About me

I’m an assitant professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the University of Tennessee (UT). AT UT, I lead the Energy, Printed Infrastructure and Interactive Computing (EPIC) lab – where our goal is to advance interactive technologies that enable computational materials with low-power, integrated sensing, actuation and communication in the physical infrastructure.

I recieved my Ph.D. from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science of Carnegie Mellon University . I work at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Computational Materials Manufacturing and Cyber-Physical Human Systems. My work has been published at top-tier HCI venues, including ACM CHI, IMWUT (UbiComp), UIST, and CSCW, winning best honorable mention award and has also featured on news outlets like New Scientist, Makezine, etc.

I have also been a part of research teams at numerous institutions such as the Manufacturing Science group at Oakridge National Lab (ORNL) , Microsoft Research, HPI , INRIA , and Xerox Research. Prior to my Ph.D, I completed a dual degree master’s from Technical University of Berlin and Universite Paris-Sud XI.

Interactive Computational Materials for the Networked Built Environment

The key idea of ubiquitous computing is that as computers get miniaturized and powerful, they can be applied cheaply to digitize the physical infrastructure (rooms, buildings, structures, bridges, etc.). Unfortunately, this vision is not entirely realized due to the end of Moore’s law and Dennard scaling. As a result, our devices remain power-hungry, are not seamlessly integrated, and continue to be manufactured using yesterday’s design ideas and technology. To date, the focus of device manufacturing has been on miniaturization and packing the most functionality into the smallest form factors, even though our physical infrastructure is much larger in scale. Miniaturized devices need to be deployed in massive quantities to enable interactivity in the built environment (buildings, sidewalks, etc.), leading to unsustainable power consumption as many devices require numerous batteries. Instead of today’s power-hungry boxed form factors, we need to create battery-free devices with various form factors and materials. For example, I integrate computing with extremely strong non-silicon materials (e.g, concrete, and wood) that make up our environments, and build battery-free interactive devices in structural forms like walls and tables.

As an experimental computer scientist and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher, I introduce computationally engineered materials that enable low-power, integrated sensing, and actuation in the networked physical infrastructure (e.g., buildings) forms. This effort is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor and has collaborators in various fields such as HCI/CS, ECE (Electrical and Computer engineering), CEE (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Materials Science, and Manufacturing from across research institutions.

Recent Research Highlights:

OptiStructures:

Photonics Bragg-Gratings Fabry–Pérot Interferometery Battery-Free Concrete Plaster

Collaboration

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Computational Depolyable Structures

Swept Frequency Ultrasonics Sensors Large-scale Actuators Room-Scale Pneumatics Trusses

Collaboration:

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FiberWire

Carbon-Fiber Composites Advanced Structural Materials 3D printing Electronic Interfacing Form Factor Strong

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Duco

Robotics Energy Harvesters Antennas Sensors Battery-Free Large-Scale Circuits

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Publications:

npj Flexible Electronics 2022

Flexible Computational Photodetectors for Self-Powered Activity Sensing
Dingtian Zhang, Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, Raaghesh Vijayan, Yang Zhang, Yunzhi Li, Jung Wook Park, Yiyang Wang, Yuhui Zhao, Nivedita Arora, Ali Mirzazadeh, Youngwook Do, Tingyu Cheng, Saiganesh Swaminathan , Thad Starner, Trisha L. Andrew and Gregory D. Abowd
[Paper PDF] [ Flexible Electronics DL]

UbiComp 2021

Duco: Autonomous Large-Scale Direct-Circuit-Writing (DCW) on Vertical Everyday Surfaces Using A Scalable Hanging Plotter .
Tingyu Cheng, Bu Li, Yang Zhang, Yunzhi Li, Charles Ramey, Eui Min Jung, Yepu Cui, Saiganesh Swaminathan, Youngwook Do, Manos Tentzeris, Gregory D. Abowd, HyunJoo Oh.
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (UbiComp 2021).
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL] [Demo Video]

CHI 2021

From Tactile to NavTile: Opportunities and Challenges for Multi-Modal Feedback in Guiding Surfaces during Non-Visual Navigation
Saiganesh Swaminathan , Yellina Yim, Scott E Hudson, Cynthia L Bennett, and Patrick Carrington.
Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021). Tokyo, Japan.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL] [Talk Video]

UbiComp 2020

OptiStructures: Fabrication of Room-Scale Interactive Structures with Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Optical Sensors and Displays
Saiganesh Swaminathan ,Jonathon Fagert, Michael Rivera, Andrew Cao, Gierad Laput, Haeyoung Noh, and Scott E. Hudson.
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (UbiComp 2020). Cancun, Mexico.
Accepted on initial submission (top 4%)
[Paper PDF] [Demo Video] [ACM DL][Talk Video]

