Research

I am a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the SPIRL Lab at Carleton University working under Dr. Elizabeth Stobert, working in collaboration at the University of Waterloo as a Research Associate under Dr. Cosmin Munteanu, in the Technologies for Aging Gracefully lab, where I am working on Usable Privacy for voice-based IoT agents for older adults.

I earned my PhD (2024) and MSc (2019) in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, supervised by Dr. Cosmin Munteanu. I completed my Honours B.Sc (2017) in Computer Science from the University of Toronto as well.

My research looks at the usability and design of conversational voice interfaces, and the development of different tools and resources to aid designers in CUI & VUI design and education – with a particular focus on the development of design guidelines. My research also explores how to bridge the industry-academia gap in CUI & VUI design, and how to improve knowledge transfer between the two. My post-doctoral research focuses on the design of usable privacy controls and guideliens for voice-based smart-home agents for older adults.

I’ve published CUI research and organized CUI workshops across several international SIGCHI venues such as CHI, IUI, MobileHCI, CSCW, CUI, etc. I’ve been part of the CUI steering committee since its inception in 2019.

Publications

My publications can viewed on Google Scholar.

Professional & Committee Roles

Conversational User Interfaces Steering Committee (2019 - Present)
Conversational User Interfaces Organizing Committee (2020-Present)
- Full Papers Track Co-Chair (2024)
- Workshops Track Co-Chair (2024)
- Provocations Track Co-Chair (2023)
- Demos Track Co-Chair (2022)
- Showcases Track Co-Chair (2020-2021)
Associate Chair (Understanding People – Qualitative Methods Subcommittee) (CHI 2024/2025)
Conversational User Interfaces Program Committee (2019 - 2022)
Graphics Interface Program Committee (2020)
Reviewer for SIGCHI conferences (CHI, MobileHCI, CSCW, CUI, GI, DIS) (2018 - Present)

Academic Awards

NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship (PDF), (Sep 2024 - Sep 2027)
Wolfond Fellowship, University of Toronto (Jan 2024 – Apr 2024)
Doctoral Completion Award, University of Toronto (Sep 2023 – Apr 2024)
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral (Jan 2021 - Jan 2024)
Wolfond Fellowship, University of Toronto (Sep 2019 - Aug 2020)
2019-2020 Bell Graduate Scholarship, University of Toronto (Sep 2019 - Aug 2020)
Robert E. Landsale/Okino Computer Graphics Graduate Fellowship, University of Toronto (Nov 2017; Nov 2018)
Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award, University of Toronto (Feb 2017)
Chancellor’s Scholarship – Ashbaugh, Trinity College, University of Toronto (Oct 2016)

Best Paper Awards

Best Paper Award – Honourable Mention, CUI 2019
- Murad, C. & Munteanu, C. (2019). "I Don't Know What You're Talking About HALexa": The Case for Voice User Interface Guidelines. In Proceedings of CUI '19
Best Paper Award – Honourable Mention, CHI 2019
- Clark, L., Pantidi, N., Cooney, O., Garaialde, D., Edwards, J., Spillane, B., Murad, C., Munteanu, C., Wade, V., & Cowan, B. R. (2019). What Makes a Good Conversation? Challenges in Designing Truly Conversational Agents. In Proceedings of CHI '19.
Best Journal Paper, IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2019
- Murad, C., Munteanu, C., Cowan, B. R., & Clark, L. (2019). Revolution or Evolution? Speech Interaction and HCI Design Guidelines. In IEEE Pervasive Computing.
Best Poster Award – Honourable Mention, MobileHCI 2018
- Murad, C., Munteanu, C., Cowan, B. R, & Clark, L. (2018) Design Guidelines for Hands-Free Speech Interaction. In Proceedings of MobileHCI '18 Adjunct.