Profile

Riku has been a Ph.D. student at Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University since 2021.08. He is advised by Dr. Mayank Goel and is working on applied machine learning with a focus on health sensing at Smash Lab. Before coming to CMU, he received his B.E. and M.S. from The University of Tokyo, Japan, where he worked with Dr. Hiroshi Saruwatari on real-time voice conversion, and Dr. Masahiko Inami on auditory intervention for behavioral change.

He publishes at leading HCI venues (ACM CHI, UIST, IMWUT) with multiple Best Paper and Honorable Mention awards. He is a recipient of Funai Fellowship, Masason Fellowship, Snap Research Fellowship, Center for Machine Learning and Health Fellowship, and Quad Fellowship. Recently, he has also been awarded for the Ubicomp Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award (2025), the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 Healthcare & Science (2024), and MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Japan (2025).

In a nutshell, he's passionate about human-computer interaction (HCI), human-AI interaction (HAI), and after a long day, occasional human-beer interaction (HBI).

News

2026.03, I'll be serving as a Web Chair for CHI 2027 🧑‍💻.
2026.03, Teaching several sessions of the course Human-AI Interaction using Sensing Systems at CMU.
2026.02, Passed Ph.D. Thesis Proposal. Big thanks to my wonderful committee members: Mayank, Jodi, Hiro, Yonatan, and Jun!
2026.01, Three papers have been accepted to ACM CHI 2026 (health x2, sensing x1) with two best paper honorable mention awards 🥇. Congrats to the team! 🇪🇸
2026.01, PC meeting for the CHI Computational Interaction Subcommittee 🧑‍💻.
2025.12, Gave a talk at the ASPIRE MWI on Ment'Al'ist. It was wonderful to see so many people there!
2025.11, Featured on MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35, Japan.
2025.10, Humbled and honored to receive Ubicomp Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award 🏆.
2025.10, Attended Ubicomp/ISWC Doctoral Colloquium. I received Best Contribution Award ☺️.

