CV last updated in October of 2025 [pdf on Dropbox]
Austin Toombs
(765) 620-9825 | altoombs@iu.edu | austintoombs.com
Education
May 2016 Indiana University—Bloomington, IN
Ph.D. Informatics, Human Computer Interaction Design
Minor: Inquiry Methodology
Dissertation: Care and the Construction of Hacker Identities, Communities, and Society
Co-chairs: Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell
May 2012 Indiana University—Bloomington, IN
M.S. Human Computer Interaction Design
May 2010 Ball State University—Muncie, IN
B.S. Computer Science
Minor: Mathematics
Professional and Teaching Experience
2023—present Associate Professor, Indiana University
Department of Informatics, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
2017—2023 Assistant Professor, Purdue University
Department of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue Polytechnic Institute
2016—2017 Research Associate, Newcastle University
Postdoctoral researcher at Open Lab
2016 Adjunct Faculty, Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
INFO-H564 Prototyping for Interactive Systems
2015 Lecturer, Indiana University
INFO-I310 Multimedia Arts and Technology
2011—2015 Graduate Research Assistant, Indiana University
Developed physical prototypes and data visualizations. Conducted interviews, focus groups, and a long-term ethnography. Created, organized, and led design and research workshops. Analyzed and coded qualitative data.
2010—2013 Associate Instructor, Indiana University
INFO-I494 Informatics Capstone
INFO-I542 Foundations of HCI
INFO-I590 Advanced Prototyping. Developed curriculum and taught physical computing concepts using Arduino, Intel Perceptual Camera, and Lilypad.
Summer 2011 Intern of Applied Research, LexisNexis
Developed interactive and dynamic mockups for mobile versions of LexisNexis systems. Developed information visualization techniques to be used in analyzing user experience reports. Translated user experience reports into interaction design implications.
2010 Teaching Assistant, Ball State University
CS345 Human-Computer Interfaces
Summer 2009 Research Assistant, Ball State University
Developed a curriculum visualization software application for use in higher education.
Summer 2008 Software Developer, Institute for Digital Entertainment and Education
Developed commercial software for multi-media, interactive presentations and demonstrations.
Other Affiliations
2023—Present Visiting Scholar, Northumbria University
Affiliated with the Northumbria Social Computing (NorSC) research group
2019—2021 External Research Collaborator, Facebook
Research and consulting work for the Identity, Groups, and Community teams within Facebook
2017—Present Guest Professor, Beijing Normal University
Affiliated with the Beijing Normal University User Experience Program in the School of Applied Psychology
2017—2023 Visiting Researcher, Newcastle University
Affiliated with Open Lab in the School of Computing
Awarded Funding
External
2024-ongoing. PI Toombs, A. L. (2024). Funded amount: $557,077. Design Strategies to Facilitate Implicit Care in Online Communities. National Science Foundation: HCC. (Grant Period: 2025-2028). [NSF Award Information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2432286]
2024-ongoing. PI Gray, C. M., & Co-PI Toombs, A. L. (2024). Full funded amount: $449,913. Investigator credit: $224,956.5. IRES: Digital Civics Exchange (DCX) for Citizen-Centered Artificial Intelligence. National Science Foundation: OISE. (Grant Period: 2024-2027). [NSF Award Information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2420110]
2024-2025. Primary Applicant Carter, A. Co-Applicant Toombs, A. L. (2024). Funded amount: £2,920. Strengthening Community Bonds and Cross-Institutional Collaborations. Funded by The Royal Society International Exchanges program.
2023-ongoing. PI MacDermid Wadsworth, S., Co-I Broniarczyk, K., Co-I Christ, S., Co-I Toombs, A. L., Co-I Topp, D. (2022). Full funded amount: $1,294,062.00. Investigator credit: $258,812.40. Turning Training into Action: Translating Training of Behavioral Health Providers into Evidence-Based Practices. Funded by the Department of Defense. [DoD Award Information: https://dtic.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.13741181]
2022-2023. Co-PI Toombs, A. L. and Hartman, N. (2022). Funded amount: $150,000.00. Investigation of Minimum Information Model for a Model-Based Definition. Funded by the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network.
Internal
2022-2023. Full funded amount: $50,000.00. Investigator credit: $5,000.00. “Families Tackling Tough Times Together: Empowering Family Resilience in Indiana’s At-Risk Families.” Funded by AgSEED – Agricultural Research and Extension Leading to Economic Development in Indiana Agriculture and Rural Communities.
2020. Funded amount: $8,000.00. “Emerging Best Practices for Ad Hoc Socio-technical Infrastructures in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Funded by the Purdue Research Foundation.
2019-2021. Funded amount: $100,000.00. “Supporting Human-Human Communication in Remote Co-Located Contexts with Robots (Postdoc funding for two years).” Funded by the Polytechnic Research Impact Areas.
2021. Full funded amount: $8,000.00. Investigator credit: $3,000.00. “Virtual Experiential Intercultural Learning (VEIL) program to connect Purdue UX students with the Department of Computing & Information Sciences at Northumbria University.” Funded by the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment, and Research.
2018-2019. Total award amount: $40,000.00. Investigator credit: $20,000.00. “Revitalizing Rural Communities.” Funded by the Purdue Polytechnic Office of Research.
