I am an Assistant Professor at the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University. I am a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher who applies machine learning (ML) to solve sociotechnical issues using human-centered approaches. My research expertise is positioned at the intersection of HCI, Social Computing, ML, Privacy, and Online Safety.
I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida under Dr. Pamela Wisniewski's supervision in the Socio-technical Interaction Research (STIR) Lab. In my doctoral research, I contributed to an NSF-funded project entitled “A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Detecting Adolescent Online Risks”. This project addresses the critical and timely problem of adolescent online safety by leveraging a multi-disciplinary approach of human-centered machine learning to accurately detect risks teens encounter online. I have experience working on fast-paced product projects using mix-methods in the industry (Mozilla, ConvertKit) as a User Experience Researcher.
My work bridges the gap between the social science and computer science research domains by synergistically combining the vastly different methodological approaches to deeply understand societal issues and identify ways that those could be meditated using technology. The novelty of my work comes through filling the gaps between the techniques in HCI, NLP, and the domain of online safety of vulnerable populations to develop practical solutions to make online interactions safer for youth.
I am looking for highly motivated undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students to join me at Drexel CCI to conduct research at the intersection of Online Safety, Human-centered Machine Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, and Privacy. If you are interested, please send me an email with your CV!
For the Ph.D. in Information Science program, please check the admissions requirements and application deadlines to apply.
Recent News
November 2022: Talk at the University of Washington DUB Seminar on "Leveraging a Human-Centered Approach to Machine Learning to Improve Youth Online Safety".
May 2022: I will join the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2022.
April 2022: Congratulations to my undergraduate mentee Carolina Santos on receiving the judges’ choice distinction award for presenting poster in the Student Scholar Symposium at UCF, 2022 from among a strong group of Undergraduate presentation in the S.T.E.M category.
April 2022: I defended my dissertation entitled, “A Human-centered Approach to improving Adolescent Online Sexual Risk Detection Algorithms.” Thanks to my advisor Dr. Pamela Wisniewski and committee members Dr. Charlie Hughes, Dr. Munmun De Choudhury, and Dr. Ulas Bagci.
April 2022: We received Best Paper Honorable Mention for our CHI 2022 paper on understanding the digital lives of youth. You can read the full paper from here.
March 2022: We had presented at MozFest 2022 where we launched our MozSafely community. Modus Operandi Safely (MOSafely.org) is an open-source community that leverages evidence-based research, data, and Artificial Intelligence to help youth engage more safely online. To learn detail about MoSafely you can check our presentation slide and also visit our MoSafely website.
December 2021: Our case study paper was published at the ACM CHI 2022 titled "Instagram Data Donation: A Case Study on Collecting Ecologically Valid Social Media Data for the Purpose of Adolescent Online Risk Detection".
October 2021: Accepted publications at the 24th ACM CSCW 2021: Full papers: "A Human-Centered Systematic Literature Review of the Computational Approaches for Online Sexual Risk Detection", "Safe Sexting: The Support Adolescents Receive from Peers Concerning Their Online Sexual Experiences ", "A Human-Centered Systematic Literature Review of Cyberbullying Detection Algorithms ". Workshop: "MOSafely: Building an Open-Source HCAI Community to Make the Internet a Safer Place for Youth " Poster: "If You Care About Me, You’ll Send Me a Pic "
September 2021: Congratulations to the STIR Lab’s Teenovate team in obtaining grant funding for supporting the development of a Youth Advisory Board! The grant was created by the Social Media Adolescent Health Research Team (SMAHRT) within the Technology and Adolecent Mental Wellness program, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
September 2021: We are leading the MOSafely Workshop at CSCW, in collaboration with students from Georgia Tech and Boston University. The goal of this one-day workshop is to begin building an active community of researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers who are jointly committed to leveraging human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI) to make the internet a safer place for youth. For more details about the workshop, please visit https://www.mosafely.org/workshops/cscw2021/
August 2021: Congratulations to the MOSafely Senior Design Team for completing their Senior Design Project! Their work can be seen here: https://sd.mosafely.org
June 2020: I start an internship as a User Experience Researcher with Mozilla.
June 2020: I am selected as the Grace Hopper Student Scholars for 2020. I am excited to learn from the experiences and career trajectories of women across a diverse array of roles in technology.
April 2020: I am presenting my work as part of a series of presentations, on April 30th. A (Virtual) Taste of CHI 2020 will feature a lineup of presentations on data, health, and learning. I will be presenting our work, entitled, “Let’s Talk about Sext: How Adolescents Seek Support and Advice About Their Online Sexual Experiences”.
February 2020: I was featured in a UCF news article as part of a series on Stories of Impact+Innovation. The article highlights my work at the intersection of human-computer interaction and machine learning. To read the full article, please click here: Student Research: Working to Mitigate Sexual Dangers for Teens Online