Ti-Chung Cheng

I am a Senior Applied Scientist at Microsoft. My research spans collective decision-making, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and human–AI interaction. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2026, co-advised by Prof. Karrie Karahalios and Prof. Hari Sundaram.

My doctoral research introduced and empirically evaluated Quadratic Surveys, a preference-elicitation method that asks people to express the strength of their preferences through explicit tradeoffs. This work reflects a broader question that continues to guide my research: How can people use computational tools to make better decisions together? My work spans Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and human–AI interaction, including preference elicitation and collective choice, control and user roles in smart environments, LLM-assisted organizational metrics, and generative AI in high-stakes decision-making.

I also received my M.S. in Computer Science from UIUC in 2020. During my master’s studies, I worked with Prof. Aditya Parameswaran and Prof. Karahalios on the DataSpread project. I received my B.Sc. in Computer Science, with a minor in Business Economics, from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. As an undergraduate researcher in the Husky Team, supervised by Prof. James Cheng, I studied distributed nearest-neighbor search.

Outside of research, I build production systems and teach. I co-founded and served as tech lead for Here@Illinois, a cloud attendance system serving more than 500 teaching staff and 6,000 student enrollments. At UIUC, I taught courses ranging from programming and databases to HCI research methods, earning the Computer Science Department’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant award in 2020 and 2024. Before joining Microsoft, I completed two research internships at Microsoft Research, two software engineering internships at Salesforce, and a machine learning research internship at KKBOX.

See my latest CV for publications, projects, teaching, and service.

🎓 Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2018–2026) #

• Dissertation research: “Quadratic Surveys: Empirical Research on Using the Quadratic Voting Mechanism as a Preference Elicitation Tool”

🎓 Master of Science in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2018–2020) #

• Master thesis: “Comparing Quadratic Voting and Likert Surveys”

🎓 Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Minor in Business Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013–2017) #

• Final year project: “Efficient Nearest Neighbors Search in Distributed Manner”

🎓 Exchange & short-term visits #

• Exchange student, Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2015)
• Short-term visiting student, Whitman College; Princeton University (2016)

Senior Applied Scientist, Microsoft (Jul 2026 – Present) #

Research Intern, Microsoft Research — Special Projects (Feb 2024 – May 2024) #

• Mentors: Madeleine Daepp, Robert Ness.
• Investigated empirically how large language models influence high-stakes decision-making via misinformation and generative propaganda.
• Analyzed 150K+ crowd-sourced articles using time-series, linguistic, and qualitative methods to quantify signal and trace propagation patterns.
• Contributed cultural and regional expertise to improve framing and validity of internal discussions and external publications (see related commentary: The Economist — “Video will kill the truth if monitoring doesn’t improve” (Mar 2024)).

Research Intern, Microsoft Research — Software Analysis & Intelligence (SAINTES) (May 2023 – Aug 2023) #

• Mentors: Denae Ford Robinson, Nicole Forsgren, Carmen Badea, Christian Bird, Tom Zimmermann, Rob DeLine.
• Designed and implemented GEMS, an agentic LLM system producing theory-driven metrics for team pairing using GitHub and DevOps signals. Built with GPT-4 API, AutoGen, Guidance, FLAML, and MySQL. (Project page)
• Introduced iterative prompt priming to elicit expert-informed metrics; evaluated via qualitative comparisons on DevOps performance proxies showing improved specificity and theoretical grounding.
• Defined a two-stage within-subject qualitative study to probe expert perceptions of LLM-assisted team-matching workflows.

Graduate Researcher, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Aug 2018 – Jun 2026) #

• Designed, built, and evaluated a Quadratic Surveys system grounded in quadratic voting for preference elicitation in collective decision-making, using mixed methods (quantitative statistics + qualitative user research). Results presented at CHI / CI / CSCW venues. (Project page)
• Led multiple HCI projects on human–AI interaction in smart homes, spreadsheet analysis workflows, and design-process tooling; mentored students and coordinated experiments.
• Prototyped systems with React, Nest.js, and MongoDB; evaluated via interviews, surveys, click-stream logs, and in-lab behavioral experiments.
• Analyzed experimental data using open coding, thematic analysis, and Bayesian modeling to derive robust inference about preference intensity and collective insights.

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Aug 2018 – Jun 2026) #

• See Teaching for more details.

Software Engineer Intern, Salesforce — Lightning Component Services Team (May 2020 – Aug 2020) #

• Built a VS Code plugin in TypeScript reducing XML development time by ~50% for Salesforce engineers.
• Contributed to Red Hat XML VS Code extension (PR #292) and Salesforce VS Code extension (PR #2726).

Software Engineer Intern, Salesforce — Lightning Component Services Team (May 2019 – Aug 2019) #

• Built pipelines and designed three dashboards for front-end cache monitoring using Java, Grafana, and Splunk to visualize daily logs at billion-scale.
• Optimized dashboard queries by ~10× for readability and maintainability.