2018-2019. Award amount: $6,500.00. “Affordable Housing: Needs-Finding Project.” Funded by the Purdue Polytechnic Office of Research.
Journal Publications
Rosenberger, C. A., Elias, C., Ruiz, Y., Toombs, A. L., Lee, S., Marceau, K., MacDermid Wadsworth, S., Kimiecik, C., Millspaugh, L., Cloutier, C., Rutherford, L., Che, L., & McCormick, C. E.B. (2024). Community members as design partners: Codesign workshops of the families tackling tough times together program. Family Relations, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13072
Marceau, K., Kimiecik, C., Ruiz, Y., McCormick, C., Toombs, A., Elias, C., Lalani, N., & Wadsworth, S. M. (2023). Emerging Ideas. Families Together: Supporting family resilience during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Family Relations.
Goffe, L., Chivukula, S. S., Bowyer, A., Bowen, S., Toombs, A. L., & Gray, C. M. (2022). Web Augmentation for Well-being: The Human-Centred Design of a Takeaway Food Ordering Digital Platform. Interacting with Computers, 33(4), 335-352.
Toombs, A. L., Lee, A., Guo, Z., Buls, J., Westbrook, A., Carr, I., Wu, Y., & LaPeter, M. (2022). " We’re so much more than the in-game clan": Gaming Experiences and Group Management in Multi-Space Online Communities. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW2), 1-29.
Liu, W., Lee, K.-P., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., Chen, K.-H., van der Helm, A., & Leifer, L. (2021). Transdisciplinary Teaching and Learning in UX Design: A Review and AR Case Studies. Applied Sciences (SI: State-of-the-Art in Human Factors and Interaction Design).
Gray, C. M., Parsons, P., Toombs, A. L., Rasche, N., & Vorvoreanu, M. (2020). Designing an Aesthetic Learner Experience: UX, Instructional Design, and Design Pedagogy. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 11(1), 41-58.
Lee, A., Toombs, A. L., Erickson, I., Nemer, D., Ho, Y., Jo, E., Guo, Z. (2019). The Social Infrastructure of Co-Spaces: Home, Work, and Sociable Places for Digital Nomads. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (CSCW), 1-23.
Bardzell, J., Bardzell, S. Lin, C., Lindtner, S., & Toombs, A. (2018). HCI’s Making Agendas. Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 126–200, 2017. DOI: 10.1561/1100000066
Kou, Y., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Adams, R. S. (2018). Understanding social roles in an online community of volatile practice: A study of user experience practitioners on reddit. ACM Transactions on Social Computing, 1(4), 1-22.
Toombs, A. L., Gross, S., Bardzell, S., Bardzell, J. (2016). From Empathy to Care: A Feminist Care Ethics Perspective on Long-Term Researcher-Subject Relations. Interacting with Computers: Special Issue “Ethics Matter(s)” 29(1), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iww010
Toombs, A. L., Bardzell, S., and Bardzell, J. (2014). Becoming Makers: Hackerspace Member Habits, Values, and Identities. Journal of Peer Production, 5.
Gestwicki, P., Haddad, A., Toombs, A. L., & Sun, F. (2009). An Experience Report and Analysis of Java Technologies in Undergraduate Game Programming Courses. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 25(1), 102-108.
Conference Proceedings
Peer Reviewed Full Papers
Naik, S., Toombs, A. L., Snellinger, A., Saponas, S., & Hall, A. K. (2025). Designing with Multi-Agent Generative AI: Insights from Industry Early Adopters. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1961–1972. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735823
Park, S., DeVine, T. A., & Toombs, A. L. (2025). Stuck in Translation: Reflexive Practice in Queer HCI Research from Non-Western Perspectives. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 644, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3716236
Parsons, P. C. & Toombs, A. L. (2025). Teaching to Fail (Before It Happens): Premortem as a Pedagogical Strategy in HCI Education. In Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 14, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3742901.3742908
Toombs, A. L., Parsons, P. C., Gray, C. M., El-Shamy, J., & Ostrowski, A. K. (2025). The Ambiguity Amoeba and other Metaphors: Teaching Students to Sketch and Prototype Through Uncertainty. In Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 16, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/3742901.3742916
Gray, C. M., & Toombs, A. L. (2024, June). Themes, Lenses, and Materials: Three Perspectives on HCI Program Development. EduCHI 2024: 6th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI ’24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3658619.3658622
Obi, I., Naik, S., Gray, C. M., Parsons, P. C., Toombs, A. L., Jo, M., & Mondan, P. (2024, June). Metacognitive Strategies to Foster Interculturally-Aware Design Competency. EduCHI 2024: 6th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI ’24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3658619.3658624
Toombs, A. L., & Parsons, P. C. (2024, June). Navigating Complexity: Implementing a “Buckets and Lenses” Approach to cultivate Adaptive Thinkers in HCI. EduCHI 2024: 6th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI ’24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3658619.3658625
Goffe, L.*, Chivukula, S. S.G*, Bowyer, A.G, Bowen, S., Toombs, A. L., & Gray, C. M. (2021). Appetite for Disruption: Designing Human-Centred Augmentations to an Online Food Ordering Platform. British HCI 2021. doi: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2021.16.
