ICS Alumna Eunkyung Jo Honored by ACM SIGCHI
UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) alumna Eunkyung Jo, ‘25 Ph.D. has been honored with the 2026 ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Outstanding Dissertation Award. Her dissertation is titled “Advancing Collaborative Health Monitoring Amidst Infrastructural Constraints.” The dissertation builds on papers published during her Ph.D. at leading HCI venues. This includes a CHI 2023 Best Paper Awardee articulating how people experienced a large language model (LLM) chatbot, CareCall, for public health monitoring.
The honor “recognizes the most outstanding research contributions from recently graduated Ph.D. students within the HCI community, showcasing the quality and impact of HCI research,” and the award selection is primarily based on nominations by SIGCHI members. ACM SIGCHI is the premier association of professionals who contribute towards the research and practice of human-computer interaction (HCI).
Jo earned a Ph.D. in informatics from UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) in 2025. Her advisor was Daniel Epstein, associate professor of informatics and vice chair for undergraduate studies. She also received a prestigious Google Fellowship as a Ph.D. student.
Reflecting on the award, Epstein said, “It was a privilege to work with Jo throughout her Ph.D. journey, and I’m thrilled that her dissertation was recognized. Her work contributed valuable understanding of how AI technologies for health monitoring can have benefits at scale, but also introduce new labor and problematic interactions for public health workers.”
Jo noted, “I am deeply honored to receive this recognition from the SIGCHI community. This award highlights the importance of examining how AI systems intersect with complex care infrastructures. I am excited to continue this line of research at POSTECH in collaboration with students and colleagues.”
Jo currently works as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence at POSTECH in South Korea. Her research focuses on how to advance technology to enhance collaborative health monitoring, leveraging insights into the complexity of care infrastructure.
Award recipients are given travel reimbursement and an honorarium and are provided a special timeslot to highlight their work at the CHI 2026 event, which will be held April 13-17 in Barcelona, Spain.
– Tonya Becerra