Tica Lin, PhD

I am an HCI & Data Visualization Scientist with a deep passion for interactive technologies, human-centered design, and sports analytics.

I am a Sr. Research Scientist at Dolby Laboratories and serve as a Consultant at Taiwan Institute of Sports Science. I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University. My work bridges the gap between technology and human experience, leveraging AI and XR to support contextual understanding, insight generation, and human-AI collaboration in human-centered practices, such as sports training and creative production. Through theory-grounded, data-driven design, I strive to create tools and experiences that empower people to work effectively with intelligent systems.

My research has been recognized with Best Paper Awards in leading HCI and Visualization venues including ACM CHI and IEEE VIS. I have contributed to immersive and AI research across academic and industry settings, such as Adobe, Apple Vision Pro, and Meta Reality Labs. Prior to my Ph.D., I was a Senior Data Visualization Designer at Visa and the first UX Designer at Philadelphia 76ers Basketball Analytics, experiences I shared in my book “My 76ers Story”.

Driven by a passion for knowledge sharing and community building, I authored Ph.D. Survival Kit in Harvard Graduate Review to support fellow students navigating the PhD hardship, and I was featured by The Science Coalition for my work bringing sports, AI, and immersive experiences to inspire women in STEM. My featured work and journey can be explored through my publications and talks.

News

01/2026 • Two papers accepted to CHI 2026

09/2025 • Served as a keynote speaker at PyCon 2025

08/2025 • One papaer accepted to VIS 2025 Workshop

04/2025 • Best Paper Honorable Mention at CHI 2025

03/2025 • One paper accepted to EuroVis 2025

02/2025 • Joined Dolby Laboratories as Sr. Research Scientist!

02/2025 • One paper accepted to PacificVis 2025

01/2025 • One paper accepted to CHI 2025

12/2024 • Serve as consultant at Taiwan Institute of Sports Science

09/2024 • One paper accepted to VIS 2024 Workshop

07/2024 • One paper accepted to VIS 2024

04/2024 • Best Paper Award (VisNotes) at PacificVis 2024!

04/2024 • Named 2024 Taipei Women in Tech honoree

03/2024 • I passed my Ph.D. Defense! 🎉

03/2024 • One paper accepted to EuroVis 2024

02/2024 • One VisNotes paper accepted to PacificVis 2024

01/2024 • One poster accepted to IEEE VR 2024

01/2024 • Publish my first book "My 76ers Story"!

09/2023 • Started internship at Adobe Research

08/2023 • One paper accepted to ISMAR 2023

07/2023 • One paper accepted to IEEE TVCG

07/2023 • Two papers accepted to VIS 2023

05/2023 • Started internship at Apple

01/2023 • One paper accepted to CHI 2023

12/2022 • One paper accepted to IEEE CG&A

08/2022 • Best Paper Honorable Mention at VIS 2022

07/2022 • One paper accepted to VIS 2022

05/2022 • Started internship at Adobe Research

12/2021 • One paper accepted to IEEE TVCG

10/2021 • Served as SV at VIS 2021

06/2021 • Started internship at Facebook Reality Labs

05/2021 • Passed Ph.D. qualifying exam

03/2021 • Best Paper Honorable Mention at CHI 2021

01/2021 • Two papers accepted to CHI 2021

04/2020 • One workshop paper accepted to CHI 2020

09/2019 • Started Ph.D. at Harvard University

Featured Publications

—> All Publications

VIRD: Immersive Match Video Analysis for High-Performance Badminton Coaching

Tica Lin, Alexandre Aouididi, Zhutian Chen, Johanna Beyer, Hanspeter Pfister, Jui-Hsien Wang

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2023 (VIS'23)

Paper (IEEE) Open Access Code Video

SportsBuddy: Designing and Evaluating an AI-Powered Sports Video Storytelling Tool Through Real-World Deployment

Tica Lin*, Ruxun Xiang*, Gardenia Liu, Divyanshu Tiwari, Meng-Chia Chiang, Chenjiayi Ye, Hanspeter Pfister, Chen Zhu-Tien

IEEE Pacific Visualization Conference, 2025 (PacificVis'25)

Paper (IEEE) Open Access Website

The Quest for Omnioculars: Embedded Visualization for Augmenting Basketball Game Viewing Experiences