Zhu, J., Gray, C. M., & Toombs, A. L. (2021). Building a Cross-Cultural UX Design Dual Degree. IASDR 2021: The Ninth Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research. IASDR.
Li, Z., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., McDonald, K., Marinovic, L., & Liu, W. (2021). Cross-Cultural UX Pedagogy: A China-US Partnership. In E. Bohemia, L. M. Nielsen, L. Pan, N. A. G. Z. Börekçi, & Y. Zhang (Eds.), Proceedings of the DRS Learn X Design 2021: 6th International Conference for Design Education Researchers (Vol. 2, pp. 439–450). Design Research Society. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.11.170
Jo, E., Toombs, A. L., Gray, C. M., & Hong, H. (2020). Understanding Parenting Stress through Co-designed Self-Trackers. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’20). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Toombs, A. L., Whitley, D., & Gray, C. M. (2020). Autono-preneurial Agents in the Community: Developing a Socially Aware API for Autonomous Entrepreneurial Lawn Mowers. In Companion of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP ’20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 69-82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3323994.3369900
Watkins, C. R., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Parsons, P. (2020). Tensions in Enacting a Design Philosophy in UX Practice. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 2107-2118).
Talhouk, R., Balaam, M., Toombs, A. L., Garbett, A., Akik, C., Ghattas, H., Araujo-Soares, V., Ahmad, B., & Montague, K. (2019, June). Involving Syrian refugees in design research: Lessons learnt from the field. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 1583-1594).
Gray, C. M., Kou, K., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., & Toombs, A. L. (2018). The Dark (Patterns) Side of UX Design. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 534, 14 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174108
Kou, Y., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Adams, R. S. (2018). Knowledge Production and Social Roles in an Online Community of Emerging Occupation: A Study of User Experience Practitioners on Reddit. In Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 2068-2077). Waikoloa Village, HI. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/50148
Kou, Y. Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Nardi, B. (2018). The Politics of Titling: The Representation of Countries in CHI Papers. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper alt16, 10 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188409
Strohmayer, A., Bellini, R., Meissner, J., Finnigan, S. M., Alabdulqader, E., Toombs, A. L., & Balaam, M. (2018). #CHIversity: Implications for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Campaigns. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper alt03, 10 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188396
Toombs, A. L., Morrissey, K., Simpson, E., Gray, C. M., Vines, J., & Balaam, M. (2018). Supporting the Complex Social Lives of New Parents. In CHI’18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173994
Toombs, A. L., (2017). Hackerspace Tropes, Identities, and Community Values. In DIS’17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems. (pp.1079-1091). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064760 [Awarded Best Paper, top 1%]
Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & McKay, C. (2016). Meaning Reconstruction as an Approach to Analyze Critical Dimensions of HCI Research. In CHI EA ’16: CHI’16 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 328-340). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2892571
Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Gross, S. (2015). Flow of Competence in UX Design Practice. In CHI’15: Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY: ACM Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702579 [Received the SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award, top 5%]
Toombs, A. L., Bardzell, S., & Bardzell, J. (2015). The Proper Care and Feeding of Hackerspaces: Care Ethics and Cultures of Making. In CHI’15: Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702522 [Received the SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award, top 5%]
Pace, T., Toombs, A. L., Gross, S., Pattin, T., Bardzell, J., & Bardzell, S. (2013). A tribute to Mad Skill: Expert Amateur Visuality and World of Warcraft Machinima. In CHI’13: Proceedings of the 2013 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2019-2028). New York, NY: ACM Press.
Bardzell, S., Gross, S., Wain, J., Toombs, A. L., & Bardzell, J. (2011). The Significant Screwdriver: Care, Domestic Masculinity, and Interaction Design. In Proceedings of the 25th BCS Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 371-377). Swinton, UK: British Computer Society.
Peer Reviewed Short Papers and Posters
DeVine, T. A., Clark, M., Dong, J., Fowler, J., & Toombs, A. L. (2025). Identity Boards: Exploring Use of Mixed Media Expression in Online Queer Spaces. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 874, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720307
Lee, S., Marceau, K ., Rosenberger, C.A., Elias, C., Toombs, A., Ruiz, Y., McCormick, C., & MacDermid Wadsworth, S. (2025). Families Tackling Tough Times Together (FT): How packet usage time impacts family resilience. [Poster Presentation] Society for Research in Child Development. Minneapolis, MN.
Naik, S., Snellinger, A., Toombs, A. L., Hall, A. K., Saponas, S. (2025). Exploring Early Adopters’ Use of AI Driven Multi-Agent Systems to Inform Human-Agent Interaction Design: Insights from Industry Practice. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 677, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3706693
Clepper, G., Martinez, J. S., Farooq, A., Allred, A. M., McDonald, K., Carr, I., Toombs, A. L., & Tan, H. Z. (2020). Feeling Creepy: A Haptic Haunted House (Demo). In IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020. IEEE.
Lee, A., & Toombs, A. L. (2020,). Robots on Campus: Understanding Public Perception of Robots using Social Media. In Conference Companion Publication of the 2020 on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 305-309).
Parsons, P., Gray, C. M., Rasche, N. J., & Toombs, A. L. (2020). Vertical Integration in UX Design Studios. 2nd Annual ACM SIGCHI Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI 2020).
