PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Antti Oulasvirta

Antti Oulasvirta is a professor at Aalto whose work uses computational models to design interfaces and AI models to explain human behavior. He earned a cognitive science doctorate at Helsinki, became a Fulbright Scholar at Berkeley, and worked at HIIT and Max Planck, where his team developed the KALQ touchscreen keyboard. An ERC Starting Grant backed his computational interface-design research from 2015 to 2020, and he taught computational interaction at CHI in 2018. He received a 2024 ERC Advanced Grant for user-model research and was elected the first Finnish member of the CHI Academy in 2025. As of October 2026, he is a professor at Aalto and leads the Computational Behavior Lab.

Works
462
Citations
15,541
h-index
67
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1999–2006

    Cognitive science at Helsinki

    He studies cognitive science in 1999 and completes a doctorate at the University of Helsinki in 2006.

  2. 2007–2011

    Berkeley and HIIT research

    He is a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley's School of Information in 2007–2008 and a Senior Researcher at HIIT in 2008–2011.

  3. 2011–2014

    Designing the KALQ keyboard

    His computational interface-design work begins in a research team he heads at Max Planck in Germany in 2011. The team uses a model of thumb movement and computational optimization to create KALQ, a touchscreen keyboard; a 2013 user study finds users type 34% faster than with QWERTY after short practice. In 2014, he begins setting up a new research team at Aalto.

  4. 2015–2020

    Computational interface design

    An ERC Starting Grant backs his computational design of user interfaces from 2015 to 2020. At CHI in 2018, he teaches a course on computational interaction and leads a session on layout optimization.

  5. 2024

    AI models of human behavior

    In 2024, he receives a €2.5 million ERC Advanced Grant to study user models. The five-year project aims to build AI models that explain and predict behavior and test interface designs in simulation; he coordinates FCAI's Interactive AI research program.

  6. 2025

    Elected to the CHI Academy

    He becomes the first Finnish member of the CHI Academy in 2025.

  7. As of October 2026

    Professor at Aalto

    He is a professor at Aalto and leads the Computational Behavior Lab. In 2026, he describes a reinforcement-learning model that explains and recreates how people read.

Career

  1. Since 2008Aalto UniversitySenior Researcher
  2. 2019–2024Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence
  3. 2013–2015Saarland University
  4. 2011–2014Max Planck SocietyResearch Team Head
  5. 2011–2017Max Planck Institute for Informatics
  6. 2007–2008University of California, BerkeleyFulbright Scholar

Education

  1. 2006University of HelsinkiDoctorate

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Habits make smartphone use more pervasive2011 · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · 1,185 citations
  2. Interaction in 4-second bursts2005 · ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) · 574 citations
  3. ContextPhone: A Prototyping Platform for Context-Aware Mobile Applications2005 · IEEE Pervasive Computing · 483 citations
  4. It's Mine, Don't Touch!2008 · ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) · 463 citations
  5. iSkin2015 · 367 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Aalto University. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Aalto University. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 3% to 32%Includes Aalto University. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 3% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Max Planck Society. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Antti Oulasvirta yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Four Myths About AI: Researchers Reveal What You Shouldn't Expect From It aaltoee.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Antti Oulasvirta users.aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Antti Oulasvirta receives ERC funding for research on user interface optimisation aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. New keyboard for touchscreens mpg.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. CHI 2018 Course: Computational Interaction: Theory and Practice userinterfaces.aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Researchers investigate how AI could better understand humans aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Antti Oulasvirta as a member of the CHI Academy aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. AI model captures how humans read, paving the way to personalised text and better augmented reality aalto.fi. Checked 18 October 2026.