Machine Learning Research Intern, KKBOX (May 2018 – Aug 2018) #

• Mentor: Dr. Yian Chen
• Implemented an NLP pipeline for Mandarin named-entity recognition achieving >90% accuracy.
• Designed a pattern-based relation-extraction pipeline for cross-language music content using 3B+ music records.

Undergraduate Research Assistant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Dec 2015 – Dec 2017) #

• Mentor: Prof. James Cheng
• Conducted research on distributed hash-based nearest-neighbor search algorithms with a publication at SIGMOD.
• Built a 15% more time-efficient and scalable image-retrieval system compared to OpenCV FLANN Library.
• Implemented Collision Counting LSH in C++; details: Implementation and Analysis of Collision Counting LSH on Husky.

Web Administrator, Research and Information Hub (RIH), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2016 – 2017) #

• Managed and maintained the RIH website infrastructure and content workflow for the department.
• Implemented site updates and automation scripts; coordinated with student groups and faculty for content publishing and events.
• Improved site reliability and reduced content publishing latency through simple CI scripts and optimized asset pipelines.

Summer Research Intern, National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) (Jul 2015 – Aug 2015) #

• Mentor: Dr. Ann Hsing-Yen
• Designed and implemented a MySQL database pipeline to retrieve and analyze malicious fast-flux domains.
• Authored an intern report: Development of Bad Domain Tracking System.
• Contributed to follow-on research that used BDTS to detect IP changes of malicious domains over time (Tsai et al., TANET 2018).

Published Conference Papers #

[C7] Ali Zaidi, Anna Karanika, Ti-Chung Cheng, Yi-Shyuan Chiang, Camille Cobb, Indranil Gupta, Karrie Karahalios. “Control in Context: How Smart Home Users Navigate Proxy-based Schemes.” Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘26), 2026. PDF DOI

[C6] Ti-Chung Cheng*, Tiffany Wenting Li*, Karrie Karahalios, Hari Sundaram. “Budget, Cost, or Both? An Empirical Exploration of Mechanisms in Quadratic Surveys.” Proceedings of the ACM Collective Intelligence Conference (CI ‘25), 2025. PDF

[C5] Ti-Chung Cheng, Yutong Zhang*, Yi-Hung Chou*, Vinay Koshy, Tiffany Wenting Li, Karrie Karahalios, Hari Sundaram. “Organize, Then Vote: Exploring Cognitive Load in Quadratic Survey Interfaces.” Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘25), 2025. PDF

[C4] Ti-Chung Cheng*, Tiffany Wenting Li*, Yi-Hung Chou, Karrie Karahalios, Hari Sundaram. “I can show what I really like.”: Eliciting Preferences via Quadratic Voting. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW ‘21), 2021. PDF

[C3] Vinay Koshy, Joon Sung Park, Ti-Chung Cheng, Karrie Karahalios. “We Just Use What They Give Us: Understanding Passenger User Perspectives in Smart Homes.” Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘21), 2021. Best Paper Honorable Mention (Top 5%). PDF

[C1] Jinfeng Li, Xiao Yan, Jian Zhang, An Xu, James Cheng, Jie Liu, Kelvin K. W. Ng, Ti-Chung Cheng. “A General and Efficient Querying Method for Learning to Hash.” ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD ‘18), 2018. PDF

Workshop Papers #

[WS2] Han Pan, Ti-Chung Cheng, Yu-Chun Yen, Yi-Ting Chen. “Structuring User Preferences for Task Delegation and Proactivity in Assistive Meal Preparation: Insights from a Survey Study.” Lifelong Learning and Personalization in Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction (LEAP-HRI) at HRI ‘26, 2026. PDF

[WS1] Pingjing Yang, Ti-Chung Cheng*, Sajjadur Rahman*, Mangesh Bendre, Karrie Karahalios, Aditya Parameswaran. “Understanding Data Analysis Workflows on Spreadsheets: Roadblocks and Opportunities.” Workshop on Human-In-the-Loop Data Analytics (HILDA ‘20), 2020. PDF

Technical Report #

[TR1] Ti-Chung Cheng, Carmen Badea, Christian Bird, Thomas Zimmermann, Robert DeLine, Nicole Forsgren, Denae Ford. “GEMS: Generative Expert Metric System through Iterative Prompt Priming.” Microsoft Research. Link

Research Posters #

[P2] Pranay Midha*, Ti-Chung Cheng*, Hari Sundaram, Karrie Karahalios. “Understanding Quadratic Survey Results: Interactive Visualization for Collective Preference Data.” Proceedings of the ACM Collective Intelligence Conference (CI ‘25), 2025.