previous news

2025.09, Organizing workshop at UIST: Accessible Cyber-Physical Activities. Hope to see you there!
2025.09, Heidelberg 🇩🇪 (HLF) → Sharm El-Sheikh 🇪🇬 (MobileHCI) → Busan 🇰🇷 (UIST) → Tokyo 🇯🇵 (Chill) → Espoo 🇫🇮 (Ubicomp)
2025.07, Funai Foundation Summer Meeting in Seattle ☕️. Catching up with friends, running on little sleep.
2025.07, Two papers got accepted to ACM UIST 2025. First time to be a part of the PC meeting as an assistant 🧑‍💻.
2025.06, Wonderful short trip to Daejeon 🇰🇷. Enjoyed interacting with the SIGCHI Korea Chapter community and sharing my research.
2025.04, CHI in Yokohama 🇯🇵. Glad to see many friends enjoy Japan! Also, great experience of being a part of the organizing committee.
2025.04, Selected for the 12th Heidelberg Laureate Forum 🇩🇪. Excited to meet the laureates and other fellows in September.
2025.04, UIST push, also helping the paper chairs as one of the assistants.
2025.01, I talked about my research on a Japanese TV channel's YouTube 📹 [#1], [#2]
2024.12, Lots of travels; LA, Kyushu, Kyoto, Taipei, and Tokyo.
2024.11, "ConverSearch" is accepted to ACM TiiS. Long-haul collaboration with ACES, Inc.
2024.10, Back-to-back conferences (Ubicomp in Melbourne 🇦🇺 and UIST in Pittsburgh 🇺🇸). Looking forward to meeting friends and colleagues.
2024.09, "PrISM-Q&A" is accepted to ACM IMWUT (with minor revision). Where is Ubicomp'25? 🧐
2024.07, I am selected as one of the Quad Fellows. Excited to join the community.
2024.07, I gave a research talk at SciFi Lab at Cornell University. I appreciate the warm welcome.
2024.07, "PrISM-Observer" is accepted to ACM UIST 2024. See you in Pittsburgh!
2024.05, "Coaching Copilot" is accepted to ACM CUI 2024. Deployment efforts led by Hiromu.
2024.05, I attended CHI 2024 in Hawaii. Inspired by many cool works and discussions.
2024.05, I am listed on Forbes Asia 30 under 30 in Healthcare & Science category (coincidentally with Karan!).
2024.04, I presented a paper at IEEE ICASSP and gave a talk at Seoul National University. Loved the city and the people.
2024.03, I will be serving as a Paper Chair Assistant at CHI2025.
2023.12, I had fun time in Japan with fellow HCI researchers (attending WISS and giving talks).
2023.12, One paper (at Google during summer 2023) is accepted to IEEE ICASSP. First time in signal processing conference!
2023.10, I attended ACM Ubicomp in Cancun to present "PrISM-Tracker", "LemurDx", and "MI-Poser". Fun conference and cenote.
2023.08, I am listed on Forbes Japan 30 under 30 in Science & Technology category.
2023.07, "MI-Poser" (at Snap Research during summer 2022) is accepted to ACM IMWUT.
2023.05, Moved to Bay Area for research internship at Google. Awesome weather!
2023.04, "LemurDx" is accepted to ACM IMWUT. One of my first projects at SmashLab.
2023.04, "AI for human assessment" received Honorable Case Study Recognition (top 3) at ACM CHI 2023. Deployment efforts.
2023.04, "IMUPoser" received Honorable Mention Award (top 5%) at ACM CHI 2023.
2023.01, Following on from last year, I'll be serving as one of the Program Committee Members at ACM CHI LBW 2023.
2023.01, Attended APSARD 2023 in Orlando. First time in a medical conference.
2023.01, Super lucky to get three papers accepted to CHI2023. Awesome collaborators!
2022.12, I received Snap Research Fellowship!
2022.10, "PrISM-Tracker" is accepted (with minor revision) to IMWUT.
2022.09, Passed CommTalk at CMU HCII, great chance for practice with lots of useful feedback.
2022.09, Back in Pittsburgh for a new semester! (+ CHI push)
2022.08, Submitted a paper to IMWUT. Thanks to my collaborators!
2022.07, "RGBDGaze" got accepted to ACM ICMI 2022. My first work at CMU!
2022.06, I am selected for Masason Foundation Scholarship .
2022.05, Moved to NYC for the exciting summer at Snap Research (computational imaging team)!
2022.05, Attended CHI'22 in NOLA. Everything was great except that I got Covid...(fortunately mild symptom).
2022.03, "CalmResponses" got accepted to ACM IMX 2022. Congrats Kiyosu!
2022.01, I'll be serving as one of the Program Committee Members at ACM CHI LBW 2022.
2021.12, "BeParrot" got accepted to ACM IUI 2022. Fun side project.
2021.12, Visited Lifestyle Computing Lab. Honored and excited to introduce my projects.
2021.12, Visited UCLA. Great catching up with Anthony, Yang, and their students.
2021.11, Our patent is acquired by ACES, Inc.. link
2021.11, "VocabEncounter" got conditionally accepted to ACM CHI 2022.
2021.08, Moved to Pittsburgh, officially starting my Ph.D. journey.
2021.07, "Digital Speech Makeup" got accepted to ACM ICMI 2021.
2021.04, It's been a long journey and I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be joining CMU HCII this fall as a Ph.D. student!
2021.03, "Mindless Attractor" received Honorable Mention Award (top 5%) at ACM CHI 2021. Proud of the collaboration.
2021.03, Received Dean's Award and was selected for the representative student of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo.
2021.02, "Origami Reflector" received the Best Paper Award at the 1st CHIIoT Workshop! Thanks Yang!
2020.12, "Reaction or Speculation" got conditionally accepted to ACM CSCW 2021. Fun side project.
2020.12, "Mindless Attractor" got conditionally accepted to ACM CHI 2021.
2020.11, I am selected for Funai Overseas Scholarship.
2018. This page is up. Huge thanks to Hiromu Kawarasaki for the design.

Research

I study how ubiquitous but imperfect sensing (e.g., human activity recognition) can enable reliable AI assistants in the physical world to support human agency. I combine human–AI interaction design with computational models that adapt through interaction to overcome uncertainty in the system and the user. In collaboration with health experts, I design and deploy sensing-based assistants for real-world health and well-being contexts involving patients, caregivers, and clinicians. Currently, I am working on the projects listed below.

