About

Joanne Leong has a keen interest in understanding our human perception of the world, and designing technologies that complement us and can bring positive change to our lives—in how we learn, work, play, and connect with one another and the things around us. 

Her current research focuses on enabling personalized experiences for learning and self-development, for which she has been awarded a grant from the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili). 

Prior to joining the Media Lab, Joanne attained a bachelor’s degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo as well as a master’s degree in Interactive Media while holding a research position at the Media Interaction Lab at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. She has completed various internships and academic exchanges in North America, Asia, and Europe. During her PhD, she has interned at Autodesk Research (2024), Microsoft Research (2023) and Snap Research (2021). 

Her past works include a novel smart textile-based wearable approach for the sensory augmentation of prosthetic limbs (UIST 2016 Best Paper), and a conceptual framework for aiding in the design of constructive assemblies (TEI 2017 Best Paper).

Read more about her work on her website.