[P1] Ti-Chung Cheng, Tiffany Wenting Li, Yi-Hung Chou, Karrie Karahalios, Hari Sundaram. “Quadratic Voting Better Elicits User Preferences Compared to Likert Surveys” (in Mandarin). Proceedings of the Taiwan CHI Conference (TAICHI ‘21), 2021

In Submission / In Preparation #

[W3] Ti-Chung Cheng, Pranay Midha, Hari Sundaram, Karrie Karahalios. “Small Group Deliberation with Quadratic Survey.” (In submission / in preparation)

[W2] Madeleine I. G. Daepp, Alejandro Cuevas, Robert Osazuwa Ness, Vickie Yu-Ping Wang, Bharat Kumar Nayak, Dibyendu Mishra, Ti-Chung Cheng, Shaily Desai, Joyojeet Pal. “Generative Propaganda.” CoRR abs/2509.19147, 2025. arXiv

[W1] Andrew Chen, David Zhou, Ti-Chung Cheng, Sarah Sterman. “Documenting and Communicating Design Processes.” (In submission / in preparation)

CS 598 HCI Research Methods @ UIUC #

• Term: FA 2023
• Instructor: Prof. Sarah Sterman, Prof. Camille Cobb, Prof. Eshwar Chandrasekharan
• Served as a teaching assistant for a course focused on Human-Computer Interaction research methods.
• Provided feedback, facilitated class activities, and assessed student assignments.

CS 411 Database Systems @ UIUC #

• Terms: FA 2020 SP 2021 FA 2021 SP 2022 SP 2023 FA 2024 SP 2025 FA 2025 SP 2026
• Instructor: Prof. Abdussalam Alawini
• Led staff and managed course assistants as the Lead TA for multiple semesters.
• Supported large-scale flipped-classroom activities for more than 400 students.
• Navigated the course through COVID with experience in remote, hybrid, and in-person teaching.
• Designed assignments, activities, projects, and exams for the course.

CS 470 Social and Information Networks @ UIUC #

• Term: FA 2022
• Instructor: Prof. Hari Sundaram
• Designed assignments and managed a small class of 35 students.
• Assisted with grading and facilitated a flipped classroom.

CS 598 DM Data Mining Capstone @ UIUC #

• Term: SU 2025
• Instructor: Prof. Reza Farivar
• Managed MOOC logistics and held weekly office hours.

CS 242 Programming Studio @ UIUC #

• Terms: FA 2018 FA 2019 SP 2020
• Instructor: Prof. Michael Woodley
• Served as Head TA for two semesters, redesigning course materials and assignments.
• Led discussion sessions and managed course administration for more than 200 students.

CSCI 2040 Intro to Python @ CUHK #

• Term: FA 2017
• Instructor: Prof. John C.S. Lui
• Designed a final group project on financial data analysis with Python for a 110-student course.
• Led discussion sessions and assisted with course administration.

General Services #

Tech and Information Director, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Taiwan Alumni Association (Jan 2023 – Present) #

Columnist, Mandarin Daily News (Jan 2020 – Dec 2021) #

• The newspaper serves elementary and junior high school students and has more than 100,000 subscribers.
• Wrote a monthly column on technology and HCI.

Initiator and Coordinator, The Circle Group (Oct 2016 – Dec 2017) #

• Founded this platform to connect CS and non-CS students academically through sharing and technical workshops.
• Managed a team of 20 students working on The Circle Project and the official website for the Taiwanese Student Association.
• Created a guide for incoming students that received more than 6,000 views.

Information Officer, CUHK Taiwanese Student Association (Oct 2015 – Oct 2016) #

• Launched the organization’s online services and homepage.
• Assisted with technical setup for association activities.

Conference & Academic Services #

Invited Reviewer, ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS), 2025 #

Invited Reviewer, Methodology, European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2025 #

Reviewer, Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 #

Reviewer, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), 2024, 2026 #

Program Committee Member, Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), 2026 #

Reviewer, Collective Intelligence (CI), 2025 #

Reviewer, Mensch und Computer (MuC), 2025 #

PURE (Promoting Undergraduate Research in Engineering) Mentor, UIUC (Sept 2023 – May 2024) #

MUSE Mentor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Aug 2019 – May 2023) #

Taiwanese Young Researcher Association (TYRA) — Fulbright Taiwan Mentor-Mentee Program (2023, 2024, 2025) #

Student Volunteer, CSCW 2021, 2022; CHI 2021 #

Book Reviewer, Python x Excel Data Processing Tips (Mandarin) — Oct 2022 (ISBN: 9786263490291) #

Volunteering #

Project Coordinator, Morningside (Oct 2013 – May 2014) #

• Volunteered in Nepal to understand and evaluate local needs and provide solutions. Report Journal
• The university approved the volunteering proposal and provided funding.
• Received the HKSAR Reaching Out Award and Scholarship.
• Received the Taiwan Ministry of Education’s 2015 National iYouth Best Writing in Volunteering award. News Coverage

I am proud to mentor and work with these talented students:

• Pranay Midha: UIUC BS MATH + CS ‘26, 2023–Present
• Janine Leong: UIUC BS CS + ECON ‘27, 2023
• Anupam Das: UIUC BS CS ‘27, 2023
• Yutong Zhang: UIUC BS CS ‘23, Now Graduate Student at Stanford, 2021–2023
• Tue Do: UIUC BS CS + Math ‘24, Now Graduate Student at UIUC, 2022–2023
• Ashay Parikh: UIUC BS CS ‘24, Now SWE at IMC Trading, 2022
• Yi-Hung Chou: CUHK BS CS ‘21, Now PhD Student at UCI, 2019–2021