Anup Sathya

PhD Student, University of Chicago anup@uchicago.edu anupsathya.com

Research

Anup's research explores how to protect the home from the encroachment of addictive platforms in the attention economy. Believing that learning to calmly coexist with smartphones is one of the defining challenges of the next century, he designs, builds, and studies physical devices that shield us from the constant digital onslaught.

Research Positions

Pre-Doctoral Researcher Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park
2021 – 2022

Education

PhD, Computer Science University of Chicago Supervisor: Dr. Ken Nakagaki | Thesis: in progress
2022 – present
MS, Computer Science University of Maryland, College Park Supervisor: Dr. Huaishu Peng | Thesis: Enabling On-body Computing Using a Track Based Wearable
2019 – 2021
BTech, Electronics & Communication Engineering PES University, Bangalore Supervisor: Suresh Padmanabhan | Thesis: Realtime On-chip Wireless Waveform Monitoring
2014 – 2018

Major Grants & Funding

Arts, Science + Culture Graduate Collaboration Grant ($3000) University of Chicago + School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2024
Crerar Fellowship ($5000) Dept. of Computer Science, University of Chicago
2022
Daniels Fellowship ($5000) Dept. of Computer Science, University of Chicago
2022
Full tuition remission (~$56k) University of Maryland, College Park
2019 – 2021

Awards & Honors

Linda Tischler Award — Recognizing Emerging Design Talent Fast Company
2025
Innovation by Design Award (for Attention Receipts) Fast Company
2025
Lifestyle Accessories Award — Runner Up (for Attention Receipts) Core77
2025
Creative Hack Award Finalist (for Attention Receipts) WIRED Japan
2025
Special Recognition for Outstanding Reviews (11x) DIS 2023, CHI 2024, CHI 2026 (3×), DIS 2026 (5×), Creativity & Cognition 2026
2023 – 2026
Design Awards — Tools Award (for Fibercuit) Core77
2023
Nominated for Graduate Assistant of the Year (top 2%) University of Maryland, College Park
2020
Zonal Winner, National Robotics Championship IIT Bombay, India
2016

Publications

2026

[17]
ACM CHI '26 — Full Paper Attention Nooks: Situated Frictions to Foster Intentional Technology Use Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki
[16]
ACM TEI '26 — Full Paper PopTuber: Discretely Reshaping High Resolution 3D Curves with "Serial Multistable" Tubes Willa Yunqi Yang, Yifan Zou, Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki Best Demo Award (People's Choice)
[15]
ACM TEI '26 — Work-in-Progress FocuShift: Actuated Intervention to Prevent Smartphone Overuse via Phone-Attached Shape-Changing Device Harrison Dong, Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki
[14]
ACM TEI '26 — Studio Attention-Preserving Tangible Interfaces: Using Physicality and Materiality to Preserve Attention in the Home Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki

2025

[13]
ACM UIST '25 — Full Paper Shape n' Swarm: Hands-on, Shape-aware Generative Authoring with Swarm UI and LLMs Matthew Jeung, Anup Sathya, Wanli Qian, Steven Arellano, Luke Jimenez, Ken Nakagaki Best Demo Award
[12]
ACM UIST '25 — Workshop Facilitating Longitudinal Interaction Studies of AI Systems Tianyi Long, Sihan Wang, Émilie Fabre, Tingying Wang, Anup Sathya, Jing Wu, Savvas D. Petridis, Danqing Li, others
[11]
ACM DIS '25 — Full Paper Cybernetic Marionette: Channeling Collective Agency Through a Wearable Robot in a Live Dancer-Robot Duet Anup Sathya, Jiasheng Li, Zeyu Yan, Adriane Fang, Bill Kules, Jonathan Martin, Huaishu Peng

2024

[10]
ACM UIST '24 — Full Paper SHAPE-IT: Exploring Text-to-Shape-Display for Generative Shape-Changing Behaviors with LLMs Wanli Qian, Chenfeng Gao, Anup Sathya, Ryo Suzuki, Ken Nakagaki
[9]
ACM UIST '24 — Full Paper CARDinality: Interactive Card-shaped Robots with Locomotion and Haptics using Vibration Aditya Retnanto*, Emilie Faracci*, Anup Sathya*, Yu-Kai Hung, Ken Nakagaki [*equal contribution]
[8]
ACM CHI '24 — Full Paper Attention Receipts: Utilizing the Materiality of Receipts to Improve Screen-time Reflection on YouTube Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki FastCompany Innovation by Design Award, Core77 Lifestyle Accessories Award, WIRED Japan Creative Hack Award Finalist
[7]
ACM UIST '24 — Poster Game Jam with CARDinality: A Case Study of Exploring Play-based Interactive Applications Emilie Faracci, Aditya Retnanto, Anup Sathya, Ashlyn Sparrow, Ken Nakagaki