Lee, A., Toombs, A. L., & Erickson, I. (2019). Infrastructure vs. Community: Co-Spaces Confront Digital Nomads’ Paradoxical Needs. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’19). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Murdoch-Kitt, K., Gray, C. M., Parsons, P., Toombs, A. L., Louw, M., & Van Gent, E. (2019). Developing Students’ Instrumental Judgment Capacity for Design Research Methods. Dialogue: Proceedings of the AIGA Design Educators Community Conferences (Decipher, Vol. 1) (pp. 108-115). doi: 10.3998/mpub.11688977.
Toombs, A. L., Davidge, M. A., Park, J., Sirko, G., & LaPeter, M. (2019, November). Algorithmically-Generated Communities: A Case Study. In Conference Companion Publication of the 2019 on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 387-391).
Toombs, A. L., Gray, C. M., Zhou, G., & Light, A. (2018). Appropriated or Inauthentic Care in Gig-Economy Platforms: A Psycho-linguistic Analysis of Uber and Lyft. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper LBW532, 6 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188657
Townshend, J., Hayes, L., Hails, S., Toombs, A. L., & Balaam, M. (2018). Development of an online resource to support paedaitric asthma management: www.beatasthma.co.uk. European Respiratory Journal, 52, PA3134. DOI: 10.1183/13993003.congress-2018.PA3134
Bardzell, J., Bardzell, S., & Toombs, A. L. (2014). “Now that’s definitely a proper hack”: Self-made Tools in Hackerspaces. In CHI’14: Proceedings of the 2014 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 473-476). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557221 [Received the SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award, top 5%]
Invited or Juried
Marceau, K., Kimiecik, C., Ruiz, Y., McCormick, C., MacDermid Wadsworth, S., Toombs, A., Elias, C., & Lalani, N. (2021). Families Together: How Families Used a Program to Build Family Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2021 National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference. Virtual.
Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., Light, A., & Vines, J. (2018). Ethics, Values, and Designer Responsibility. Proceedings of the Design Research Society, 1.
Toombs, A. L. (2015). Enacting Care Through Collaboration in Communities of Makers. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference Companion on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW’15 Companion, Doctoral Consortium paper) (pp. 81-84). New York, NY: ACM Press. doi:10.1145/2685553.2699326
Gross, S., Toombs, A. L., Wain, J., & Walorski, K. (2011). Foodmunity: Designing Community Interactions Over Food. In CHI ’11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1019-1024). New York, NY: ACM Press.
Trade Publications
Soden, R., Toombs, A. L., and Thomas, M. (2024). Evaluating Interpretive Research in HCI. interactions 31, 1 (January/February 2024), 38-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3633200
MacDermid Wadsworth, S., Toombs, A. L., Lalani, N. S., Ruiz, Y., Marceau, K., Mccormick, C. E. B., & Elias, C. M. (2021). Supporting Family Resilience in the Context of Disasters (4th ed., vol. 66). Saint Paul, MN: National Council on Family Relations., https://www.ncfr.org/ncfr-report/winter-2021/supporting-family-resilience-context-disasters.
Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., Owczarzak, M., & Watkins, C. (2019). Digital civics goes abroad. Interactions, 26(2), 74-77.
Toombs, A. L., Ferri, G., Grimme, S., Gross, S., Stallings, M. D., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2016). Making a critical playshop. interactions 24, 1 (December 2016), 34-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3019006
Book Chapters
Gray, C. M., Williams, R. M., Parsons, P., Toombs, A. L., & Westbrook, A. (2023). Trajectories of Student Engagement with Social Justice-Informed Design Work. In: Hokanson, B., Exter, M., Schmidt, M.M., Tawfik, A.A. (eds). Toward Inclusive Learning Design: Social Justice, Equity, and Community. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37697-9_22
Gray, C. M., Parsons, P., & Toombs, A. L. (2020). Building a holistic design identity through integrated studio education. In Educational Technology Beyond Content (pp. 43-55). Springer, Cham.
Toombs, A. L., Bardzell, S., and Bardzell, J. (2014). Becoming Makers: Hackerspace Member Habits, Values, and Identities. In J. Söderberg & Maxigas (Eds.) Book of Peer Production: Special FSCONS Edition (pp. 36-45). Aarhus, DK: NSU Press. [Invited from Special Issue of Journal of Peer Production]
Workshops Convened
Toombs, A. L., Carter, A., Montague, K., Scott, L., & Gray, C. M. (2025). Building Better Together: Speculating on Collaboration through LEGO and Digital Civics. Second annual Digital Civics Exchange conference, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. https://sites.google.com/view/digital-civics-exchange-2025/attending/programme
Toombs, A. L., Montague, K., Wong, R. Y., Brewer, R. N., Naik, S., Parsons, P. C., Sabanovic, S., & Whitley, D. (2025). “Oops, PAIA did it again”: Navigating Future Social Boundaries with Personal AI Assistant That Talk to Us and Each Other. Workshop convened at iConference 2025 in Bloomington, IN. https://www.ischools.org/iconference-2025-workshops
Toombs, A. L., Montague, K., Wong, R. Y., Brewer, R. N., Naik, S., Parsons, P. C., Sabanovic, S., & Whitley, D. (2024, November). Future Dialogues: Personal AI Assistants and Their Interactions with Us and Each Other. In Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW Companion ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 675–678. https://doi.org/10.1145/3678884.3687139
Toombs, A. L., Montague, K., Naik, S., & Parsons, P. (2024). “How Will I Know If He Really Loves Me?”: A Speculative World-Building Workshop About AI, Communication, and Future Human-Human Relationships. First annual Digital Civics Exchange conference, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. https://sites.google.com/view/digital-civics-exchange-2024/attending/programme
Karusala, N., Ismail, A., Bhat, K., Gautam, A., Pendse, S., Kumar, N., Anderson, R., Balaam, M., Bardzell, S., Bidwell, N. J., Densmore, M., Kaziunas, E., Piper, A. M., Raval, N., Singh, P., Toombs, A. L., Verdezoto, N., & Wang, D. (2021). The Future of Care Work: Towards a Radical Politics of Care in CSCW Research and Practice. In Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW ’21 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 338–342. https://doi.org/10.1145/3462204.3481734
Gray, C. M., Chivukula, S. S., Toombs, A. L., & Light, A. (2018). Visualizing Values to Analyze Designers’ Ethical Responsibility. Design Research Society. Limerick, Ireland.
