Cognitive Science

Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). 

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Improving the well-being of people with mental illness requires not only clinical treatment but also social support. This research examines how major life transitions around mental illnesses are exhibited on social media and how social and…

As part of the Jill Watson Suite of Tools for Education, Agent Smith enable anyone to build their own agents.

A platform that allows teachers, counselors and parents to follow student's adjustment behaviors.

The Holodeck, a virtual reality simulator from the television show Star Trek, is known as the ‚Äúholy grail‚Äù of interactive narrative experiences. However, while there have been approaches to various components of a theoretical Holodeck, scene…

No matter what age we are, we have likely forgotten to turn off the stove or oven, iron, heater or even water. Forgetfulness can lead to serious events that may result in costly damage to the home or even injury or death. Older adults are more…

This project, the winner of the 2020 EmPOWER Air Data Challenge from the US EPA creates an online tool for exploring relationships between coal power plant emissions, wind currents, and local health impacts. 

Seeking mentorship and advice is a key activity in a graduate student’s career development, specifically when transitioning from academia, and looking for job opportunities. While multiple sources of career-related information are available to…

We're using a revolutionary new approach to optimizing the process of order picking. Contrary to traditional methods, we want to use smart head-worn displays (HWDs) to enable our users to detect and correct errors during order picking in real-…

Before the onset of the pandemic, we used to be able to visit public places, like library and cafes, where we could work and enjoy the atmosphere of having others around. But then the pandemic hit, and with it came remote work where many were…

BEAMS is a virtual reality rhythm game that encourages its players to engage with their bodies in novel and playful ways, expanding player perception of possible movements by disrupting proprioceptive patterns and offering an enjoyable, immersive…

We introduce Bit Whisperer, an ad-hoc short-range wireless communication system that enables "walk up and share" data transmissions with "good enough" security.

Captioning on Glass is an on-going project creating captioning eyeglasses with a companion Android phone app to assist the hard-of-hearing in everyday conversations. We are also working on another version of this app, "Translation on Glass",…

MS-HCI Master Project-Partnered with Children's Museum of Atlanta, our project aims to develop a water play that educates children under 12 years old with a limited knowledge base about concepts of plastic pollution and the protection of ocean…

In Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), members of a local community invest upfront in local farms before a harvesting season in return for "shares" of weekly produce. This promotes agricultural & economic prosperity for the farmers & a…

We are investigating how to design design informal learning experiences to engage families in learning about artificial intelligence (AI). This work has progressed in multiple stages.
Stage 1 - Defining AI Literacy: We conducted an extensive…

Utilizing augmented reality to support workers and trainees in the performance of complex cognitive and motor tasks.

We designed and evaluated a mobile user interface of a community-based support network platform for young female athletes.

Providing a platform for social media influencers and small business owners to foster a better connection and collaboration.

Our project develops a mobile teaching tool for cisgender Greek fellows/allies that promotes empathy-building in relation to their transgender and nonbinary peers. The tool aims towards the cisgender members of Greek life on Georgia Tech's campus…

Georgia Tech is developing two online tools to help employees with disabilities and their employers figure out what types of accommodations (e.g., assistive technologies, strategies, universal features) might help them perform their jobs. Work…

Using a user-centered research approach, this project explored possible scenarios for voice interaction inside cars in the next 3-5 years and developed a set of voice interaction design tools.

This project is centered around Georgia Tech's IT Service Management Platform. The problem space revolves around inconsistencies in knowledge articles. My solution was a design system tailored for an audience with low technical expertise.

Problem Statement: First Responders struggle more with mental health than the average group due to compound stress. The Process: Initial Research, Ride-alongs, Affinity Mapping, Mock-ups, Codesign, Storyboards, prototypes, user validation and…

This study will be focused on studying and developing teaching and technological supports to facilitate remote art instruction and art museum exhibits in K-2 education.

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly caused a lot of disruption in how universities operate. Proactive campuses use a combination of testing, tracing, and encouraging safe practices to contain infectious spread while still maintaining some…

Non-representational art--such as works by Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, etc.--showcases diverse artistic expressions and challenges viewers with its interpretive open-endedness and lack of a clear mapping to our everyday…

As our Master's Project for the MS HCI degree, David and I worked closely with collegiate esports teams and athletes to understand how teams communicate and improve their comm. practices. Through a UCD process, we gained insights into their…

Working with Welcoming Atlanta, part of The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to develop and a responsive iPad application that streamlines organizational knowledge.

