Generative AI & Human-Computer Interaction

I am a Generative AI and Human-Computer Interaction researcher and a Senior Research Engineer at Microsoft Research. In the Extended Perception, Interaction & Cognition (EPIC) group, I build and ship large-scale, AI-driven user experiences across Copilot, OneNote, and Xbox.

My current focus is Generative UI — turning generative models into a new substrate for interfaces that adapt and respond to people in real time. As technical lead of Microsoft Research's Generative User Interface initiative, I work across diffusion-based and agentic approaches, driving cross-org collaboration with the Copilot, Windows, and M365 teams. This builds on 5+ years at the intersection of applied AI and human–AI interaction, shipping generative-AI and machine-learning features to 500K+ monthly active users. I am inventor on 9 patents and author of 15+ publications at venues such as CHI, UIST, and IEEE TVCG.

Experience

Senior Research Engineer

Microsoft Research, EPIC Team · Seattle

2025 — Now

Senior Applied Scientist

Microsoft, Pen & Ink team (Experiences & Devices) · Seattle

2021 — 2025

Postdoctoral Researcher

ETH Zurich — SIP Lab · Zurich

2020 — 2021

Generative AI & HCI Research

My peer-reviewed research spans Generative AI, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human-AI Interaction, interactive data visualization, and novel input techniques. The publications below are drawn from my DBLP record (see also Google Scholar). Expand any entry to copy its BibTeX citation.

2026

  1. Brushing and Interpretive Linking for Knowledge Work

    Zheng Ning, Michel Pahud, Hugo Romat, Nicolai Marquardt, Fanny Chevalier, Jeevana Priya Inala, Chenglong Wang, David Brown, Toby Jia-Jun Li, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Riche

    GI 2026

  2. Texterial: A Text-as-Material Interaction Paradigm for LLM-Mediated Writing

    Jocelyn J. Shen, Nicolai Marquardt, Hugo Romat, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Riche, Fanny Chevalier

    ACM CHI 2026 Honorable Mention

    ACMarXiv

2025

  1. Intent Tagging: Exploring Micro-Prompting Interactions for Supporting Granular Human-GenAI Co-Creation Workflows

    Frederic Gmeiner, Nicolai Marquardt, Michael Bentley, Hugo Romat, Michel Pahud, David Brown, Asta Roseway, Nikolas Martelaro, Kenneth Holstein, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Riche

    ACM CHI 2025

    ACMarXiv
  2. ImaginationVellum: Generative-AI Ideation Canvas with Spatial Prompts, Generative Strokes, and Ideation History

    Nicolai Marquardt, Asta Roseway, Hugo Romat, Payod Panda, Michel Pahud, Gonzalo A. Ramos, Steven Mark Drucker, Andrew D. Wilson, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Riche

    ACM UIST 2025 Honorable Mention

    ACM
  3. AI-Instruments: Embodying Prompts as Instruments to Abstract & Reflect Graphical Interface Commands as General-Purpose Tools

    Nathalie Riche, Anna Offenwanger, Frederic Gmeiner, David Brown, Hugo Romat, Michel Pahud, Nicolai Marquardt, Kori Inkpen, Ken Hinckley

    ACM CHI 2025 Honorable Mention

    ACMarXiv

2024

  1. Opportunistic Nudges for Task Migration Between Personal Devices

    Nikhita Joshi, Richard Li, Jiannan Li, Leonardo Pavanatto, Michel Pahud, Jatin Sharma, Bongshin Lee, Hugo Romat, William Buxton, Nicolai Marquardt, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Henry Riche

    ACM CHI Extended Abstracts 2024

    ACM
  2. Memory Recall for Data Visualizations in Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D and 2D

    Christophe Hurter, Bernice E. Rogowitz, Guillaume Truong, Tiffany Andry, Hugo Romat, Ludovic Gardy, Fereshteh Amini, Nathalie Henry Riche

    IEEE TVCG 2024

    DOI

2023

  1. Escapement: A Tool for Interactive Prototyping with Video via Sensor-Mediated Abstraction of Time

    Molly Jane Nicholas, Nicolai Marquardt, Michel Pahud, Nathalie Riche, Hugo Romat, Christopher Collins, David Ledo, Rohan Kadekodi, Badrish Chandramouli, Ken Hinckley

    ACM CHI 2023

    ACM
  2. AdHocProx: Sensing Mobile, Ad-Hoc Collaborative Device Formations using Dual Ultra-Wideband Radios

    Richard Li, Teddy Seyed, Nicolai Marquardt, Eyal Ofek, Steve Hodges, Mike Sinclair, Hugo Romat, Michel Pahud, Jatin Sharma, William A. S. Buxton, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Riche

    ACM CHI 2023

    ACM

2022

  1. Understanding Multi-Device Usage Patterns: Physical Device Configurations and Fragmented Workflows

    Ye Yuan, Nathalie Riche, Nicolai Marquardt, Molly Jane Nicholas, Teddy Seyed, Hugo Romat, Bongshin Lee, Michel Pahud, Jonathan Goldstein, Rojin Vishkaie, Christian Holz, Ken Hinckley

    ACM CHI 2022

    ACM
  2. TapType: Ten-finger text entry on everyday surfaces via Bayesian inference