Toombs, A. L., Devendorf, L., Shih, P., Kaziunas, E., Nemer, D., Mentis, H., & Forlano, L. (2018). Sociotechnical Systems of Care. In Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW ’18 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 479–485. https://doi.org/10.1145/3272973.3273010
Toombs, A. L., Dow, A., Vines, J., Gray, C. M., Dennis, B., Clarke, R., & Light, A. (2018). Designing for Everyday Care in Communities. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ’18 Companion). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 391-394. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3197394
Lazar, A., Toombs, A. L., Morrissey, K., Kenning, G., Boger, J., & Brankaert, R. (2018). HCIxDementia Workshop: Engaging People Living with Dementia. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper W01, 7 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3170613
Morrissey, K., Toombs, A. L., Lazar, A., and Boger, J. (2017). HCIxDementia: The Role of Technology & Design in Dementia. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’17). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3027083
Peer Reviewed Conference Presentations
Gray, C. M., & Toombs, A. L. (2018, April). Forming a Design Identity in Computing Education Through Reflection and Peer Interaction. Paper Session at the 2018 AERA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX.
Lalani, N., Elias, C., Toombs, A., Marceau, K., McCormick, C., Ruiz, Y., MacDermid Wadsworth, S. (2021). Building a Large-Scale, Public-Facing Family Resilience Development Program During a Pandemic. National Council on Family Relations Family Life Education Summit. Virtual.
Nemer, D., & Toombs, A. L. (2019). Care and Emotional Labor in the Gig Economy. Power Struggles in the Digital Economy. Panel Discussion at Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). New Orleans, LA.
Toombs, A. L. Informal, Implicit, Interpersonal Care in Sociotechnical Systems. Refereed panel presentation for CSST (Consortium for the Sciences of the Sociotechnical) 2018. Ann Arbor, MI.
Invited Talks and Presentations
2025, July 30. Toombs, A. L. Balancing Theory and Practice in HCI Classrooms. Invited lecture for the eduCHI 2025 Pedagogy Workshop.
2021, August 31. Toombs, A. L. Introduction to User Experience Design. Guest lecture for Agricultural Informatics, taught by Ankita Raturi as a joint course between Purdue University and University of Kentucky.
2021, March 26. Toombs, A. L. Unpacking Parent Experiences with Family-Focused Digital Communities and Social Tools. Invited talk for the Human Development and Family Studies department and the Military Family Research Institute.
2021, January 27. Toombs, A. L. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. Guest lecture for TECH 601. Purdue University.
2020, September 2. Toombs, A. L. Introduction to HCI and UX Research. Guest lecture for the College of Health and Human Sciences and invited judge for their Protect Purdue campaign initiative. Purdue University.
2020, June 9. Toombs, A. L. Faculty Panel: Design Thinking in the Polytechnic (UX). Invited panelist for a recruiting event for the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
2020, May 13. Toombs, A. L. “We’re so much more than the in-game clan”: how a game session scheduling platform created hundreds of online communities. Invited talk for an event called “Connecting in the community: Digital technology and built environment approaches to preventing mental health problems,” Hosted by the Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health Research Network. London, United Kingdom.
2019, March 14. Toombs, A. L. and Colin M. Gray. Practical Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry. Invited workshop for PhD students to learn qualitative research methods. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
2019, March 13. Toombs, A. L. Ideas in progress: What can HCI and CSCW scholars learn from algorithmically defined communities? Invited talk for NORTH Lab Talks. Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
2019, March 11. Toombs, A. L. Interaction Design – Prototyping. Guest lecture about interaction design prototyping techniques. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
2018, June 4. Gray, C. M., Parsons, P., & Toombs, A. L. The Integrated Design Studio as an Approach to Transdisciplinary Design Learning. Invited presentation for the Polytechnic Summit. UTEC, Lima, Peru.
