HARA, Kotaro
Full-time Faculty
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
School of Computing and Information Systems
SCIS
Qualification
- PhD, University of Maryland, 2016
Teaching Topics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Interaction Design & Prototyping
Research Advisor/Co-Research Advisor to
Research Areas and Areas of Expertise
Strategic Priorities
HighlightsKotaro Hara is a leading researcher in human-computer interaction, accessibility, and crowdsourcing, renowned for designing intelligent systems that empower people with disabilities and advance inclusive technology.
Pioneered scalable, data-driven approaches to urban and digital accessibility; blends technical innovation (crowdsourcing, computer vision, conversational AI) with real-world impact for people with disabilities; recognized for methodological rigor and interdisciplinary collaboration; awarded multiple best paper honors and competitive research grants; actively advances fairness and inclusivity in technology.
Focused research areas include Design, development, and deployment of smart systems for people with disabilities and older adults; integration of crowdsourcing, computer vision, and machine learning to map and improve accessibility; conversational and voice-based interaction; fairness and accessibility in crowd work; multimodal intelligent human-agent interaction.
Pioneered scalable, data-driven approaches to urban and digital accessibility; blends technical innovation (crowdsourcing, computer vision, conversational AI) with real-world impact for people with disabilities; recognized for methodological rigor and interdisciplinary collaboration; awarded multiple best paper honors and competitive research grants; actively advances fairness and inclusivity in technology.
Focused research areas include Design, development, and deployment of smart systems for people with disabilities and older adults; integration of crowdsourcing, computer vision, and machine learning to map and improve accessibility; conversational and voice-based interaction; fairness and accessibility in crowd work; multimodal intelligent human-agent interaction.
Areas of Expertise
Human-computer interactionaccessibility and assistive technologiescrowdsourcingintelligent system design and deploymentmachine learningcomputer visionAI planningqualitative user studies.
Past Awarded Grant
- Mobile-friendly Data Visualization, Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 2, Ministry of Education (MOE), PI: WANG Yong, Co-PI: HARA, Kotaro, 2023, S$632,684
- Improving Fairness and Accessibility of Crowd Work, Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 2, Ministry of Education (MOE), PI: HARA, Kotaro, Co-PI: Rajesh Krishna BALAN, 2021, S$579,384
- Business communication practices with chatbots for SMEs in Singapore, SMU Internal Grant, Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1, PI: Tamas MAKANY, Co-PI: Sungjong ROH, 2022, S$39,960
- Multi-modal, Real-time Comprehension for Interactive Intelligent Human-Agent Interaction, SMU Internal Grant, Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1, PI: Jing JIANG, Co-PI: Archan MISRA, HARA, Kotaro, 2019, S$499,750
- The Design of a Requester Toolkit to Foster an Understanding of Crowd Work, SMU Internal Grant, Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1, PI: HARA, Kotaro, 2018, S$64,500
Latest Publications
Showing up to 6 latest publications from the past 5 years.
- S Cai, N Janaka, A Ram, J Shehan, Y Wan, K Hara, D HsuProceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot …, 2026
- M Karunathilaka, S Zhang, A Tang, K Hara, J Li, Y WangarXiv preprint arXiv:2512.00516, 2025
- S Sheshadri, K HaraProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous …, 2025
- Y Jiao, R Sun, R Luo, X Yao, X She, K Hara, Y Zhang, X FuProceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers …, 2025
- R Yonetani, K HaraProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous …, 2025
- Q Zhu, X Yao, R Sun, K Hara, Y Jiao2025 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC), 214-227, 2025
This highlights are AI-generated content using the faculty's CV.
Qualification
- PhD, University of Maryland, 2016
Teaching Topics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Interaction Design & Prototyping
