Szu-Yu (Cyn) Liu, Ph.D.

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I am currently a Design Researcher at Microsoft working on creating end-to-end customer experience for hybrid cloud and Azure Stack devices.

Previously, I was a Computing Innovation Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, working with Paul Dourish. My research lies at the intersection of computer science, social science, and interaction design, with a particular focus on democratizing technology to support social and environmental justice. My work critically examines the concept of "user" in user-centered design by engaging with underserved stakeholders who are often excluded in the process of technological intervention, including stakeholders who are nonhumans (e.g., animals, plants, microorganisms). 

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I hold a Ph.D. in HCI from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University where I was co-advised by Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell. I completed two research internships at Snap Research and Microsoft Research during my Ph.D.. Prior to moving to the U.S., I earned my M.Des. and B.Des. in product design from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and worked at Asus as a product designer. I have published my work at HCI venues such as ACM CHI, CSCW, DIS, TEI, and LIMITS; my designs have also received international design awards including Good Design and iF Concept Award.

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With a hybrid background in HCI and product design, I take an interdisciplinary approach combining methods from social science, arts-and-design, and the humanities to turn large-scale and ambiguous questions into implications that drive change in products, methodologies, and theories to pursue more inclusive and resilient futures.