2018, January 26. Toombs, A. L. From Hackerspaces to Parent Groups: Everyday Care in Sociotechnical Communities. Invited talk for SIS Talks. University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
2017, July 17. Gray C. M., & Toombs, A. L. Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic Analysis, Meaning Reconstruction, and Data Management. Invited workshop for Open Lab. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
2016, November 18. Gray, C. M., & Toombs, A. L. Tracing Meaning-Making Through Reconstructive Analysis. Invited talk for the Participatory Information Technology Colloquium. Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
2013, October 8. Toombs, A. L. Expert Amateur Visual Practices in WoW Machinima. Guest Lecture for INFO-I310: Media, Arts, and Technology. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
2013, October 7, 14, & 21. Toombs, A. L. Interactive Prototyping with Sensors. Guest Lecture for INFO-I590: Advanced Prototyping. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
2013, October 3. Toombs, A. L. Self-Made Tools in Hackerspaces. Invited speaker for the IU Makes Lecture Series. Bloomington, IN.
Invited Research Institute
2015. Summer Institute, Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST). Florissant, CO.
Courses Taught, Ordered by University and Recency
New course developed = **; Course significantly redesigned = *
Indiana University
Studio Practice (INFO-I 590). Fall 2024, 2025.
User Experience Design UK (INFO-I 590, 400, 609). Summer 2024**, 2025.
Interaction Design Methods (INFO-I 543). Spring 2024*, 2025.
Introduction to HCI/d (INFO-I 541). Fall 2023*.
Prototyping for Interactive Systems (INFO-H 564). Adjunct Lecturer for IUPUI. Spring 2016*.
Multimedia Arts and Technology (INFO-I 310). Lecturer for Indiana University. Fall 2015.
Purdue University
Digital Civics and UX Design (SA 10923 / SA 590). Summer 2018**, 2019, 2022, 2023.
UXD Studio V: Specialization (CGT 37208). Spring 2019, 2022, 2023.
Experience Studio (CGT 17207 / 27207 / 37207 / 57207, a vertically integrated course). Fall 2022*. Spring 2023.
UX Design Graduate Studio I: Fundamentals (CGT 52200). Fall 2019, 2022.
Qualitative Research Methods for Technology Studies. Spring 2018**, 2020. Fall 2021, 2022.
UX Design Graduate Studio II: Cross-Channel (CGT 53200). Spring 2019*, 2020, 2021, 2022.
UXD Studio IV: Strategy (CGT 37108). Fall 2017**, 2018, 2019, 2020*, 2021.
UXD Studio III: Cross-Channel (CGT 27208). Spring 2018*, 2019, 2020, 2021.
UXD Graduate Capstone (CGT 59700). Spring 2021.
Online Communities and Digital Relationships (CGT 37108). Fall 2020*.
Foundational Readings of UX Design (CGT 512). Fall 2018.
Beijing Normal University
Tangible Embodied Interaction. Invited course taught at Beijing Normal University. Summer 2019, 2020 (online)*, 2021 (online), 2022 (online), 2023 (online), 2024.
Advising and Mentorship
Postdoctoral Research Supervision
2018-2020. Ahreum Lee.
PhD Committee Chair
2025-present. Xinyun Zhang. PhD Student. Anticipated completion in Spring 2030.
2024-present. Tilar Manion. PhD Student. Anticipated completion in Spring 2029.
2024-present. Seora Park. PhD Student. Anticipated completion in Spring 2028.
2022-2025. Aswin Pranam. D-Tech Candidate. Currently on a leave of absence.
2021-present. Suchismita Naik. PhD Candidate. Anticipated completion in Spring 2026.
PhD Committee member
2025-present. Sarah Braunstein. Anticipated completion in Spring 2028.
2025-present. Jingyao (Joan) Cen. Anticipated completion in Spring 2028.
2024-present. Nayah Boucaud. Function, Form, and Meaning: An Epistemology of Computation. Other members: Nathan Ensmenger (chair), Colin M. Gray, Elizabeth Kaziunas, and Mary Jean Amon. Anticipated completion in Fall 2025.
2021-2022. Aparajita Jaiswal. Characterizing the Learning, Sociology, and Identity Effects of Participating in the Data Mine. Other members: Alejandra J. Magana (chair), Ida B. Ngambeki, and Mark D. Ward.
2017-2021. Shruthi Chivukula. Designing for Co-Creation to Engage Multiple Perspectives on Ethics in Technology Practice. Other members: Colin M. Gray (chair), Paul Parsons, and Katie Shilton.
Master’s Capstones, Theses, and Directed Projects
2022-2023. Individual Master’s capstone jury member for Ali Aamir, Harsheil Arora, Qimei Fu, Moonyung Jo, Noverah Khan, Raza Khawaja, Samruddhi Kokate, Hongda Li, Ziqing Li, Bhavya Parashar, Viswamber Chandapatla, Faseeh Rehman, Azaria Evereza, Jakrin Sirimongkolkasem, Meng-Yu Wun.
2021-2022. Individual Master’s capstone jury member for Rachel Anderson, Dyuti Chakravarthy, Lea Darrah, Daniel Madrinan Chiquito, Lukas Marinovic, Kushal Nerella, Chorong Park, Maddisen Sharpe, Christopher Wolford, Ye Yang, and Yue Zhao.
2020-2022. Master’s thesis committee for Nigel Wilson. Other members: Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar (chair) and Marcus Rogers.
2019-2021. Individual Master’s capstone chair for Praveen Kumar Bhardwaj, Nasya Vaz, and Yuqing Wu. Jury member for Prince Owusu Attah, Prakash Shukla, Ian Carr, Aiza Hasib, Anushka Jain, Saad Jamal, and Aiza Hasib.
