Abdallah "Abdo" El Ali
Research Scientist, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
Assistant Professor (part-time), Utrecht University
HCI researcher working on affective systems and human-AI interaction. Chair of CHI Nederland (CHI NL).
RESEARCH
- Human Augmentation and Affective Systems I envision and develop systems that augment and modify human perception and expression across physical and virtual environments. My work spans affective haptics, physiological sensing, VR embodiment, and multimodal interaction techniques that connect people with themselves and with each other.
- Trustworthy Human-AI Interaction I investigate how people perceive, trust, and interact with AI systems through behavioral and physiological signals. My work focuses on AI disclosures, LLM evaluation biases, and the design of transparent, human-centered AI interfaces for health, journalism, and everyday decision-making.
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. I recieved my master's degree in Cognitive Science from the University of Amsterdam.
NEWS
INVITED TALKS