Human-Machine surrounding over a table discussing

Ti-Chung Cheng

def decision(human, machine):

I’m a Sr. Applied Scientist at Microsoft, extending my research interests in collective decision-making and human–AI interaction to productivity research and software engineering processes. Broadly, I continue to invest in empirical research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW).

I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2026, where I introduced Quadratic Surveys, a research method for eliciting individual preferences for collective action, under the guidance of Prof. Karrie Karahalios and Prof. Hari Sundaram.

I am an Applied Scientist Bridging AI & Engineering into Practical Applications

I am a Software Engineer Building Complex Systems into Scalable Products

I am a UX Researcher Blueprinting AI Experiences into Decision-Support Tools

Recent News

2026/07/06 — I joined Microsoft as a Sr. Applied Scientist! If you are in the Greater Seattle area, feel free to reach out and meet up.
2026/04/08 — I successfully defended my dissertation. Deep thanks to my advisors, committee, collaborators, friends, and family for supporting this journey.
2026/03/16 — Our workshop paper, Structuring User Preferences for Task Delegation and Proactivity in Assistive Meal Preparation: Insights from a Survey Study, was presented at LEAP-HRI 2026 at HRI 2026. This work marks our first application of Quadratic Surveys to robotics, focusing on task trade-offs, delegation, and user agency in assistive meal preparation.
2026/01/30 — Excited to share that our paper, Control in Context: How Smart Home Users Navigate Proxy-based Schemes, will be presented at CHI 2026.
2026/01/21 — I am serving as Lead TA for CS411 at UIUC for Spring 2026.
2025/09/24 — “Generative Propaganda” preprint is now public. Here’s a slice of the work I did during my MSR Special Projects internship with an amazing team.
2025/06/09 — A poster by my undergraduate mentee, Pranay Midha, on an initial approach to visualizing Quadratic Survey results was accepted at CI 2025. I can’t wait to share our preliminary findings with you.
2025/05/20 — So… why do Quadratic Voting and Quadratic Surveys work? Our latest findings will be presented at CI 2025 in August 2025, and you can read them here. Let’s chat in San Diego if you are there!
2025/01/17 — The first paper on designing and validating interfaces for Quadratic Surveys and Quadratic Voting will be presented at CHI 2025. The full paper is available here.
2024/12/16 — I can finally officially announce Here@Illinois, a tool for instructors and staff to manage their courses and events!
2024/08/27 — My internship project with the Software Analysis and Intelligence in Engineering Systems (SAINTES) Group at Microsoft Research is now available in this technical report, in which I describe iterative prompt priming for generating expert-informed metrics with large language models.
2024/05/01 — I am honored to receive my second Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the CS Department, along with campus-wide recognition on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for my work as a teaching assistant in CS598SPH/SMC Research Methods in HCI in Fall 2023!