Context-Aware, Mixed-Initiative Support for Procedural Tasks: PrISM Project (skin-cancer care, people living with dementia)
Hyperactivity Sensing and Intervention for Children: LemurDx Project (children with ADHD and their family)
Social Signal Processing in Human Development Scenes: Ment'Al'ist Project (coaching, therapy)

Honors and Awards

Research Fellowships and Grants

2024 Quad Fellowship
2023 Center for Machine Learning and Health, Translational Fellowship in Digital Health
2022 Snap Research Fellowship
2022 Masason Foundation Scholarship
2021 Funai Overseas Scholarship
2021 Kuma Creator Scholarship
2021 INNO-vation Program, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan
2021 Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (until 2021.08)
2020 TOYOTA/Dwango AI Scholarship
2020 Fixstars Scholarship
2019 NEC C&C Grant for Attending International Conferences
2018 IPA Mitou Advanced Program, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan

Academic Honors and Awards

2026.04 Honorable Mention Award, CHI2026 (top 5%) [Evidotes]
2026.04 Honorable Mention Award, CHI2026 (top 5%) [HiFiGaze]
2026.03 Paper Award, The Telecommunications Advancement Foundation [MI-Poser]
2025.10 Ubicomp/ISWC Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award
2025.10 Ubicomp/ISWC Best Doctoral Colloquium Contribution Award
2025.04 12th Heidelberg Laureate Forum
2025.03 Paper Award, The Telecommunications Advancement Foundation [PrISM-Tracker]
2024.10 Best Paper and Presentation Awards, Ubicomp 2024 HASCA workshop [PrISM]
2023.04 Honorable Mention Award, CHI2023 (top 5%) [IMUPoser]
2023.04 Honorable Case Study Recognition, CHI2023 (top 3) [AI for human assessment]
2021.04 Honorable Mention Award, CHI2021 (top 5%) [Mindless Attractor]
2021.03 Representative Student at the Graduation Ceremony, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo
2021.03 Dean's Award, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo
2021.02 Best Paper Award, 1st CHIIoT workshop (top 1) [Origami Reflector]
2020.04 Best Paper Award, CHI2020 (top 1%) [PenSight]
2019.06 Best Student Presentation Award, The Acoustical Society of Japan [Real-Time Voice Conversion]
2015.03 Tokyo Governor Award (academic activities)
2015.03 Tokyo Private School Foundation Award (academic activities)

Misc.

2025.11 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Japan
2024.05 Forbes Asia 30 under 30, Healthcare & Science
2023.08 Forbes Japan 30 under 30, Science & Technology
2022.12 Finalist for INNO-vation Generation Award, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan [BeParrot]
2021.12 Finalist for INNO-vation Generation Award, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan [Mindless Attractor]
2019.11 International Virtual Reality Contest, Laval Virtual prize & Unity prize [Kininaruki]
2019.06 Spajam Hackathon Tokyo League, 1st prize [Picdoc]
2018.10 James Dyson Award, National Winner in Japan [YourPacifier]
2018.06 UTokyo Environment, Safety & Health Slogan Contest, ESH Executive Vice President’s Award
2018.02 RUNHACK, 1st prize
2017.11 JPHACKS, Innovator & three prizes [LoverDuck]
2017.10 Stanford Healthcare Hackathon, 3rd prize & design prize [YourPacifier]
2017.06 Jiro Hackathon, prize
2017.05 Primary Industries Hackathon, 1st prize
2017.03 London Deep Learning Hackathon, 1st prize & best pitch prize
2017.03 LINE Bot Awards, finalist and prize
2017.01 TwitCasting Hackathon, 1st prize
2016.11 HackerWars, prize
2016.07 AI chat bot hackathon, 1st prize
2015.08 Beijing IoT Competition, design prize
2014.09 Asian Science Camp, math prize

Talks

I am willing to have talks, especially to secondary school students. This stems from my own positive experiences with the joy of science and technology during seminars I attended in high school.