    Paul Streli, Jiaxi Jiang, Andreas Rene Fender, Manuel Meier, Hugo Romat, Christian Holz

    ACM CHI 2022

    ACMarXiv
  3. Style Blink: Exploring Digital Inking of Structured Information via Handcrafted Styling as a First-Class Object

    Hugo Romat, Nicolai Marquardt, Ken Hinckley, Nathalie Henry Riche

    ACM CHI 2022

    ACM
  4. Interactive Data Comics

    Zezhong Wang, Hugo Romat, Fanny Chevalier, Nathalie Henry Riche, Dave Murray-Rust, Benjamin Bach

    IEEE TVCG 2022

    DOI
  5. Demonstrating TapType for mobile ten-finger text entry anywhere

    Paul Streli, Jiaxi Jiang, Andreas Rene Fender, Manuel Meier, Hugo Romat, Christian Holz

    ACM CHI Extended Abstracts 2022

    ACM

2021

  1. Sketchnote Components, Design Space Dimensions, and Strategies for Effective Visual Note Taking

    Rebecca Zheng, Marina Fernández Camporro, Hugo Romat, Nathalie Henry Riche, Benjamin Bach, Fanny Chevalier, Ken Hinckley, Nicolai Marquardt

    ACM CHI 2021 Best Paper

    ACM
  2. Flashpen: A High-Fidelity and High-Precision Multi-Surface Pen for Virtual Reality

    Hugo Romat, Andreas Fender, Manuel Meier, Christian Holz

    IEEE VR 2021

    DOI
  3. Expressive Authoring of Node-Link Diagrams With Graphies

    Hugo Romat, Caroline Appert, Emmanuel Pietriga

    IEEE TVCG 2021

    DOI
  4. Demonstration of Flashpen: A high-fidelity and high-precision multi-surface pen for Virtual Reality

    Hugo Romat, Andreas Rene Fender, Manuel Meier, Christian Holz

    ACM CHI Extended Abstracts 2021

    ACM
  5. Demonstrating High-Precision and High-Fidelity Digital Inking for Virtual Reality

    Hugo Romat, Andreas Fender, Manuel Meier, Christian Holz

    IEEE VR Workshops 2021

    DOI
  6. AirConstellations: In-Air Device Formations for Cross-Device Interaction via Multiple Spatially-Aware Armatures

    Nicolai Marquardt, Nathalie Henry Riche, Christian Holz, Hugo Romat, Michel Pahud, Frederik Brudy, David Ledo, Chunjong Park, Molly Jane Nicholas, Teddy Seyed, Eyal Ofek, Bongshin Lee, William A. S. Buxton, Ken Hinckley

    ACM UIST 2021

    ACM

2020

  1. Tilt-Responsive Techniques for Digital Drawing Boards

    Hugo Romat, Christopher Collins, Nathalie Henry Riche, Michel Pahud, Christian Holz, Adam Riddle, Bill Buxton, Ken Hinckley

    ACM UIST 2020

    ACM
  2. Dear Pictograph: Investigating the Role of Personalization and Immersion for Consuming and Enjoying Visualizations

    Hugo Romat, Nathalie Henry Riche, Christophe Hurter, Steven Mark Drucker, Fereshteh Amini, Ken Hinckley

    ACM CHI 2020

    ACM

2019

  1. SpaceInk: Making Space for In-Context Annotations

    Hugo Romat, Emmanuel Pietriga, Nathalie Henry Riche, Ken Hinckley, Caroline Appert

    ACM UIST 2019

    ACM
  2. Influence of Color and Size of Particles on Their Perceived Speed in Node-Link Diagrams

    Hugo Romat, Dylan Lebout, Emmanuel Pietriga, Caroline Appert

    IFIP INTERACT 2019 Best Doctoral Student Paper

    DOI
  3. From data exploration to presentation : designing new systems and interaction techniques to enhance the sense-making process. (De l'exploration des données à la présentation : concevoir de nouveaux systèmes et techniques d'interaction pour améliorer la création de sens à partir de données)

    Hugo Romat

    Ph.D. Dissertation · 2019

    DOI
  4. ActiveInk: (Th)Inking with Data

    Hugo Romat, Nathalie Henry Riche, Ken Hinckley, Bongshin Lee, Caroline Appert, Emmanuel Pietriga, Christopher Collins

    ACM CHI 2019 Honorable Mention

    ACM

2018

  1. Animated Edge Textures in Node-Link Diagrams: a Design Space and Initial Evaluation

    Hugo Romat, Caroline Appert, Benjamin Bach, Nathalie Henry Riche, Emmanuel Pietriga

    ACM CHI 2018

    ACM

2016

  1. Natural Human-Robot Interaction Using Social Cues

    Hugo Romat, Mary-Anne Williams, Xun Wang, Benjamin Johnston, Henry Bard

    ACM/IEEE HRI 2016

    DOI

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science

Inria — Paris

2016 — 2019

Building novel ways to process, explore, and make sense of AI-generated and large-scale data.

M.Sc. in Computer Science

ENSC Bordeaux INP · Université Laval, Canada

2012 — 2015

Human–Computer Interaction, Computer Science, Robotics, and Cognitive Science.