Associate ProfessorTham Piumsomboon

At the intersection of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), Extended Reality (XR), and agentic AI, my research investigates how immersive technologies and intelligent agents can transform how people perceive, act, learn, and collaborate in the world. I focus on designing human-centred XR systems that mediate real–virtual interaction, support distributed collaboration, and augment human perception, cognition, and creativity through principled interaction design rather than automation alone.

Through QUADRIC (Qualia Design for Realities with Interaction and Collaboration), my research group develops XR and AI systems that are sensitive to context, culture, and lived experience, with particular attention to challenges relevant to Aotearoa New Zealand in areas such as wellbeing, sustainability, and future ways of working. We combine intuitive intelligent user interfaces (IUIs), embodied agents, and immersive environments to improve transparency, trust, and meaningful human–AI collaboration.

A central commitment of our work is the recognition of human qualia, the subjective, felt quality of experience that shapes how people understand and relate to technology. This perspective informs our research on UX, emotion, agency, ethics, and personalisation, ensuring that XR and AI systems are not only functional but also respectful of human values and cultural diversity.

Conceptually, much of my work is guided by the Self++ framework, which organises human–AI coupling across three layers of support: perceptual and skill augmentation, cognitive and decision support, and social and existential alignment. Within this framework, we explore how different forms of AI agency can complement human autonomy, competence, and relatedness while remaining transparent, adaptive, and negotiable.

Overall, my goal is to advance XR and agentic AI as technologies that expand human capability, strengthen collaboration, and align with the social and cultural values of Aotearoa, rather than replace or constrain them.