Education
2024 PhD, Computer Science, University of British Columbia
2017 Master of Science, Computer Science, University of British Columbia
2015 Bachelor of Science, Major Computer Science, University of British Columbia
2012 Bachelor of Arts, Major Visual Arts, University of British Columbia
Refereed Journal Publications
2025 Zak Witkower, Xi Laura Cang, Paul Bucci, Karon MacLean, Jessica Tracy. (in press). Human psychophysiology is influenced by physical touch with a “breathing” robot. Emotion.
2023 Xi Laura Cang, Rubia R. Guerra, Bereket Guta, Paul Bucci, Laura Rodgers, Hailey Mah, Qianqian Feng, Anuskha Agrawal, Karon E. MacLean. FEELing (key) Pressed: Implicit Touch Pressure Bests Brain Activity in Modelling Emotion Dynamics in the Space Between Stressed and Relaxed. IEEE Transactions on Haptics (ToH).
2023 Paul Bucci, David Marino, Ivan Beschastnikh. Affective Robots Need Therapy. Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI).
2021 Laura Cang, Paul Bucci, Jussi Rantala, Karon E. MacLean. Discerning Affect from Touch and Gaze During Interaction with a Zoomorphic Robot Pet. Transactions on Affective Computing (TAFFC).
Refereed Conference Publications
2024 Augustine Wong, Paul Bucci, Ivan Beschastnikh, Alexandra Fedorova. Making Sense of Multi-Threaded Application Performance at Scale with NonSequitur. ACM Conference on Programming Languages (OOPSLA).
2022 Xi Laura Cang, Rubia Reis Guerra, Paul Bucci, Bereket Guta, Karon MacLean, Laura Rodgers, Hailey Mah, Shinmin Hsu, Qianqian Feng, Chuxuan Zhang, Anushka Agrawal. Choose or Fuse: Enriching Data Views with Multi-label Emotion Dynamics. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII).
2020 Hanieh Shakeri, Hannah Elbaggari, Paul H. Bucci, Robert Xiao, Karon E. MacLean. FoldMold: Automating Papercraft for Fast DIY Casting of Scalable Curved Shapes. Graphics Interface (GI).
2019 Paul H. Bucci, Xi Laura Cang, Haily Mah, Laura Rodgers, and Karon E. MacLean. Real Emotions Don’t Stand Still: Toward Ecologically Viable Representation of Affective Interaction. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interfaces (ACII).
2018 Paul Bucci, Lotus Zhang, Xi Laura Cang, Karon E. MacLean. Is it Happy? Behavioural and Narrative Frame Complexity Impact Perceptions of a Simple Furry Robot’s Emotions. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).
2017 David Marino, Paul Bucci, Oliver Schneider, Karon E. MacLean. Voodle: vocal doodling to sketch affective robot motion. Designing Interactive Systems (DIS).
2017 Paul Bucci, Laura Cang, Anasazi Valair, David Marino, Lucia Tseng, Merel Jung, Jussi Rantala, Oliver Schneider, Karon E. MacLean. Sketching CuddleBits: Coupled Prototyping of Body and Behaviour for an Affective Robot Pet. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).
2015 Laura Cang, Paul Bucci, Andrew Strang, Jeff Allen, Karon E. MacLean, HY Liu. Different Strokes for Different Folks: Economical Dynamic Surface Sensing: Recognition of Affective Touch and Toucher. International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI).
Juried Demonstrations
2018 Lotus Zhang, Paul Bucci, Laura Cang, and Karon E. MacLean. Infusing CuddleBits with Emotion: Build Your Own and Tell Us About It. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).
2016 Paul Bucci, Laura Cang, Matthew Chun, David Marino, Oliver Schneider, Hasti Seifi, Karon E. MacLean. CuddleBits: an iterative prototyping platform for complex haptic display. International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications (EuroHaptics).
2015 Laura Cang, Paul Bucci, and Karon E. MacLean. CuddleBits: Friendly, Low-cost Furballs that Respond to Your Touch. International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI).
Patents
2022 Navjot Kailay, Ellisa Kathleen Calder, Sian Victoria Allen, Kerem Dogurga, Adrian Ka Ming Lai, Jean-Louis Iaconis, Afshin Frederick Mehin, Paul Alexander Hendrik Bucci. Systems and wearable devices for guiding breathing of a wearer and methods of using same, CA3210824A1 (Pending).
Pre-prints
2024 Paul Bucci, Leo Foord-Kelcey, Patrick Yung Kang Lee, Alamjeet Singh, Ivan Beschastnikh. Crystallizing Schemas with Teleoscope: Thematic Curation of Large Text Corpora. arXiv pre-print.
Invited Talks
2023 Providence Health Care Ethics Conference. Benefits (and Downsides) of Being Tricked by Robots.
Academic and Research Positions
2025-Now Collections Curator of Biodiversity Informatics, Beaty Biodiversity Museum
Direct and implement the museum’s digital collections strategy including all aspects of data management from record-keeping, specimen digitization, and publicization.
2020-24 Graduate Research Assistant, UBC Department of Computer Science, Systopia Lab
Worked on cross-cultural privacy and security issues, built a large scale AI data curation tool for qualitative research called Teleoscope, consulted on human subjects studies for systems research.
2016-20Graduate Research Assistant, UBC Department of Computer Science, SPIN Lab
Built a series of soft sensors and robots, co-led a research program of labelling human emotion from biophysical signals, assisted in the founding of the Designing for People research cluster.
