Some students from the ACE Lab (photo taken 6/02/2022)

What is the ACE Lab?

The ACE Lab at the University of Washington comprises students from information science and computer science doing original research in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). The lab is directed by Prof. Jacob O. Wobbrock, whose primary appointment is in The Information School with a courtesy appointment in Computer Science & Engineering.

ACE Lab members create Accessible Computing Experiences, believing that interactive technologies should serve and enhance human experience for all people.

ACE Lab members also create Advanced Computing Experiences, using AI/ML, sensing, human factors, statistics, crowdsourcing, and design thinking to craft and evaluate interactive systems that empower users.

Our past work has influenced accessibility on the iPhone, made gestures easy to design and implement, and has been the basis for startup companies, among many other contributions.

ACE Lab members are active in the cross-campus DUB Group, the world-class multi-departmental HCI & Design group. Some members are also part of UW CREATE, the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences.

Mission

To create interactive technologies that improve people's access to and experience of computers and information, especially (but not exclusively) for people with disabilities.

Feature Story

Read about the ACE Lab (formerly known as the MAD Lab) in this feature story by UW Information School News.

Our Values

1. Vision. "The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability, and something is bound to come of it."   — Vannevar Bush (1945)
   
   
2. Creativity. "The most dangerous phrase in the language is, 'We've always done it this way.' "   — Grace Hopper
   
   
3. Elegance. "The stuff I design, if I'm successful, nobody will ever notice. Things will just work."   — Radia Perlman
   
   
4. Utility. "The value of an idea lies in the using of it."   — Thomas Edison
   
   
5. Inclusion. "Everybody has to be able to participate in a future that they want to live for. That's what technology can do."   — Dean Kamen
   
   

Support the ACE Lab!

Please consider a tax-deductible gift to help us further our research and dissemination. Your gifts make a huge difference in the lives of students and our ability to advance the state of the art in human-computer interaction. Please contact Prof. Jacob O. Wobbrock at .

======= 2024 – 2025 News =======
•	Arnavi Chheda-Kothary and co-authors Wobbrock, J.O. and Froehlich, J.E. won the Best Paper Award at ACM ASSETS 2024! The winning paper is on children's artwork in mixed visual-ability families. Congratulations, Arnavi and team! October 30, 2024.
•	Ather Sharif and co-authors Potluri, V., Ang, J.R.X., Wobbrock, J.O. and Mankoff, J. won the Best Demo Award at ACM ASSETS 2024! The winning demo is Touchpad Mapper. Congratulations, Ather and team! October 30, 2024.
•	Jacob O. Wobbrock, Andrew D. Wilson, and Yang Li have won the UIST 2024 Lasting Impact Award for their UIST 2007 paper on the $1 unistroke recognizer. Professor Wobbrock delivered an award talk at UIST 2024 entitled, "Making possible things easy." October 16, 2024.
•	Judy Kong, Mingyuan Zhong, James Fogarty, and Jacob O. Wobbrock have won the Best Paper Award from MobileHCI 2024, held in Melbourne, Australia, for their work on the Ability-Based Design Mobile Toolkit (ABD-MT). The toolkit is open source and available to any app developers wishing to make their mobile apps ability-aware and ability-responsive! Congratulations, Judy and team! October 3, 2024.
•	Welcome to new first-year Ph.D. students Yumeng Ma (CSE), Xiyuan Shen (CSE), and Seokhyun Hwang (iSchool)! September 16, 2024.
•	Congratulations to Drs. Ather Sharif (CSE) and Rachel Franz (iSchool) who successfully defended their dissertations in Summer 2024 and have graduated from the lab! Good luck in your next endeavors. Summer, 2024.