I am on the job market!
I am a researcher building programming tools for experimental digital fabrication; my research mission is to enable safe, expressive programming for manipulating physical matter. In particular, machines like 3D printers, CNC mills, and laboratory automation tools have enabled new advances in science, art, and engineering, but remain difficult to program beyond common-case tasks. My PhD work has drawn on research in programming languages and human-computer interaction to help fabricators manage the complexity of machine and robot control, material behavior, motion planning, and data visualization.
Selected Projects
scattered datasheets versus a univied language with checks
Programming Language Foundations for Reasoning with Digital Fabrication Machines
a user controls a shopbot cnc mill with an AR overlay using their computational notebook
Computational Notebook Tools for Manufacturing Robot Control
a user controls a shopbot cnc mill with an AR overlay using their computational notebook
Coordinating Disparate Physical and Digital Steps in a Single Programming Environment
More info TBA
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers
  1. J. Tran O’Leary, T. Ramesh, O. Zhang, and N. Peek. “Implementing an Error-Prone Digital Fabrication Workflow as a Single Program.” Under review for the 2024 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
  2. J. Li, E. Rawn, J. Ritchie, J. Tran O’Leary, and S. Follmer. “Beyond the Artifact: Power as Lens for Creativity Support Tools.” To appear in Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.
  3. J. Tran O’Leary, G. Benabdallah, and N. Peek. “Imprimer: Computational Notebooks for CNC Milling.” Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3544548.3581334
  4. J. Tran O’Leary, E. Jun, and N. Peek. “Improving Programming for Exploratory Digital Fabrication with Inline Machine Control and Styled Toolpath Visualizations.” Proceedings of the 7th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication. doi:10.1145/3559400.3561998
  5. J. Tran O’Leary, C. Nandi, K. Lee, and N. Peek. “Taxon: a Language for Formal Reasoning with Digital Fabrication Machines.” Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. doi:10.1145/3472749.3474779
  6. H. Twigg-Smith, J. Tran O’Leary, and N. Peek. “Tools, Tricks, and Hacks: Exploring Novel Digital Fabrication Workflows on #PlotterTwitter.” Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3411764.3445653
  7. J. Vasquez, H. Twigg-Smith, J. Tran O’Leary, and N. Peek. “Jubilee: an Extensible Machine for Multi-Tool Fabrication.” Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3313831.3376425
  8. J. Tran O’Leary, S. Zewde, J. Mankoff, and D. Rosner. “Who Gets to Future? Design Methods, Race, and Representation in Africatown.” Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3290605.3300791
  9. J. Tran O’Leary, H. Winnemöller, W. Li, M. Dontcheva, and M. Dixon. “Charrette: Supporting In-Person Discussions around Iterations in User Interface Design.” Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3173574.3174109
  10. C. Torres, J. Tran O’Leary, M. Nicholas, and E. Paulos. “Illumination Aesthetics: Light as a Creative Material within Computational Design.” Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3025453.3025466 Best Paper Award: Top 1% of Papers.
  11. J. Lo, C. Torres, I. Yang, J. Tran O’Leary, D. Kaufman, W. Li, M. Dontcheva, and E. Paulos. “Aesthetic Electronics: Designing, Sketching, and Fabricating Circuits through Digital Exploration.” Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. doi:10.1145/2984511.2984579
Doctoral Symposia
  1. J. Tran O’Leary. “Physical-Digital Programming.” Extended Abstracts of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. doi:10.1145/3586182.3616709
Extended Abstracts and Demonstrations
  1. J. Tran O’Leary, C. Nandi, K. Lee, and N. Peek. “Taxon: a Language for Formal Reasoning with Digital Fabrication Machines.” Demonstration at the 6th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication.
  2. J. Tran O’Leary, C. Nandi, K. Lee, and N. Peek. “A Grammar of Digital Fabrication Machines.” Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3411763.3451829
  3. J. Vasquez, H. Twigg-Smith, J. Tran O’Leary, and N. Peek. “Jubilee Demo: An Extensible Machine for Multi-Tool Fabrication.” 2020. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3334480.3383179
  4. J. Tran O’Leary and N. Peek. “Machine-o-Matic: a Programming Environment for Prototyping Digital Fabrication Workflows.” Presented at 10th Annual Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Programming Languages.
  5. J. Tran O’Leary and N. Peek. “Machine-o-Matic: a Programming Environment for Prototyping Digital Fabrication Workflows.” Adjunct Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. doi:10.1145/3332167.3356897
  6. J. Tran O’Leary and N. Peek. “Material Flow in Makerspaces.” International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces. https://ijamm.pubpub.org/pub/d42sj8vn
  7. J. Tran O’Leary. “3D Printing Self-Unmaking Objects.” Workshop on Making Use of Non-Deterministic Art Practices in HCI.
  8. C. Torres, J. Tran O’Leary, and E. Paulos. “Leveraging Theatricality for an Expressive Internet of Things.” Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems. doi:10.1145/2908805.2908807