PostArt is a simple, easy-to-use tool for older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment to create digital postcards for family and friends. In addition to creating, they can share and view postcards created by other members. The goal of PostArt is…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the design of a system to help people manage email overload. The system visualizes data of addresses sending emails to the user’s Gmail account, and allows the user to block or filter messages from listed…

Future surface EVAs on Mars will be exploratory in nature and require flexible geospatial tools to support dynamic operations. These EVAs will have limited support from ground control and will need to be executed autonomously. This new dynamic…

Augmenta11y is an Augmented Reality (AR) app that helps people with learning disabilities like dyslexia easily read textual material in the real world using their smartphones and tablets. By giving users customizable font styles, background…

For my master's project, I designed In Tune - a tool to improve 1-1, online piano lessons for beginner to intermediate students and their teachers. My design enhances the connection and collaboration between a teacher and a student and helps them…

Engineers are interested in solving some practical problem, such as capturing water vapor in arid regions. They intend to use biological analogs as a source of inspiration. Doing so, however, raises several problems. First, the biological…

Engineers are interested in solving some practical problem, such as capturing water vapor in arid regions. They intend to use biological analogs as a source of inspiration. Doing so, however, raises several problems. First, the biological…

Human biases impact the way people analyze data and make decisions. Recent work has shown that some visualization designs can better support cognitive processes and mitigate cognitive biases (i.e., errors that occur due to the use of mental "…

LuminAI is an interactive art installation in which participants can improvise movement together with an AI dance partner that is projected onto a screen. The virtual agent segments users‚Äô motion into gestures. The agent learns these gestures…

Visual data analysis tools provide people with the agency and flexibility to explore data using a variety of interactive functionality. However, this flexibility may introduce potential consequences in situations where users unknowingly…

In response to COVID-19, a vast number of visualizations have been created to communicate information to the public. Information exposure in a public health crisis can impact people's attitudes towards and responses to the crisis and risks, and…

Tenants facing eviction often approach Welcoming Atlanta (WA) when it is too late: they reach out when the eviction is already ongoing, they have already relocated, or rent interest is already accruing to large sums. Aside from emergency action,…

Project Aether focuses on bridging the knowledge gap brain tumor and peak anxiety brain tumor patients experience after their initial diagnosis. As a tablet application, it comprises a patient workspace for consolidating information relating to…

An interactive fiction game, looking at the labor dynamics in a clothes factory, one of the first factories to be set up in the U.S.

Shape Machine is a new computational technology that fundamentally redefines the way shapes are represented, indexed, queried and operated upon. The technology solves the problem of shape matching in vector graphics for lines and arcs and for the…

Laptop webcams can be covertly activated by malware and law enforcement agencies. Consequently, 59% percent of Americans manually cover their webcams to avoid being surveilled. However, manual covers are prone to human error–through a survey with…

The Social Sensing study is studying the inclusion of social support in therapy for Veterans with PTSD as a part of the larger Prolonged Exposure Collective Sensing System study led by Dr. Rosa Arriaga from Georgia Tech's College of Computing and…

In this project, I designed and developed a research dashboard for researchers to better understand Speech on Twitter. Through extensive user research, I understand user pain points and identified key values. Based on this, I designed and…

We designed and implemented a novel smartwatch wristband, Spidey Sense, that can produce expressive and repeatable squeezing sensations and effectively explore the design space of squeezing patterns.

This project is focused on designing a tangible and auditory periodic table educational tool for visually impaired and sighted students.

As the COVID-19 pandemic causes models of healthcare to rapidly shift and as it introduces widespread economic and social stressors, there is a vital need for innovations that help expecting women and new mothers manage their mental health. We…

The STEAM Playground is an augmented reality fraction learning experience with storytelling and tangible artifacts. With help from the Georgia Department of Education, we pinpointed student issues with learning and comprehending fractions and…

COVID-19 and recent racial injustices like the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor have highlighted the importance of social ties. Amidst the viral pandemic, many have socially distanced themselves from…

Accelerating scientific discovery using AI technologies.

Accelerating scientific discovery using AI technologies.

Using AI to understand the spread of COVID-19 is part of accelerating scientific discovery using AI technologies.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty discussing "Jill Watson" (an AI teaching assistant) with Dr. Ashok Goel. It has been said that Jill Watson is the most famous teaching assistant in the world. Jill's origin actually is quite humble. She was conceived in…

A human teaching assistant discusses "Jill Watson" (an AI teaching assistant). It has been said that Jill Watson is the most famous teaching assistant in the world. Jill's origin actually is quite humble. She was conceived in summer 2015 with the…

Visual analogies on intelligence tests.

TuneTable is a project exploring how to increase interest in and promote learning about computer programming through music in informal learning spaces. XyloCode is the most recent design iteration in this project. XyloCode is an interactive…