MirelaAlistar

  • Assistant Professor
  • Living Matter Lab
  • BIOCHIPS, PERSONAL MEDICINE, DIY BIO
  • COMPUTER SCIENCE
  • ATLAS INSTITUTE
Address

ATLS 201C

Mirela (assistant professor, ATLAS Institute, Computer Science) investigates the extent to which we can change healthcare to make it a personal process. Her research focuses around microfluidic biochips, devices thatenable direct interaction of humans with their microbiome for diagnosis purposes. So farMirelahas built systems based on biochips to serve as personal laboratories: small portable devices that people can own and use to develop customized bio-protocols ("bio-apps").

Mirelais an active contributor to the DIYBio movement, having led and co-founded community wetlabs. In this context, she organizes interactive performances, art installations and open workshops, in order to engage the public in direct interaction with living materials (e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi).

Mirelareceived her PhD from the Technical University of Denmark in 2014, and until 2018, she was a postdoc in Patrick Baudish's lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany.Mirela’s work is published intop-tier journals and conferences (IEEE TCAD) and has been demonstrated at venues such as IEEE ESWeek and Molecular Communications.Mirelahas served as a guest editor for Current Biotechnology journal (CBNT) and as a reviewer for venues such as Applied Materials and Interfaces, DATE, TCAD, ToDAES, NanoCom and UIST.

Mirela Alistar is the director of the Living Matter Lab at the ATLAS Institute.

Outreach:Engaging Underrepresented Students (funded by Google exploreCSR)

Projects

Publications

Viola Arduini,Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Srujana Golla, andMirela Alistar. 2026. “”. In:Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. (Chicago, IL, March 8-11, 2026).

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Viola Arduini,Etta W Sandry,Katerina Houser,Srujana Golla, andMirela Alistar. 2026. “”. In:Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. (Chicago, IL, March 8-11, 2026).

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Viola Arduini,Etta W Sandry,Srujana Golla,Laura Devendorf, andMirela Alistar. 2025. “”. In:Companion of the 2025 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp Companion ’25). (Espoo, Finland, October 12–16, 2025).

Fiona Bell,Mirela Alistar and Leah Buechley. 2025.. In:Biotechnology Design, 2025;4:e3. (August 27, 2025).

Gabrielle Benabdallah,Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Laura Devendorf, andMirela Alistar. 2025. "”. In:Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '25). (July 5–9, 2025, Funchal, Portugal).

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez, Sepideh Mohammadi, Latifa Al Naimi, Shira David, Mirela Alistar. 2025. “”. In: TEI '25: Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. (Bordeaux/Talence, France, March 4 - 7, 2025).

Mirela Alistar, Shira David, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez. 2025. “”. In: TEI '25: Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. (Bordeaux/Talence, France, March 4 - 7, 2025).

Jingwen Zhu, Fiona Bell, Katherine W Song, Katia Vega, Aditya Shekhar Nittala, Mirela Alistar, Leah Buechley, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao. 2025. “”. In: CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Yokohama, Japan; April 26 - May 1, 2025).

Aditi Maheshwari, Fiona Bell, Eric Gallo, Mihai Ibanescu, Emily Robertson, Charlotte Fairless, Francis Logan, Mary Jane Schmuhl, Henry Cheung, Michael Rein, Andreea Danielescu, Mirela Alistar. 2025. "". In: ACS Omega. (January 23, 2025).

Fiona Bell, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard and Mirela Alistar. 2024."". In:ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (Volume 31, Issue 6), (December 2024).

Nadia Campo Woytuk, Fiona Bell, Joo Young Park, Mirela Alistar and Madeline Balaam. 2024."". In: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium (HttF '24), (Santa Cruz, CA, October 21-23, 2024).

Mirela Alistar, Latifa Al-Naimi, Sepideh Mohammadi, Shira David, Julia Tung and Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez. 2024."". In: Companion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp '24), (Melbourne, Australia, October 5-9, 2024).

Dreycey Albin, Michelle Ramsahoye, Eitan Kochavi and Mirela Alistar. 2024."". In: FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY, (September 16, 2024).

Netta Ofer and Mirela Alistar. 2024."". In:Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '24), (Copenhagen, Denmark, July 1-5, 2024).

Latifa Al-Naimi and Mirela Alistar. 2024."". In:Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24), (Honolulu, HI, May 11–16, 2024).

Katherine W Song, Fiona Bell, Himani Deshpande, Ilan Mandel, Tiffany Wun, Mirela Alistar, Leah Buechley, Wendy Ju, Jeeeun Kim, Eric Paulos, Samar Sabie and Ron Wakkary. 2024."". In:Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '24), (Honolulu, HI, May 11–16, 2024).

