semantics using Animations. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 13(6), 1254-1261.

Grant Partridge, Mahtab Nezhadasl, Pourang Irani and Carl Gutwin. 2007. A Comparison of Navigation Techniques across Different Types of Off-Screen Navigation Tasks. In Proceedings of the IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (Interact '07), 716-721.

Sean Gustafson and Pourang Irani. 2007. Comparing Visualizations for Tracking Off-Screen Moving Targets. In Extended Abstracts of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '07), 2399-2404.

Peer Shajahan and Pourang Irani. 2007. One Family, Many Voices: Can Multiple Synthetic Voices be used as Navigational Cues in Hierarchical Interfaces? International Journal of Speech Technologies, 9(1), 1-15.

Fouad Alallah, Mahtab Nezhadasl, Pourang Irani and Dean Jin. 2007. Visualizing the Decision-Making Process in a Face-to-Face Meeting. In Proceedings of IEEE Information Visualization (IV '07), 168-176.

Maruthappan Shanmugasundaram, Pourang Irani and Carl Gutwin. 2007. Can smooth view transitions facilitate perceptual constancy in node-link diagrams? In Proceedings of Graphics Interface (GI '07), 71-78.

Xu Xia, Pourang Irani and Jing Wang. 2007. Evaluation of Guiard's Theory of Bimanual Control for Navigation and Selection. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers. Proceedings from HCI International, 368-377.

Kang Shi, Pourang Irani and Pak Ching Li. 2007. Facilitating Visual Queries in the TreeMap Using Distortion Techniques. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Human Interface and the Management of Information. Proceedings from HCI International, 345-353.

Tadeusz Stach, Carl Gutwin, David Pinelle and Pourang Irani. 2007. Improving recognition and characterization in groupware with rich embodiments. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '07), 11-20. (Honourable Mention Award)

Jared Cechanowicz, Pourang Irani and Sriram Subramanian. 2007. Augmenting the mouse with pressure sensitive input. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '07), 1385-1394. (Honourable Mention Award)

Kang Shi, Pourang Irani and Pak Ching Li. 2005. An Evaluation of Content Browsing Techniques for Hierarchical Space-Filling Visualizations. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (IV '05), 81-88.

Peer Shajahan and Pourang Irani. 2005. Manipulating Synthetic Voice Parameters for Navigation in Hierarchical Structures. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Auditory Displays (ICAD '05), 49-54.

Nivedita Kadaba, Pourang Irani and Michel Toulouse. 2005. Visualizing Time Dependent Semantics: An Application to Quantum Algorithms. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (IV '05), 182-187.

Nivedita Kadaba and Pourang Irani. 2005. Target Tracking in Dynamic Systems. IEEE InfoVis (poster compendium).

Peer Shajahan and Pourang Irani. 2004. Representing Hierarchies Using Multiple Synthetic Voices. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Information Visualization (IV '04), 885-891.

Peer Shajahan and Pourang Irani. 2003. Improving Navigation in Touch-Tone Interfaces. In Proceedings from Human Factors in Telecommunication (HFT '03), 8.

B. Ashfield and Pourang Irani. 1998. A Graphical Shell for a Protocol Simulation Testbed. Proceedings of the APICS Conference, Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Research Positions

Research positions for undergraduate students, graduate students (M.S. and Ph.D. level) and postdoc fellows are available from time to time. A keen interest in interdisciplinary research and a strong commitment to academic excellence is essential. Diverse backgrounds are welcomed. Information about graduate studies can be found on the websites of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Department of Computer Science.

Students

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Juan David Hincapie-Ramos

Dr. Amir H. Meghdadi

Dr. Marcos Serrano

Current Students

Xing-Dong Yang (PhD)

Barrett Ens (PhD)

Khalad Hasan (PhD)

Fereshteh Amini (PhD)

Fouad Alallah (PhD)

Josh Usiskin (MSc)

Hina Aman (MSc)

Zahid Hossain (MSc)

Srikanth K Sridharan (MSc)

Ashik Rabbani (MSc)

Roiy Shpaner (MSc)

Jango Guo (Undergraduate Research Associate)

Paymahn Moghadasian (Undergraduate Research Associate)

Rory Finnegan (Undergraduate Research Associate)

Dale Hilderbrandt (Undergraduate Research Associate)

Alumni - Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Hai-Ning Liang

Alumni - Graduate Students

Hong Zhang (MSc 2012)

Cary Williams (MSc 2012)

David McCallum (MSc 2011)

Nivedita Kadaba (PhD 2011)

Grant Partridge (MSc 2011)

Fouad Alallah (MSc 2011)

Erum Tanvir (MSc 2010)

Mahtab Nezhadasl (MSc 2009)

Sean Gustafson (MSc 2009)

Xu Xia (MSc 2007)

Maruthappan (Satish) Shanmugasundaram (MSc 2007)

Nivedita Kadaba (MSc 2006)

Kang Shi (MSc 2005)

Peer Shajahan (MSc 2005)

Alumni - Undergraduate Students

Taylor Sando (Undergraduate Research Associate)

James Trenchard

Jonathan Cullen

Ed Mak

Nabeel Hassan

Tristan Hartry

Mark Pomeranski

Oleh Stolarskyj

Hong Zhang

Matthew Tate

Grant Partridge

Chris Carmichael

Jared Cechanowicz

Xingdong Yang

Chris Magnan

Cid Zaldivir

Ellen Cheung

Anthony Chau

About Winnipeg

Nicknamed the slurpee capital of the world (for the twelfth time last year), it is really never too cold to have a slurpee in Winnipeg. A vibrant and pleasant city, Winnipeg is home to 700,000 people who make it a truly multi-cultural city. Some of the cultural organizations of the city are Manitoba Opera, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Museum, and Le Cercle Moliêre. Some of the city's popular festivals are the Festival du Voyageur, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, and Folklorama. Professional sports organizations based in the city include the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Winnipeg Jets, and the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

Contact

Department of Computer Science
E2-580 EITC II
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 2N2
Canada

tel:
(204) 474-8995

email:
irani [at] cs.umanitoba.ca