PhD Candidate in Computational Media at UCSC

About

I am a mixed-methods HRI/HCI researcher and PhD candidate in Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My background is in psychology and HCI, as well as mental health counseling. I bring my experience with human services work and training in both qualitative and quantitative methods to study how people engage with technology. Broadly, I am interested in the future of work and how non-human agents can act as platforms for enhancing physical, emotional, and mental health. In 2021, I completed my masters thesis on the design of, and response to, curious robots advised by Dr. Leila Takayama. While affiliated with the Human-Robot Interaction lab at UCSC, I led industry sponsored projects on; training and work practices of professional robot operators, help seeking behaviors behaviors for robots, and perceptions of different robot voices and morphologies. Presently, I am completing my PhD co-advised by Profs. Kate Ringland and Elin Carstensdottir in the MISFIT lab and Interaction Dynamics lab respectively. My dissertation focuses on how neurodivergent populations’ co-opt various media as colloquial assistive technology for work/school, specifically LoFi Media Environments (LMEs). I continue to conduct industry sponsored research on human-robot interactions, currently focused on social navigation strategies for robots traveling in crowded public spaces.