Parmit Chilana

Dr. Parmit Chilana is an Associate Professor at SFU and Ebco-Eppich research chair in human-computer interaction (HCI). Her research focuses on empowering users of all backgrounds and skill levels to use, learn, and build emerging technologies. Her interdisciplinary contributions include user-centered help systems that improve interaction with feature-rich software and insights on user diversity from various lab and field-based evaluations. Dr. Chilana has been awarded multiple Best Paper and Honorable Mention awards at top HCI venues such as ACM CHI, and an NSERC Accelerator Supplement. During her PhD at the University of Washington, she received the inaugural Meta (Facebook) Ph.D. Fellowship and co-founded AnswerDash, a venture-funded startup that commercialized her award-winning dissertation on contextual help and was later acquired by CloudEngage in 2020.

Dr. Chilana is a leader in the HCI field and often serves on major program and organizing committees. She is known for her mentorship and her commitment to making computer science education and academic opportunities more accessible for women and minorities. She co-founded and currently co-directs SFU’s Visual and Interactive Computing Institute (VINCI), which brings together a unique interdisciplinary team of faculty focused on the human aspects of technology design.