About

Email: [email protected]

I’m Kaiwen Sun, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information advised by Dr. Florian Schaub and Dr. Chris Brooks. My research addresses critical challenges at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Usable Security and Privacy (S&P), and Human Centered AI. I focus on identifying the privacy, security, and safety concerns of diverse sensitive populations—including children, older adults, and students—and developing solutions in three key areas:

1. Supporting Digital Literacy.

2. Designing Family-Centered Smart Home Solutions.

3. Enhancing Human-AI Interactions.

Drawing on interdisciplinary expertise from privacy, developmental psychology, and design, my work is grounded in the lived experiences of these populations. My goal is to develop safe, transparent, inclusive, and privacy-protective solutions that inform design interventions, influence policy changes, and shape educational practices.

Personal website

CV

Dissertation title 

Provisional Dissertation Title: Child Safety and Families’ Co-participation in the Smart Home

Fields of interest 

Human Computer Interaction; Privacy and Security; Ubiquitous Computing;

Education

M.S. in Information, Human Computer Interaction, University of Michigan School of Information, 2018

B.S. in Business Management, Marketing, University of Minnesota, 2013

Selected publications

Sun, K., Li, J., Zou, Y., Radesky, J., Brooks, C., & Schaub, F. (2024). Unfulfilled promises of child safety and privacy: Portrayals and use of children in smart home marketing. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CSCW1). https://doi.org/10.1145/3637422

Zou, Y., Sun, K., Afnan, T., Abu-Salma, R., Brewer, R., & Schaub, F. (2024). Cross-contextual examination of older adults’ privacy concerns, behaviors, and vulnerabilities. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. https://petsymposium.org/popets/2024/popets-2024-0009.pdf

Sun, K., Kanchi, R., Ello, F. M. T., Co, L.-N., Wu, M., Gelman, S., Radesky, J., Schaub, F., & Yip, J. (2024). Why is everything in the cloud?: Co-designing visual cues representing data processes with children. In Proceedings of the ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC '24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3628516.3655819

Hunt, C. L., Sun, K., Tseng, K., Balasubramaniyam, P., Druin, A., Huynh, A., Leithinger, D., & Yip, J. (2024). Making a metaphor sandwich: Analyzing children’s use of metaphor during tabletop telepresence robot supported participatory design. In Proceedings of the ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC '24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3628516.3656272 

Newman, M., Sun, K., Dalla Gasperina, I. B., Shin, G. Y., Pedraja, M., Pedraja, M. K., Kanchi, R., Song, M. B., Li, R., Lee, J. H., & Yip, J. (2024). “I want it to talk like Darth Vader”: Helping children construct creative self-efficacy with generative AI. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI'24). Best Paper Honourable Mention Award (top 5%). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642492 

Hunt, C. L., Sun, K., Tsukiyama, F., Matkovic, I., Schwemler, Z., Wolf, A., Zhang, Z., Druin, A., Huynh, A., Leithinger, D., & Yip, J. (2023). Designing together, miles apart: A longitudinal tabletop telepresence adventure in online co-design with children. In Proceedings of the ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC '23). https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3589359

Li, J., Sun, K., Huff, B., Bierley, A., Kim, Y., Schaub, F., & Fawaz, K. (2024). “It’s up to the consumer to be smart”: Understanding the security and privacy attitudes of smart home users on Reddit. In 2024 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179344

Sun, K., Zou, Y., Radesky, J., Brooks, C., & Schaub, F. (2021). Child safety in the smart home: Parents’ perceptions, needs, and mitigation strategies. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW2), Article 471, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1145/3479858

Li, W., Sun, K., Schaub, F., & Brooks, C. (2021). Disparities in students’ propensity to consent to learning analytics. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 31(3), 373–402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-021-00254-2 

Sun, K., Sugatan, C., Afnan, T., Simon, H., Gelman, S. A., Radesky, J., & Schaub, F. (2021). “They see you’re a girl if you pick a pink robot with a skirt”: A qualitative study of how children conceptualize data processing and digital privacy risks. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21). https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445333 

Zou, Y., Danino, S., Sun, K., & Schaub, F. (2019). You ‘might’ be affected: An empirical analysis of usability issues in data breach notifications. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI '19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300424 

Sun, K., Mhaidli, A., Watel, S., Brooks, C., & Schaub, F. (2019). It’s my data! Tensions among stakeholders of a learning analytics dashboard. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300824

Wang, G., Sun, K., Atabey, A., Pothong, K., Lin, G. C., Zhao, J., & Yip, J. (2024). Child-centred AI design: Definition, operation, and considerations. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3573821

Cagiltay, B., Ho, H. R., Sun, K., Su, Z., Wu, Y., Richards, O. K., Jin, Q., Yu, J., Fails, J., Yip, J., & Forlizzi, J. (2024). Methods for family-centered design: Bridging the gap between research and practice. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3636290