Gulnar
Rakhmetulla
Ph.D. in Computer Science
University of California, Merced
Ph.D. in Computer Science
University of California, Merced
I completed my Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree at the University of California, Merced, under the guidance of Dr. Ahmed Sabbir Arif in the Inclusive Interaction Lab. My research focus is centered on the development of inclusive interaction techniques that enhance accessibility and user experience. In particular, I have made significant contributions to the field through my work on novel text entry methods for various types of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches.
Additionally, I hold a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Advanced Control & Systems Engineering, which I earned in 2016 from Sheffield University in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, I completed my Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Information Systems in 2014 from the International IT University in Kazakhstan.
June 2023: A paper "GeShort: One-Handed Mobile Text Editing and Formatting with Gestural Shortcuts and a Floating Clipboard" was accepted. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, MHCI, Article 212 (September 2023), 23 pages.
April 2023: Presented Crownboard, a virtual scanning keyboard optimized for entering text using the crown of a smartwatch at CHI2023 in Hamburg, Germany. Here's a 30sec preview of the work.
January 2023: A paper "Crownboard: A One-Finger Crown-Based Smartwatch Keyboard for Users with Limited Dexterity" was accepted. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023)
July 2022: Defended my dissertation "Inclusive Text Entry Techniques for Mobile Devices".
November 2021: Passed my Qualifying Examination, I am a PhD candidate now.
May 2021: Received a Fred and Mitzie Ruiz Fellowship at UC Merced for the research on accessible text entry techniques.
May 2021: Received the Michael A. J. Sweeney award for the best student paper at GI 2021: "SwipeRing: Gesture Typing on Smartwatches Using a Segmented Qwerty Around the Bezel".
January 2021: Two papers got accepted to Graphics Interface 2021! "SwipeRing: Gesture Typing on Smartwatches Using a Segmented Qwerty Around the Bezel" and "Using Action-Level Metrics to Report the Performance of Multi-Step Keyboards". In Proceedings of the 47th Graphics Interface Conference (GI 2021). Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society (CHCCS), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
September 2020: A paper "TapStr: A Tap and Stroke Reduced-Qwerty for Smartphones" was accepted. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS 2020)
July 2020: Received the 2020-2021 Graduate Student Opportunity Program (GSOP) Fellowship at UC Merced ($45,000) for the research on novel input methods for blind people and ultrasmall devices
April 2020: UC Merced Newsroom and the Mariposa Gazette published news stories covering our work on a novel chorded keyboard for sighted, low vision, and blind mobile users
March 2019: Demonstrated my work on text entry for low vision and blind mobile users to Congressman Jim Costa during his visit at UC Merced
December 2019: A paper "Senorita: A Chorded Keyboard for Sighted, Low Vision, and Blind Mobile Users" was accepted. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020)
November 2019: Invited talk "Novel Eyes-Free Text Entry Techniques for Mobile Devices" at The 2nd Annual Fall Symposium: Branches of Cognitive Science , Cognitive Science Student Association, University of California, Merced, USA
June 2019: Received the summer EECS Bobcat Fellowship at UC Merced ($4,200)
March 2018: A paper "Put a Ring on It: Text Entry Performance on a Grip Ring Attached Smartphone" was accepted. In MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry (MobileHCI 2018)
Gulnar Rakhmetulla, , Yuan Ren, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2023. GeShort: One-Handed Mobile Text Editing and Formatting with Gestural Shortcuts and a Floating Clipboard. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, MHCI, Article 212 (September 2023), 23 pages.
[ Paper ] [ PDF ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2023. Crownboard: A One-Finger Crown-Based Smartwatch Keyboard for Users with Limited Dexterity. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 46, 1–22.
[ Paper ] [ PDF ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2021. SwipeRing: Gesture Typing on Smartwatches Using a Segmented Qwerty Around the Bezel. In Proceedings of the 47th Graphics Interface Conference (GI 2021). Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society (CHCCS), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Article 19, 166-177. Best Paper Award
[ Paper ] [ PDF ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif, Steven J. Castellucci, I. Scott MacKenzie, Caitlyn Seim. 2021. Using Action-Level Metrics to Report the Performance of Multi-Step Keyboards. In Proceedings of the 47th Graphics Interface Conference (GI 2021). Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society (CHCCS), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Article 15, 127-137.
[ Paper ] [ PDF ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Mohammad Akbor Sharif, Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2020. TapStr: A Tap and Stroke Reduced-Qwerty for Smartphones. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS 2020). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
[ Extended Abstract ] [ PDF ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2020. Senorita: A Chorded Keyboard for Sighted, Low Vision, and Blind Mobile Users. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1–13.
[ Acceptance rate: 24% ] [ Paper ] [ Presentation ] [ Video ]
Monwen Shen, Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2018. Put a Ring on It: Text Entry Performance on a Grip Ring Attached Smartphone. In MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry (MobileHCI 2018).Barcelona, Spain, CEUR-WS.org/Vol-2183, 6-10.