2018-2020. Individual Master’s capstone jury member for Alyse Marie Sun Joo Allred, Yibo Fan, Zhuang Guo, Shalini Patel, Matthew Winger, Yu-Chuan Chen, Jingning Chen, Varanya (Wave) Upatising, Yu-Chuan Chen, and Jee Yan Lim.
2019-2020. Master’s thesis committee for Myeonghan Ryu. Other members: Paul Parsons (chair) and Brandon Pitts.
2018-2019. Master’s thesis chair for Eunkyung Jo. Other members: Colin M. Gray and Hwajung Hong.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Michael Saenz. Other members: Paul Parsons (chair) and Brandon Pitts.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Qinghen Zhou. Other members: Colin M. Gray (chair) and Daniel Triplett.
2018-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Allison Hopkins. Other members: David Whittinghill (chair) and Eyal Ofek.
2018. Supervised YuShen Ho and Marlo Owczarzak’s Master’s research internship. Affordable Housing Needs-Finding Project.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Yu-Shen Ho. Other members: Paul Parsons (chair) and Vetria Byrd.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Lingyi Zhang. Other members: Paul Parsons (chair) and Mihaela Vorvoreanu.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Marlo Owczarzak. Other members: Paul Parsons (chair) and Colin M. Gray.
2017-2019. Master’s thesis committee for Christopher Watkins. Other members: Colin M. Gray (chair) and Paul Parsons.
Undergraduate Directed Research Projects
2022. Primary advisor for a directed research project. Small Group User Experience Design. Student Participants: Suchismita Naik, Jen Nazareth, Angela Zhou, and Jared Buls.
2021. Primary advisor for a directed research project. Qualitative Analysis of the Families Tackling Tough Times Together Program. Student participants: Kaitlyn Tran, Sarah Arnold, Elena Stanczykiewicz, Madison Gritton, Madeline Moser. Other members: Dr. Cezanne Elias, Dr. Yumary Ruiz, Dr. Nasreen Lalani, Dr. Kristine Marceau, and Dr. Shelly MacDermid Wadsworth.
2021. Co-chair with Colin M. Gray of a directed intercultural learning project through the VEIL (Virtual Experiential Intercultural Learning) program to replace a UK Study Abroad. Data Ethics in the US and the UK. Kaitlin Groothuis, Connor Schrank, Matthew Will, Veronica Tasang, James Chang, Hitachi Hu, Shryansi Jain, and Zach Nahorski.
2021. Co-chair with Colin M. Gray of a directed intercultural learning project through the VEIL (Virtual Experiential Intercultural Learning) program to replace a China Study Abroad. Mobile banking for Generation Z in the US and China. Alicia Zhang, Colin Mulron, Emily Duh, Janhavi Shah, Angela Zhou, Erica Kim, Jensen Burr, Samantha Hayden, and Toyin Awosanya.
2019-2020. Supervised Abagail Westbrook’s undergraduate research internship. Investigating Place-Making at the Northend Community Center and MatchBOX.
2019. Supervised Michael Davidge, Gregory Sirko, and Jeongjin Park’s undergraduate research internship. Algorithmically Generated Communities: A case study of the100.io.
2019. Supervised Juliet Jimenez, Abagail Westbrook, and Gregory Sirko’s undergraduate research internship. Community Informatics Interventions for Mental Health and Wellbeing.
2018-2019. Supervised Yuqing Wu’s undergraduate research internship. Communication Barriers of International Students.
Undergraduate Capstone Projects Advised
Spring 2020. CGT Capstone. Austin Wiley Johnson, Benjamin Frailey, Connor Shrank, and Colin Mulron.
Fall 2019. CGT Capstone. Abagail Westbrook, Simmi Bansal, Meena Nanduri, and Elizabeth Finley.
Fall 2019. CGT Capstone. Drake Long, Delaney Rundell, Jai Tudoe, and Caleb Honegger.
Fall 2019. CGT Capstone. Kevin McDonald, Kassandra Melkey, Megan Ledford, and Paul Renner.
Spring 2019. CGT Capstone. Jessie Zhou, Stefani Sandoval, Kelsee Wendling, and Mason Harmon.
Spring 2019. CGT Capstone. Michael Davidge, David Bae, Nick Fresh, and Rylie Nichol.
Fall 2018. CGT Capstone. Stephen Binstock, Sarah Richards, David Shin-Bae, and Collin Nguyen.
Fall 2018. CGT Capstone. Abby Perez, Ferdinand Macatangay, Julian Amado, and McKenzie Landorf.
Fall 2017. CGT Capstone. Nicholas Gould, Kaela Disney, Jiacheng Wang, and Tianrui Liu.
Awards
2023. Exceptional Early Career Award for Undergraduate Teaching from the Department of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University.
2021. Corps of Engagement Award for Families Tackling Tough Times Together program, Steering Committee member, Purdue University.
2021. Faculty Engagement Award for Families Tackling Tough Times Together program, Steering Committee member, College of Health and Human Sciences.
2021. Outstanding Design Case Award, AERA SIG Design and Technology.
2019. Recognition for Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion, DIS | C&C Diversity and Accessibility Co-Chairs.
