Toby Jia-Jun Li

Toby Jia-Jun Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where he leads the SaNDwich Lab. He is also the director of the Human-Centered Responsible AI Lab at the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. His research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), end-user software engineering, machine learning (ML), and applications of natural language processing (NLP). He is committed to designing, building, and studying interactive systems through human-centered methods to empower individuals to create, configure, and extend AI-driven computational systems. His work particularly emphasizes addressing societal challenges through human-AI collaboration and helping individuals leverage AI systems for task automation and augmentation. Toby has published papers at top-tier conferences, including CHI, UIST, CSCW, ACL, and EMNLP, earning multiple Best Paper awards and nominations. He has collaborated with companies such as Google, Microsoft Research, and IBM Research, and his research is supported by organizations like NSF and the Google Research Scholar Program.

• 2023–present·University of Notre Dame·Assistant Professor
  • Teaching in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, leading the SaNDwich Lab with research focusing on Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Centered Responsible AI.
• 2024·Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society·Director of Human-Centered Responsible AI Lab
  • Leading a research team developing AI systems centered on social themes such as democracy, ethics, and health, promoting responsibility and inclusiveness in AI systems.

• 2015–2021·Carnegie Mellon University·Ph.D.
  • Field of Study: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Advisor: Brad A. Myers
• 2011–2015·University of Minnesota·B.S.
  • Field of Study: Computer Science
  • Graduated with honors, participated in GroupLens research group, under the advisement of Brent Hecht.