Yi-Chin Lee is a PhD candidate in Architecture at the University of Michigan with an interdisciplinary background in Computational Design, Social Work, and Human-Computer Interaction. Her doctoral research focuses on developing community-engaged processes to enhance the design of sensory-responsive environments using knitted textiles, with an emphasis on supporting neurodiversity. Her dissertation, Building Sensory Architecture: Orienting Computational Design through Neurodiversity, adopts a participatory approach to examine how tactile objects can create queer/crip spaces that support joy, creative exploration, and healing within normative spaces. Yi-Chin’s work explores the applications of computational tools in knitting technologies through a multisensory lens while combining qualitative methodologies to expand knowledge boundaries by including diverse ways of communicating, making, and living.

Her research collaborators include the Disability Network Washtenaw Monroe Livingston and Ann Arbor Academy, and her work is supported by the Rackham Graduate School and Taiwan’s Ministry of Education.

Yi-Chin holds a certificate in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Studies from the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA). She earned an MS in Computational Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Industrial Design from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.