PHD Students

Ila Adhikari

My research sits at the intersection of educational technology, embodied learning, and artificial intelligence. I explore how innovative digital tools—especially AI-powered platforms—can be designed to actively engage students, personalize learning experiences, and bridge the gap between abstract concepts and real-world understanding.

Advisor: Dr. Chu

Ahmed Rageeb Ahsan

Designing and implementing adaptive interface – how the system should behave according to users’ cognitive load, behavior or psychological state on AR/VR.

Advisor: Dr. Ragan

Mollie Brewer

My research sits at the intersection of sports and human-computer interaction, exploring how coaches and athletes across all levels engage with sports technology and data in practice. I want to improve how these tools are used, making them more practical and impactful for enhancing performance, supporting decision-making, and improving the overall sporting experience.

Advisor: Dr. Boyer

Sarah Brown

My research interests lie in the transformative potential of interactive digital narratives for use in healthcare and education, and the development of embodied creativity support tools.

Advisor: Dr. Chu

William Coggins

I am concerned with Bias detection methods in Machine Learning Models both generative and elsewhere. Bias detection becomes important to help identify and reduce potential harms of these systems. This has applications both in Algorithmic Auditing and in AI Governnance.

Advisor: Dr. Ragan

Alexander Barquero Elizondo

My research focuses on how we can design technologies, such as mixed reality task guidance systems or virtual agents, that are adaptive, inclusive, and grounded in real-world use. By combining user-centered design and multimodal interaction, I create and evaluate systems that support users in all kinds of tasks, while managing cognitive workload and improving usability and accessibility.

Advisor: Dr. Ruiz

Toni Earle Randell

I am interested in how virtual agents can facilitate and support collaborative learning between k-12 students, as 21st-century skills like collaboration are vital in the modern workplace. Agents that can provide adaptive support to pairs or groups of learners could reinforce positive collaborative behaviors and guide students through challenges in collaborative talk.

Advisors: Dr. Boyer, Dr. Dorley

Amanda Griffith

My research investigates human-AI co-creativity, exploring how conversational AI tools impact collaborative creative processes in contexts like computational music creation and narrative writing. By analyzing dialogue patterns and user interactions, I identify how AI influences creative outcomes, user agency, and partner satisfaction. My work aims to inform how we design AI systems that genuinely enhance human creativity.

Advisor: Dr. Boyer

Amal Hashky

My current area of interest lies in Human-centered AI. Specifically, my recent research revolves around decision-making systems and how including different representations components, such as decision history can impact users’ performance when reviewing AI decisions.

Advisor: Dr. Ragan

Rashi Ghosh

My research involves the design & development of educational virtual human interventions to address clinical trial barriers. My work especially revolves around understanding how user characteristics such as health literacy can drive more inclusive and accessible design of virtual human systems.

Advisor: Dr. Lok

Zhanhong Huang

Currently, my research focuses on integrating AI with virtual human technologies to create functional virtual humans that promote mental health, cultural preservation, and social well-being.

Advisor: Dr. Lok

Abhishek Kulkarni

My core research is in the area of interest-based learning, an approach to instruction that leverages students’ interests (like music, soccer, cooking, etc.) to build relevance with learning content. I look at how large language models can be used to automate the generation of interest-based content, which is often challenging to scale manually.

Advisor: Dr. Chu

Qing Li

I am a human centered computing Ph.D. student interested in AI literacy and human-AI interaction, I study how people understand and learn about artificial intelligence. I use these insights to design effective AI literacy programs and develop intuitive, engaging learning experiences that fit naturally into people’s daily lives.

Advisor: Dr. Chu

Chenshen Lu

My research area are spatial audio, generating personalized HRTFs via machine learning algorithm, and perception study of spatial audio.

Advisor: Dr. Mcmullen

David Magda

My research is in undergraduate discrete mathematics. Specifically, the challenges in teaching and learning discrete mathematics as it relates to computer science education.

Advisor: Dr. Gardner-McCune

Rida Malik Mubeen

I am studying the impact that social media has on the mental health of students. Just limiting use and viewing positive content is not a good enough approach and I want to study in depth what factors impact the mental health of students and how it can be improved.

Advisor: Dr. Chu

Andrew Maxim

My research focuses on exploring the influence computer-generated voices have on the perceptions of virtual human characteristics and their subsequent impact on intentions to perform healthier behaviors.

Advisor: Dr. Lok

Xuening Peng

I’m investigating how does the incorporation of virtual agents in immersive virtual reality can improve people’s mental well being. The virtual agents can vary by role (e.g., guider, motivator, companion), appearance (gender, age, similarity), and visual representation (audio only agent, humanoid, pets). The manipulation and combination of virtual agents in the virtual space can help or hinder user experiences and mindfulness states in different aspects.

Advisor: Dr. Lok

Michael Pérez

I research video understanding algorithms and how to apply them in real-time intelligent systems.

Advisor: Dr. Ruiz

Nanjie Rao

My HCI research uses technology to understand user behavior. My dissertation applies AI & LLM to digital footprints and real life data for student interest modeling, focusing on accuracy, data sources, and human-centered explainability (HCXAI).

Advisor: Dr. Chu

Patriel Stapleton

My work focuses on creating simulated environments to prioritize learning through the constructivist approach. I also utilize narrative learning to support players through discovery as the engage with the environment. The experiences the player participates in are intended to inform them of the impact of coastal preservation on all aspects of life.

Advisors: Dr. Blanchard, Dr. Gardner-McCune

Christopher You

My research focuses on designing virtual characters and conversational agents that can drive engagement and promote mental well-being. In relation, I investigate the roles that both users and virtual characters can take to facilitate these effects, using virtual reality.

Advisor: Dr. Lok

Heting Wang

My research centers around differentiating frustration from cognitive workload using brain activation. Cognitive workload is introduced in tasks within a user’s everyday life, and different people exhibit different levels of activation and/or behaviors even when the workload remains consistent, due to emotions like frustration. This prompts the design of a user-centered classifier that is able to “tease out” frustration from cognitive workload. Potential applications can be used for human-AI collaboration in improving educational outcomes.

Advisor: Dr. Ruiz

Xuanpu Zhang

Early detection of depression and anxiety. Improving mental health via technology. Technology to intervene or monitor mental health issues.

Advisor: Dr. Ruiz