2022

[6]
ACM UIST '22 — Full Paper Fibercuit: Prototyping High-Resolution Flexible and Kirigami Circuits with a Fiber Laser Engraver Zeyu Yan*, Anup Sathya*, Sarah Yusuf, Jyh-Ming Lien, Huaishu Peng [*equal contribution] Best Demo Award (People's Choice), Core77 Tools Award - Notable
[5]
ACM IMWUT (UbiComp) '22 — Full Paper Calico: Relocatable On-cloth Wearables with Fast, Reliable, and Precise Locomotion Anup Sathya, Jiasheng Li, Tauhidur Rahman, Ge Gao, Huaishu Peng
[4]
ACM UIST '22 — Demo Demonstration of Fibercuit: Techniques to Prototype High-Resolution Flexible and Kirigami Circuits with a Fiber Laser Engraver Zeyu Yan*, Anup Sathya*, Sarah Yusuf, Jyh-Ming Lien, Huaishu Peng [*equal contribution]

2021

[3]
ACM CHI EA '21 — Poster Towards On-the-wall Tangible Interaction: Using Walls as Interactive, Dynamic, and Responsive User Interface Zeyu Yan, Anup Sathya, Pedro Jorge Carvalho, Yongquan Owen Hu, Ang Li, Huaishu Peng

2018

[2]
IEEE ICACCI '18 — Short Paper Realtime On-chip Wireless Waveform Monitoring Anup Sathya, S. Balaji, A. Gupta, S. Padmanabhan

2017

[1]
IEEE TENCON '17 — Short Paper Visual positioning system for automated indoor/outdoor navigation Anup Sathya, Abhinav Goel, S. Padmanabhan

Research Dissemination

Press

University of Chicago Magazine, 'Fit to print' — about Attention Receipts
2025
Hackster.io, 'A Game Changer' — about CARDinality
2024
inews UK, opinion piece citing Attention Receipts
2024
404 Media, 'Would You Waste Less of Your Life Online If You Got Daily Attention Receipts?'
2024
Adafruit Blog, 'Calico: A Wearable Robotic Assistant #WearableWednesday'
2023
Indian Express, 'This is Calico, a tiny robot that can be your dance instructor, workout tracker, and more'
2023
Communications of the ACM, 'A Wearable Robotic Assistant That's All Over You'
2023
IEEE Spectrum, 'A Wearable Robotic Assistant That's All Over You'
2023
The Verge, 'Wearable robot, why not?'
2023
Maryland Today, 'Where-able sensors'
2022
all3dp, Hackaday (×2), Hackster.io — coverage of Fibercuit and Calico
2022

Podcasts & Interviews

CBC Radio, 'As It Happens' — interviewed about Attention Receipts
2024
Put on Your Best…Robot, 'Over Coffee' — interviewed about Calico
2024
Hackster Café — interviewed with Huaishu Peng and Zeyu Yan about Calico
2022

Invited Talks

Intentional HCI — Designing for Intentional Technology Use University of British Columbia, Advanced Methods for Human-Computer Interaction, Dept. of Computer Science
2025

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant, A Practice in Art & Technology University of Chicago, Dept. of Computer Science | Instructor: Ken Nakagaki
2024
Teaching Assistant, Intro to Human-Computer Interaction University of Chicago, Dept. of Computer Science | Instructor: Ken Nakagaki
2023
Teaching Assistant, Actuated User Interfaces and Technologies University of Chicago, Dept. of Computer Science | Instructor: Ken Nakagaki
2022

Service

Web Chair ACM TEI 2026
2026
Organizer, People and Tech Seminar Dept. of Computer Science, University of Chicago | 2 quarters
2024
Reviewer CHI 2023 (3×), DIS 2023 (1×), CHI 2024 (1×), DIS 2024 (2×), CHI 2025 (6×), DIS 2025 (1×), TEI 2025 (2×), UIST 2025 (2×), CHI 2026 (5×), Creativity & Cognition 2026 (1×), DIS 2026 (7×), IMWUT 2026 (1×), NordiCHI 2026 (1×), TEI 2026 (1×), UIST 2026 (1×)
2023 – present