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Mirela Alistar,Laura Devendorf, andMichael L. Rivera. 2024.. In:Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), (Honolulu, HI, May 11–16, 2024).

Fiona Bell, Joshua Coffie and Mirela Alistar. 2024."". In:Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24), (Cork, Ireland, February 11-14, 2024).

Fiona Bell, Shanel Wu, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez, Mirela Alistar and Leah Buechley. 2024."". In:Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24), (Cork, Ireland, February 11-14, 2024).

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Lily M Gabriel,Mikhaila Friske,Shanel Wu,Sasha De Koninck,Laura Devendorf, andMirela Alistar. 2023. "". In:Adjunct Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing &the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing (UbiComp/ISWC '23 Adjunct).(October 08, 2023).

Dreycey Albin,Lukas Buecherl,Eitan Kochavi,Elise Niehaus,Sasha Novack,Shenali Uragoda, Chris J. Myers, andMirela Alistar. 2023. "". In:IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. (July 14, 2023).

Fiona Bell,Michelle Ramsahoye,Joshua Coffie,Julia Tung, andMirela Alistar. 2023. “”. In:Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’23), (Pittsburgh, PA, July 10–14, 2023).

Netta OferandMirela Alistar. 2023."". In:Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(Hamburg, Germany, April 23-28, 2023).

Fiona Bell,Derrek Chow,Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Laura Devendorf, andMirela Alistar. 2023. "". In:Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '23)(Warsaw, Poland, February 26 - March 1, 2023)​. [Best Pictorial Award]

Fiona Bell,Derrek Chow,Hyelin Choi, andMirela Alistar. 2023. "". In:Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '23)(Warsaw, Poland, February 26 - March 1, 2023)​.

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez,Netta Ofer,Shanel Wu,Mary Etta West,Mirela AlistarandLaura Devendorf.2022. "". In:Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’22).(Virtual, June 13-17, 2022).

Fiona Bell,Netta Ofer,Hyelin Choi,Ella McQuaid,Ethan Frier, andMirela Alistar.2022. "". In:Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22).(New Orleans, LA—April 29-May 5, 2022).

Fiona Bell,Netta Ofer, andMirela Alistar. 2022. "". In:Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI ’22).(New Orleans, LA, April 29-May 5, 2022)[Best Paper Honorable Mention Award].

Fiona Bell,Ella McQuaid, andMirela Alistar.2022. "". In: Diseña 20: Design and Somatic Sensibilities.

Fiona Bell,Latifa Al-Naimi,Ella McQuaid, andMirela Alistar. 2022. "". In:Sixteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '22).(Daejeon, Republic of Korea (virtual) Feb. 13-16, 2022).

Fiona BellandMirela Alistar. 2022. ". In:Sixteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '22).(Daejeon, Republic of Korea (virtual), February 13-16, 2022).

Purnendu,Sasha M Novack, Eric Acome, Christoph Keplinger,Mirela Alistar,Mark D Gross,Carson Bruns, andDaniel Leithinger. 2021. "". In:Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021.(June 28-July 2,2021–Virtual Event).

Netta Ofer,Fiona BellandMirela Alistar. 2021. ". In:Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021(DIS ’21). (Virtual, June 28 - July 2, 2021).

Fiona Bell, Alice Hong, Andreea Danielescu, Aditi Maheshwari, Ben Greenspan, Hiroshi Ishii,Laura Devendorf, andMirela Alistar. 2021. "Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light".In:Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). (Yokohama, Japan (virtual)–May 8-13, 2021).

Fiona BellandMirela Alistar. 2021. Alganyl.Patent No.US 63/184,992, Filed April 26th, 2021.

Mirela Alistarand Margherita Pevere. 2020. ". In:Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’20). (Honolulu, Hawaii (virtual)–April 25-30, 2020).

Timothy Merritt, Foad Hamidi,Mirela Alistar& Marta DeMenezes.2020."In:Digital Creativity,31:1.

Mirela Alistar, 2019..Bioengineering Journal.

Mirela Alistar, Urs Gaudenz. 2017.An Integrated Do-It-Yourself Platform for Personal Use of Biochips.Bioengineering Journal.

Mirela Alistar, Paul Pop, Jan Madsen. 2016..IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems(TCAD).

Alexandra Ion, Johannes Frohnhofen,Mirela Alistar, Ludwig Wall, Jack Lindsay, Pedro Lopes, Hsiang-Ting Chen, Patrick Baudisch. 2016..Proc. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology(UIST’16), 529-539.[Honorable Mention Award].

Paul Pop,MirelaAlistar, Elena Stuart, Jan Madsen.. Springer 2016.