SUN YOUNG PARK

I am an associate professor at the University of Michigan in the Stamps School of Art and Design and the School of Information. I'm affiliated with Digital Studies Institute, and am an affiliated faculty member of Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI), the Center for Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC), and the Michigan Interactive and Social Computing (MISC) at UM.

My research interests are at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Health Informatics. I design and study technologies aimed at empowering individuals to better access, understand, and share their health-related data, facilitating more effective communication and shared decision-making in their care. My work particularly focuses on vulnerable populations with low health literacy and limited access to information and accessible tools, exploring their unique needs and the barriers they face.

Prior to my position at UM, I completed my PhD in the Department of Informatics in the Bren School of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. I previously worked in the HCI Institute and Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a M.Des. in Interaction Design at Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.S. in Industrial Design (major) and Multi-media Design (minor) at Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. I was selected as one of 46 international members of the inaugural class of the ACM Future Computing Academy (FCA), a selective organization of young researchers with the goal of shaping the future of computing. My research projects have been funded by the University of Michigan Office of Research (UMOR), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Health Institute (NIH), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

I am currently working on the following research topics:

Empowering Child Patients as Active Communicators to Enhance Patient-Caregiver-Clinician Communication: This research investigates the role that emerging technologies, such as generative AI, can play in supporting child patients’ expression of their needs, feelings, and emotions around illness and health, and helping clinicians and parents to better understand and communicate the child’s psychosocial condition and well-being.

Collaborative Tracking and Data Sharing for Child Patients with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) : This project seeks to gain an empirical understanding of the current communication and information-sharing practices between pediatric patients and clinicians in diabetes care. It also explores opportunities to design collaborative tracking technologies that support and enhance children’s transition to independent illness management.

Designing for Supporting Patient Information Needs and Awareness during Emergency Care Visits: This project examines patient information needs and patient-clinician communication during emergency care stays, when information is often scarce for patients. The goal of the study is to enrich current understandings of patient-centered care practices in hospital settings and inform extended designs of health IT systems to support patient information needs and awareness.

Designing AI-based Conversational Agents for Patients in Marginalized Communities: The project aims to examine the current health management practices of Black patients with chronic health conditions in the light of COVID-19 and explore how conversational agents can help them in accessing and obtaining appropriate and necessary information.

Teaching: I teach graduate and undergraduate Human-Computer Interaction courses, including Interaction Design and Research Methods.

Prospective students: I am always looking to work with self-motivated, enthusiastic, and creative students who are interested in HCI, CSCW, Design research, and Health! I generally expect students to commit to at least two semesters of research if they want to join my research projects. If you are already a student at UM and are interested in working with me, please check out “here” to learn more. *I am looking to have one PhD student next year (2025-2026), so please check out the the UMSI admission site or contact me for more information.*

NEWS //
Papers accepted to CHI 2025!
April 2025
Excited to announce that our work will be presented at CHI 2025! Here are the titles of the papers:

"Enhancing pediatric communication: The role of an AI-driven chatbot in facilitating child-parent-provider interaction"
"Collaborative Health-Tracking Technologies for Children and Parents: A Review of Current Studies and Directions for Future Research"

Journal papers published!
2023-2025
Our collaborative works with Pace University, work with UM ED- Mayo Clinic, and work with UM CODA team are published to JHCI and JMIR.
(see publications)

BK Global Visiting Scholar at Seoul National University
2022- 2023
Super excited to spend my time at Seoul National University, South Korea, as a BK Global Visiting Scholar!

Papers accepted to CHI 2024!
April 2024
Pleasured to announce that my students' work will be presented at CHI 2024! Here are the titles of each paper:

"Shared Responsibility in Collaborative Tracking for Children with Type 1 Diabetes and their Parents"
"ChaCha: Leveraging Large Language Models to Prompt
Children to Share Their Emotions about Personal Events" - NAVER AI Lab

Travel //
April-May, 2025: CHI 2025, Yokohama, Japan
May, 2024: CHI 2024, Hawaii (Virtual)
July, 2023: DIS 2023, Pittsburgh,
May, 2023: CHI 2023, Hamburg, Germany (Virtual)