Abdallah El Ali

Hi! My name is Abdallah (or Abdo for short). I am a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher with a background in Cognitive Science.

Currently: I am a (tenured) research scientist at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), within the Distributed & Interactive Systems (DIS) group. I am also an Assistant Professor (part-time) at Utrecht University, within the Multimedia group. At CWI DIS, I lead the research areas on Affective Interactive Systems and Trustworthy Human-AI Interaction. I am also affiliated with the AI, Media, and Democracy Lab, where I lead Human-AI Interaction research focusing on AI transparency in media. I am also currently Chair of CHI Nederland (CHI NL), the local Dutch SIGCHI chapter which we reinstated in August, 2020.

Previously: I did my Postdoc at the HCI Oldenburg lab, part of the Media Informatics and Multimedia Systems group at the University of Oldenburg / OFFIS (Germany). I received my PhD in Computer Science from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), working at the (former) Information and Language Processing Systems (ILPS) group.

RESEARCH

  • Affective Augmentation and Interaction: I envision and develop systems that augment our physical / virtual bodies and sensory perception across human-machine and human-human interactions, with a focus on affective haptics and interaction techniques that leverage physiological signals.
  • Trustworthy Human-AI Interaction: Despite all the benefits AI brings, the surge in fake media poses serious threats to a well functioning democratic society. As such, within the AI, Media, and Democracy Lab, I lead research efforts in developing more trustworthy and transparent AI systems, with a focus on AI system disclosures.

→ Check the Students page for master's thesis topics in HCI, Human-AI interaction, and/or Design Engineering.

NEWS

  • [Dec 2025] Attended MUM 2025 in Enna, Sicily
  • [Nov 2025] Three CHI '26 Meetups accepted: PhysioCHI, Multi-sensory dark patterns, inclusive design
  • [Nov 2025] Xin Sun successfully defends his PhD thesis on explainable health interventions and transparent information seeking
  • [Oct 2025] Serving as invited expert for WG 2 for EU AI Office Code of Practice on transparent AI systems, European Commission
  • [Sept 2025] Gave talk on human-centric AI system disclosures for transparent Human-AI interaction at the Human-Centered AI Seminar at CSIRO's Data61
  • [Sept 2025] Attended EU Technical AI Office Workshop on Transparency in AI-generated content
  • [Aug 2025] CSCW 2025 full paper accepted on aligning LLMs with expert input for psychotherapy
  • [Jun 2025] Our CHIWORK 2025 demo on Dark Haptics in XR advertising won the Best Demo Award!
  • [Jun 2025] CHIWORK 2025 at CWI in Amsterdam was a success (and fun too)!
  • [May 2025] Will serve as CHI '26 Workshops Co-chair
  • [Apr 2025] We will hold a pre-CHI '25 lab tour at NAIST on April 24, 2025
  • [Apr 2025] Gave lecture to students on affective haptics for human augmentation at Nagoya University seminar
  • [Apr 2025] Gave lecture to students on human-centric AI system disclosures for transparent Human-AI interaction at NAIST Colloquium A
  • [Mar 2025] Currently in Nara, Japan, on a two-months JSPS Research Fellowship grant to visit the Cybernetics and Reality Engineering (CARE) lab at NAIST, working with Monica Perusquía-Hernández and Kiyoshi Kiyokawa
  • [Mar 2025] Will give a talk on developing intelligent human-centric AI disclosures for transparent Human-AI interaction at the LMU Media Informatics Seminar
  • [Jan 2025] ERCIM Report: Towards a Shared AI Strategy for European Digital Science Institutes and Organisations is published! I presented our work on AI system disclosures and GenAI risks
  • [Jan 2025] Humanitarian AI podcast with Brent Phillips and Ahmad Tafti where we discuss Human Machine Interaction and AI Transparency
  • [Dec 2024] Our MUM 2024 demo MobiTouch won the Best Demo Award!