2026.02 Lectures@Human-AI Interaction using Sensing Systems (Carnegie Mellon University) Slide
2025.12 Talk@ASPIRE Mental Well-being Intelligence hosted by Prof. Koji Yatani, [Towards Ment'AI'ist: Augmenting Human Development Practitioners through Behavioral Sensing] Slide
2025.10 Talk@CRUISE Lab (University of New South Wales) hosted by Prof. Flora Salim, [Health Assistants for Everyday Care: Reliable Human-AI Collaboration under Imperfect Sensing]
2025.06 Panel@SIGCHI Korea Chapter Summer Event
2025.06 Talk@HCI@KAIST hosted by Prof. Uichin Lee, [Health Assistants for Everyday Care: Reliable Human-AI Collaboration under Imperfect Sensing]
2025.03 Guest Lecture@Building User-Focused Sensing Systems (Carnegie Mellon University) hosted by Prof. Mayank Goel and Prof. Yuvraj Agarwal
2025.02 Talk@MoSHI (University of Pittsburgh) hosted by Prof. Carissa A. Low, ["PrISM", "LemurDx"]
2024.12 Talk@JSK Lab (The University of Tokyo) hosted by Prof. Kento Kawaharazuka, ["PrISM"]
2024.12 Talk@Information Somatics Lab (The University of Tokyo) hosted by Prof. Masahiko Inami, ["PrISM"]
2024.12 Talk@SOZO Lab (Kyushu Institute of Technology) hosted by Prof. Sozo Inoue, ["PrISM"]
2024.12 Talk@HAL Lab (University of California, Santa Barbara) hosted by Prof. Misha Sra, ["PrISM"]
2024.12 Talk@SAIL Lab (University of Southern California) hosted by Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan, ["PrISM"]
2024.12 Guest Lecture@Fundamentals of Networked & Embedded Systems (University of California, Los Angeles) hosted by Prof. Xiang ‘Anthony’ Chen
2024.11 Guest Lecture@Machine Learning and Sensing for Healthcare (Carnegie Mellon University) hosted by Prof. Mayank Goel and Prof. Justin Chan
2024.07 Talk@Applied Robotics Research (Microsoft) hosted by Dr. Naoki Wake, [Using Imperfect Sensing for Ubiquitous, Reliable Assistant]
2024.07 Talk@SciFi Lab (Cornell University) hosted by Prof. Cheng Zhang, [Using Imperfect Sensing for Ubiquitous, Reliable Assistant]
2024.04 Talk@HCS Lab (Seoul National University) hosted by Prof. Youngki Lee, [Using Imperfect Sensing for Ubiquitous, Reliable Assistant]
2023.12 Talk@海外大学院留学説明会 (The University of Tokyo)
2023.12 Talk@Koike Lab (Tokyo Institute of Technology) hosted by Dr. Erwin Wu, [Toward 24/7 Human Digitization]
2023.12 Talk@Engineering Department (The University of Tokyo) hosted by Prof. Koji Yatani, [Augmenting Health Experts' Practice with Human Behavior Sensing]
2023.12 Talk@Lifestyle Computing Lab (Keio University) hosted by Prof. Yuta Sugiura, [Toward 24/7 Human Digitization]
2023.12 Pitch@Masason Foundation, [Interactions toward Invisible AI]
2023.12 Talk@Life is Tech !, Inc.
2023.10 Qualification Talk@CMU HCII, ["ConverSearch"]
2023.08 Talk@Japanese Academic Seminars at Stanford hosted by Dr. Ryo Eguchi. [Invisible AI for Behavioral Change]
2023.06 Talk@AIST Creative HCI Seminar hosted by Dr. Jun Kato. ["IMUPoser", "LemurDx", "PrISM-Tracker"]
2023.04 Talk@NLP Colloquium hosted by Dr. Naoki Otani, [Using NLP-Based Prompting for Human Behavior Change] Slide
2023.04 Talk@MoSHI (University of Pittsburgh) hosted by Prof. Carissa A. Low, ["LemurDx", "PrISM-Tracker"]
2023.03 Talk@Life is Tech !, Inc. Spring Camp [What is being creative in the era of generative AI?]
2023.01 Talk@APSARD 2023 Conference, ["LemurDx"]
2022.12 Talk@Information Somatics Lab (The University of Tokyo) hosted by Prof. Masahiko Inami [Toward 24/7 Human Digitization]
2022.09 Qualification Talk@CMU HCII, ["RGBDGaze"] Slide
2021.12 Talk@Lifestyle Computing Lab (Keio University) hosted by Prof. Yuta Sugiura, ["Hand-with-Sensing-Sphere", "PenSight"]
2020.08 Talk@ヒューマンインターフェース学会トップカンファレンスアドバンストワークショップ, ["INWARD"]
2020.07 Panel@ THE FUTURE CONFERENCE
2020.03 Panel@数理の翼伊計島セミナー
2019.10 Talk@深層学習全学横断研究会 hosted by Prof. Yutaka Matsuo, [Road to Detective Conan] Slide