JooYoung Seo, Ph.D.

JooYoung Seo is a Beckman Institute researcher and an assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Within the iSchool, Seo directs the Accessible Computing Lab. His research topics include accessible computing, universal design, inclusive data science, and equitable healthcare technologies. As an information and learning scientist, his research focuses particularly on how to make computational literacy more accessible to people with dis/abilities by using multimodal data representation. His research projects have involved not just web accessibility, but also human-centered design and development studies, including inclusive makerspaces, tangible block-based programming, accessible data science (e.g., data actualization, sonification, and verbalization), and accessible/reproducible scientific writing tools for people with and without dis/abilities.
At the Beckman Institute, Seo's research addresses accessibility barriers at the intersection of information and learning. Specifically, he designs, develops, and evaluates accessible technologies that can offer better usability and learnability to blind and low-vision individuals. His two primary focus areas are accessible computing and accessible healthcare, given the increasing importance of computing and healthcare in our daily lives. He is particularly interested in multimodal data representation methods, such as physical data visualization, spatial audio sonification, and generative AI-assisted visual descriptions, to make data and information more accessible to people with visual impairments.
Research areas:


Accessible computing/data science


Ability-based human-computer interaction


Inclusive Learning Sciences/STEM+C education across dis/abilities


Accessible health informatics


 
Research interests:


Learning Analytics/Statistical Computing


Data Science-Based Reproducible Research


Large-Scale Virtual/Quantitative Ethnography


 
Education


Ph.D. Candidate (ABD), Learning, Design, and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, 2021


M.Ed., Learning, Design, and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, 2016


Double B.A., Education and English Literature, Sungkyunkwan University, 2014