CHI 2019

FiberWire: 3D Printing Mechanically Strong, Lightweight Carbon-Fiber Composite Devices with Embedded Electronic Function.
Saiganesh Swaminathan , Kadri Bugra Ozutemiz, Carmel Majidi, Scott E. Hudson.
In proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019), Glasgow, United Kingdom.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL] [Demo Video]

UbiComp 2019

Input, Output and Construction Methods for Custom Fabrication of Room-Scale Deployable Pneumatic Structures
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Michael L. Rivera, Runchang Kang, Zheng Luo, Kadri B. Ozutemiz, and Scott E. Hudson.
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (UbiComp 2019). London, United Kingdom.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL][Demo Video]

CSCW 2019

Learn2Earn: Using Mobile Airtime Incentives to Bolster Public Awareness Campaigns
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Indrani Medhi Thies, Devansh Mehta, Edward Cutrell, Amit Sharma and Bill Thies
In Proceedings of the ACM Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW 2019), Austin, United States
🏅 Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL]

UIST 2017

WearMail: On-the-Go Access to Information in Your Email with a Privacy-Preserving Human Computation Workflow
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Raymond Fok, Fanglin Chen, Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, Irene Lin, Rohan Jadvani, Walter S. Lasecki, Jeffrey P. Bigham
Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2017), Montreal, Canada.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL] [Demo Video]

W4A 2017

The Crowd Work Accessibility Problem
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Raymond Fok, Fanglin Chen, Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, Irene Lin, Rohan Jadvani, Walter S. Lasecki, Jeffrey P. Bigham
In Proceedings of the 14th Annual ACM International Web for All Conference (W4A ’17), Perth, Australia.
🏅 Best Paper Nomination
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL]

CHI 2016

Linespace: a sensemaking platform for blind
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Thijs Roumen, Robert Kovacs, David Stangl, Stefanie Mueller and Patrick Baudisch
In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016), San Jose, United States.
[Paper PDF][Demo Video] [ACM DL][Talk Video]

CHI 2015

TurkBench: Rendering the Market for Turkers
Benjamin V. Hanrahan, Jutta K. Willamowski,Saiganesh Swaminathan, and David B. Martin
In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2015), Seoul, South Korea.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL]

CHI 2014

Supporting The Design and Fabrication of Physical Visualizations
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Conglei Shi, Yvonne Jansen, Pierre Dragicevic, Lora Oehlberg, Jean-Daniel Fekete.
In Proceedings of the 31st Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2014), Toronto, Canada.
[Paper PDF] [ACM DL] [Demo Video] [Website]

Duco

Duco is a large-scale robotic platform that sketches sensors, antennas, energy harvesters on walls, glass facades, etc. of buildings, turning such large surfaces into smart self-sustainable sensing skins.

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OptiStructures

Optistructures introduces a method for manufacturing computational capabilities into room-scale physical structures like walls, tables, furniture, etc., using an optical approach. Common building materials (concrete, plaster, etc.) are programmatically embedded with optical fibers to provide sensing and displays for interaction with structures. The embedded optical fibers act as sensors as they are manufactured with Bragg-gratings, which are nanometer-scale optical reflectors. The Bragg-gratings backscatter light (fig below) at a specific wavelength when the optical fibers are probed with a broadspectrum photonic source. Any minute perturbance (microstrain) around the manufactured structure changes the wavelength of the backscattered light and is detected using a Fabry–Pérot Interferometer (FPI) photonic system for further processing with machine learning (AI) models. OptiStructures provide energy-efficient sensing at an infrastructure scale, in buildings, bridges, roads, etc., as 1000’s Bragg-gratings reflectors located along long lengths of optical fiber (~70km) reflect light without using any local power or batteries.

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Computational Deployable Structures

Computational deployable structures demonstrates a range of techniques, design primitives for creating custom actuated large-scale pneumatic structures. We utilized materials used in space structures like flexible fabrics with pre-stressed patterns to enable actuation at a larger scale. The manufactured structures can self-deploy and provide inherent actuation and sensing capabilities engineered within textile materials. Finally, human interaction is possible as machine learning (AI) models are able to recognize interaction with materials and respond through actuation.

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FiberWire

FiberWire project demonstrates a method for engineering structural materials, like a carbon-fiber composite, to transmit electrical signals at a low loss and create composite objects with inherent circuitry and sensing capability via 3D printing. This system manufactures computational composite objects that perform sensing even while bearing large impact forces of 4000 lbs under extreme mechanical conditions.

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