2015 Undergraduate Research Assistant, UBC Department of Computer Science, SPIN Lab
Prototyped a series of low-cost soft robots for studying emotions and human touch behaviour.
Teaching
2021-Now COGS 300: Understanding and Designing Cognitive Systems, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2024-Now APSC 160: Introduction to Computation in Engineering Design, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2025 CPSC 121: Methods of Computation, Sessional Lecturer, Corpus Christi
2024 CPSC 110: Computation, programs and programming, Sessional Lecturer, Corpus Christi
2024 COGS 401: Cognitive Systems Seminar, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2023 COGS 200: Introduction to Cognitive Systems, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2023 COMP 2800: Programming Project Course, Contract Faculty, BCIT
2022 COMP 2522: Object-Oriented Programming, Contract Faculty, BCIT
2023 COMP 7904: Narrative Approaches in Video Game Design, Contract Faculty, BCIT
2022 CSIS 2200: Systems Analysis and Design, Contract Faculty, Douglas College
2022 CPSC 100: Computational Thinking, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2021 COGS 300: Understanding and Designing Cognitive Systems, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
2017 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods, Sessional Lecturer, UBC
Teaching Assistantships
2020 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods
2020 CPSC 544K: Designing for People Project Course
2018 CPSC 430: Computers and Society
2018 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods
2016 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods
2016 CPSC 543: Physical User Interface Design
2015 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods
2015 COGS 401: Cognitive Science Research Seminar
2014 CPSC 344: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods
2013 CPSC 101: Connecting with Computer Science
Professional committees and volunteering
2018–22 CS Representative, UBC Graduate Student Wellness Network
2017–20 CS Union Representative and Executive Committee Member at Large, CUPE 2278
2016–18 CS Departmental Representative, UBC Graduate Student Society
2014–15 Coding team volunteer, UBC Visual Cognition Lab
2013–14 Coding team volunteer, UBC Thunderbots@Home Engineering Team
Selected Employment
2006–Now Freelance and consulting design, research, and development
2016–19 Graduate Academic Assistant, UBC’s Designing for People (DFP) research cluster
2012-15 Designer, CITR Radio
2014–14 Production/design assistant, Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
2006–10 Editor, Ubyssey Student Newspaper
Honours
2022 Student Service Award for Graduate Students
UBC Computer Science, for work on the Committee on Outreach, Diversity, and Equity.
2021 Student Service Award for Graduate Students
UBC Computer Science, for work on the Committee on Outreach, Diversity, and Equity.
2021 Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
UBC Computer Science, for HCI courses.
2015 Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award
UBC Computer Science, for HCI courses.
2009 John H. Macdonald Award for Layout and Design (with Goh Iromoto)
National student newspaper award for feature article design.
Awards, Grants, and Scholarships
2023 British Columbia Graduate Scholarship ($15 000)
2022 Designing For People Project Stimulus Grant ($5 200)
2018 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral Award ($63 000)
2015 Science Undergraduate Research Experience Award ($2 500)
Visual Arts Exhibitions, Performances, and Installations
2018 We Were Hoping You’d Buy It, Lights Out Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2015 Gross Density Parcel, Agent C Gallery, Surrey, BC
2015 Concatenation, AMS Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2015 Going Forward/Moving Backward, Canada Line Waterfront Station, Vancouver, BC
2014 Kinetica, AHVA Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2014 Semaphore (with the Shifting Collective), Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver, BC
2014 Marionette (with Kathy Yan Li), Kalama Collective, Vancouver, BC
2014 Douglas Coupland Works Harder Than You (with The Shifting Collective), Vancouver, BC
2013 Processed, Taxi Café popup, Vancouver, BC
2013 In a Celluloid Garden, AHVA Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2013 Retouch (with Kathy Yan Li), Kalama Collective, Vancouver, BC
2012 CTRL, AMS Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2012 Too Deep for You, Dorothy Somerset Studios, Vancouver, BC
2012 Third Year Here, AHVA Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2012 Study for an Ethereal Delight (AVAST Project 2), ICICS building, Vancouver, BC
2012 Interference (AVAST Project 1), Lasserre building, Vancouver, BC
2010 ALEX, AMS Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2010 MESH, Dorothy Somerset Studios, Vancouver, BC
Publications Designed as Lead Designer
2017 Canadaland Guide To Canada (book)
2015 The Syrup Trap Print Edition (magazine)
2008-10 The Ubyssey Student Newspaper
2009 Journalists for Human Rights Speak Magazine
Undergraduate Supervision (start date listed)
2025 Frank Marchesan
2022 Kenny Averna, Dhruv Khanna, Patrick Lee, Sol Lee, Crystal Lee, Leo Foord-Kelsey
2021 Alamjeet Singh, Prayus Shrestha, Florentina Simlinger, Vita Chan
2019 Hafsa Zahid, Andrew Moore, Liz Koswara-Simms, Gabby Savage, Liam Butcher, Sherry Yuan, Eileen Ong, QiQi Li, Hannah Elbaggari
2018 Linda Jiang, Sean Fernandes, Anushka Agrewal, Anita Shah, Hailey Mah, Drishtti Rawat, Qianqian Feng, Zefan Sramek, Laura Rodgers, Minjia Zhan, Tyler Malloy, Aiden Smith, Bryan Lee
2017 Mario Cimet, Lotus Zhang, Sophia Chen
2016 Anasazi Valair, Lucia Tseng, David Marino, Alicia Woodside
Non-academic design portfolio
Most of my current portfolio is available on my print and film page.