Tica Lin, Zhutian Chen, Yalong Yang, Daniele Chiappalupi, Johanna Beyer, Hanspeter Pfister

Honorable Mention Award (Top 5%)
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2022 (VIS'22)

Paper (IEEE) Open Access Video

Labeling Out-of-View Objects in Immersive Analytics to Support Situated Visual Searching

Tica Lin, Yalong Yang, Johanna Beyer, Hanspeter Pfister

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2021 (Invited to present at VIS'22)

Paper (IEEE) Open Access Video

Towards an Understanding of Situated AR Visualization for Basketball Free-Throw Training

Tica Lin, Rishi Singh, Yalong Yang, Carolina Nobre, Johanna Beyer, Maurice Smith, Hanspeter Pfister

Honorable Mention Award (Top 5%)
Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'21)

Paper (ACM) Open Access Video

Invited Talks & Lectures

—> View Featured Talks

→ Hongik University Department of Industrial and Data Engineering, Sep 2025
SportsXR: Transforming Sports Performance and Wellness through Immersive Data Visualizations

→ 2025 PyCon Taiwan Keynote, Sep 2025
當科技走進球場：21世紀運動數據科技的發展與創新

→ Asia Association of Coaching Science Conference, Jun 2025
Empowering Coaching through Data-Driven Video Analytics and Storytelling

→ ACT Basketball Camp, Apr 2025
Empowering Athlete Growth and Storytelling with Video Analysis

→ Taiwan Institute of Sports Science, Dec 2024
21st Century Sports Analytics and Technology Innovation

→ Harvard Sports Analysis Collective, Nov 2024
From Analytics to Reality: Bringing Insights to Life with SportsXR

→ Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica , Sep 2024
PhD Survival Kit - Things I wish I knew on Day One

→ TechGirls Program at Taiwan, U.S. Department of States , Aug 2024
Breaking Boundaries: My Journey Through the US Sports and Tech Industries

→ Georgia Tech, AI Artistic Human Performance Workshop, May 2024
SportsXR: Augmenting Spatial Intelligence through Immersive Sports Analytics

→ University of Massachusetts Boston, CS617 - Visualizing Boston, March 2024
SportsXR: Sports Analytics with Immersive Visualizations

→ Brandeis University, COSI116A - Information Visualization, November 2023
Designing XR Visualizations for Real-life Analytic Tasks

→ JPMorgan Chase & Co, Applied Research Team, October 2023
Turn Data into Reality: Designing Contextual XR Visualizations for Situated Analytics

→ Georgia Tech, CS4460 - Introduction to Information Visualization, October 2023
SportsXR: Augmenting Sports Analytics with Immersive Visualizations

→ Inria at Université Paris-Saclay, AVIZ research group, April 2023
From Data to Reality: Augmenting Sports Analytics Workflow with Situated Visualizations

→ Boston College, CSCI3361 - Human-Computer Interaction, April 2023
Human-Centered Design in SportsXR

→ Harvard AR/VR Symposium: Sports Meet XR, November 2022

→ National Tsing Hua University, Department of Computer Science, November 2022
Sports Analytics & Visualization Research

→ Gate Sports Education: Introduction to Sports Analytics Workshop, June 2022

→ St. Ambrose University, KIN401 - Seminar in Sport Management, April 2022
21st Century Sports Analytics & Innovation

→ Harvard University, CS171 - Visualization, November 2021
Visualization Research Intro: Immersive Analytics in Sports

→ Gate Sports Education, November 2021
Study Abroad: PhD in Sports Technology & Analytics

Selected Media Coverage

📣 The Convergence of Sports and XR - Hongik Media 🇰🇷
Nov 5, 2025 [article]

📣 Science is Everyone | Bringing Sports to All with AI and XR Tech - The Science Coalition 🇺🇸
May 31, 2024 [article]

📣 From game footage to great footage - Visual Computing Group debuts SportsBuddy highlight program, Harvard School of Engineering 🇺🇸
February 15, 2024 [article]

📣 Sixers Analyst Interview with Tica Lin, Hung Ku Sports 🇹🇼
January 17, 2024 [youtube]

📣 Sports Talk with Tica Lin, Gate Sports Education 🇹🇼
December 30, 2022 [article 1, article 2]

📣 Analytics-driven Sixers ride the numbers to NBA playoffs, The Philadelphia Inquirer 🇺🇸
April 18, 2018 [article]

Home