Ian Arawjo

Ian Arawjo is an assistant professor in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research (DIRO), University of Montreal, and is affiliated with Mila (Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute). He holds a PhD in Information Science from Cornell University, where his research explored programming as a social and cultural practice. His work focuses on the intersection of HCI, AI, and programming systems, particularly on leveraging novel AI capabilities to redefine programming practices. He leads several high-visibility open-source projects, including ChainForge (a visual programming environment for prompt engineering) and Splat (an open-source affinity diagramming tool). Ian's research has been published in top-tier HCI conferences such as CHI, CSCW, and UIST, and has earned multiple awards. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University where he worked on AI tools for early-stage design processes, LLM evaluation interfaces, and multimodal AI programming tools.

• 2024-Present·University of Montreal·Assistant Professor
  • Teaches and conducts research in HCI, establishing the Montreal HCI group to study AI-powered design tools, LLM evaluation interfaces, and multimodal programming practices.
• 2023-2023·Harvard University·Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Collaborated with Professor Elena Glassman in the Harvard HCI group on applications combining AI and HCI.
• [Time Unspecified] | Apple Inc. | Machine Learning Research Intern
  • Conducted machine learning research under the mentorship of Megan Maher and David Koski.
• [Time Unspecified] | UNICEF Kenya Project | Research Support
  • Researched and supported the Nairobi Play Project, a UNICEF-led computer science education initiative.

• 2015-2023·Cornell University·PhD
  • Specialized in Information Science, under the supervision of Professor Tapan Parikh, researching programming as a social and cultural practice.
• [Time Unspecified] | Concordia University | Bachelor’s Degree
  • Majored in Computational Arts and Computer Science, actively engaged in Montreal's indie game community, and developed a game published on the Apple App Store.