2017. Best Paper Award, ACM DIS Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.
2015. 2 x Best Paper Award Nominations, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
2014. Best Paper Award Nomination, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Professional External Service
Editor
2021. Guest editor for a special issue of Multimodal Technologies and Interaction titled Impact of Digital Technologies on Communities.
Program Committee
2025. Local organizing committee for EduCHI 2025. Co-Organizer of Digital Civics Exchange (DCX) 2025.
2024. Co-Organizer of Digital Civics Exchange (DCX) 2024.
2023. Program committee member for the Citizen-Centric AI special track at GoodIT’23.
2021. Posters Co-Chair for CSCW’21.
2018. Track Organizer for Design Research Society (DRS) 2018.
Associate Chair (includes reviewing)
2025. Associate Chair for DIS’25, CHI’26, GROUP’27 (first round of paper submissions).
2024. Associate Chair for CHI’25, CSCW’25, and GROUP’25 (second round of paper submissions).
2023. Associate Chair for CHI’24 (2 special recognitions for outstanding reviews) and GROUP’25.
2021. Associate Chair for CSCW and CHI’22.
2020. Associate Chair for CHI’21 (2 special recognitions for outstanding reviews) and DIS’20 (special recognition for an outstanding review).
2019. Associate Chair for CHI’20 (special recognition for an outstanding review) and DIS’19.
2018. Associate Chair for DIS’18 and CHI’19 (special recognition for an outstanding review).
2017. Associate Chair for the Late Breaking Work track of ACM SIGCHI 2017.
Reviews
2025. Reviewer for DRS “Design with Care” track.CSCW’26.
2024. Reviewer for DIS’24, EduCHI’24, and the 2024 Halfway to the Future Symposium.
2023. Reviewer for GoodIT’23, CSCW’24, ToCHI, and ToHRI.
2022. Reviewer for CHI’23, ToCHI, DIS’22, and CSCW’22.
2021. Reviewer for CHI’22 (special recognition for an outstanding review), ToCHI, IJHCS, and CSCW’21 cycles 2-4.
2020. Reviewer for CSCW’20 cycles 1 and 2 (special recognition for an outstanding review), CSCW’21 cycle 1, and DIS’20 Pictorials.
2019. Reviewer for CHI’19 Late Breaking Work, CSCW’19 (2 special recognitions for outstanding reviews), GROUP’20, ToCHI, and DIS’19.
2018. Reviewer for HCI Journal, NordiCHI’18, ToCHI, DIS’18 Provocations and Works-in-Progress, CSCW’18 second cycle, and alt.chi’18.
2017. Reviewer for IJHCS, Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI), CHI’17 Late Breaking Work, CHI’18, DIS’17, DIS’17 Pictorials, C&C’17, and alt.chi’17.
2016. Reviewer for CHI’17, DIS’16, DIS’16 Pictorials, CSCW’17, alt.chi’16, IxD&A’s special issue on making, Polity books, the HCI Journal, and Science Technology and Human Values (ST&HV).
2015. Reviewer for CHI’16 (2 special recognitions for outstanding reviews), CSCW’16, and alt.chi’15.
2014. Reviewer for CHI’15, DIS’14 Pictorials, JoPP, and alt.chi’14.
2013. Reviewer for JoPP, CHI’13 Work-in-Progress, and CHI’14 Papers and Notes.
Session Chair
2025. Session Chair for iConference 2025, eduCHI 2025.
2024. Session Chair for CSCW 2024.
2021. Session Chair for two sessions at CHI.
2018. Session Chair for Designing Interactive Systems (DIS).
2017. Session Chair for DIS and for CHI.
Other
2014-2016. Student Volunteer for ACM SIGCHI conference.
2014. Volunteer for Making Subjects Conference. Indiana University Bloomington. Technical Volunteer.
Professional Internal Service
Indiana University
2025-present. Accessibility Liaison for the Informatics Department.
2024-present. Informatics Colloquium Committee Chair.
2024-present. Luddy Academic Integrity Council Member.
Purdue University
2022-2023. Chair of the CGT Department Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
2021-2023. Purdue eSports Committee Member.
2021-2023. Faculty Advisor for the Purdue User Experience Design student club.
2021-2022. Ad hoc committee member for a faculty search.
2021-2022. Incoming Chair of the CGT Department Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
2020-2022. Committee chair for the Computer Graphics Department Website Redesign Committee.
2019. Session leader for the Windows of Opportunity for Women in Technology (WoWiT) recruiting event.
2018-2023. Purdue Polytechnic International Programs Committee Member.
2018. Session leader for the Communicating Leadership and Advancing Innovation for Minorities in Technology (CLAIMiT) recruiting event.
2017-2018. CGT Industry Partnerships Committee Member.
2017-2019. “Co-Champion” of the Community and Civic Engagement Research Impact Area.
2017. Session leader for the Windows of Opportunity for Women in Technology (WoWiT) recruiting event.
2017. Session leader for the Communicating Leadership and Advancing Innovation for Minorities in Technology (CLAIMiT) recruiting event.
Community Service
2012-2014. Bloominglabs. Making, hacking, and tinkering workshops; event organization.
Media Coverage
2014, January 18. Featured post on Instructables.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Pee-Timer-Connecting-the-Arduino-the-Intel-Per/
Professional Affiliations
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)