Human-Computer Interaction

2021 Internship Report

masery3 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:05:35 +0000

2021 Internship Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 19:05

2021 Internship Report

First-year MS-HCI students are required to complete an internship in the summer between years 1 and 2 in the program. Due to the COVID pandemic in the summer of 2021, the process of finding an internship was especially complicated. Most students reported working remotely with their employers.

Company	Location
Akupara Games	Los Angeles, CA
AthenaHealth	Austin, Texas
Autodesk	San Rafael, CA
Blend Labs, Inc.	San Francisco, CA
Discovery, Inc.	New York, NY
Flexport	San Francisco, CA
Garmin	Olathe, KS
Girls Who Code	NYC
Honeywell Connected Enterprise	Atlanta, GA
Intelsat	Chicago, IL
Logitech	Newark, CA
Mailchimp	Atlanta, GA
MathWorks Inc.	Natick, Massachusetts
Microsoft	Redmond, WA
MongoDB	New York City
Motorola	Salt Lake City, UT
NCR	Atlanta, GA
NCR	Atlanta, GA
OneTrust	Atlanta, GA
OneTrust	Atlanta, GA
Paradowski Creative	St. Louis, MO
Rhymes with Reason	San Diego, CA
Salesforce	San Francisco, CA
ServiceNow	Santa Clara, CA
State Farm	Atlanta / Dunwoody GA
Thinkcar	Ontario, CA
UserTesting	Chamblee, GA
Vee Venture	New York City, NY

2021 Graduate Placement Report

masery3 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:01:58 +0000

2021 Graduate Placement Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 19:01

2021 Graduate Placement Report

From December 2020 – August 2021, 66 students graduated for the MS-HCI Program. We have employment data for 55 of them.

Company	City	Job Title
Amazon		UX Designer
Amazon	San Francisco	UX designer
Amazon Web Services	Seattle, WA	UX Researcher
Amazon Web Services		UX Researcher
Atlassian	Mountain View, CA	Product Designer
Autodesk	San Francisco, CA	Experience Design Researcher
Avanade	Atlanta, GA	UX Design Analysis
C3.ai	Atlanta, GA	Product Designer
C3.ai		Product Designer
C3.ai	Redwood City, CA	Product Design Intern
CCCIS	Chicago	Data Engineer
Chewy	Boston, MA	User Researcher
Cloudflare	San Francisco, CA	Systems Engineer
Electronic Arts	New York, NY	Experience Designer
Esri	Redlands, California	Software Engineer II
Facebook	Los Angeles, CA	Product Designer
Fjord, Inc.	Atlanta, GA	Service and Interaction Designer
Georgia Tech	Atlanta, GA	Ph.D. Student
Google	Mountain View, CA	UX Researcher
Hiretual	Mountain View, CA	Product Designer
Huawei		UX Researcher
Lovett Commercial	Houston, TX	Product Designer
Lucid	Salt Lake City, UT	UX Designer
MathWorks	Boston, MA	UX Design
MathWorks	Natick, MA	UX Designer
MathWorks	Natick, MA	UX Designer
MeasuringU	Denver, CO	UX Researcher
Meituan	Beijing, China	UX Designer
Microsoft	Seattle, WA	Program Manager
Microsoft	Seattle, WA	UX Designer
Minus 99 Design Studio	Turkey	UX Designer
Motorola Solutions	Chicago, Illinois	Product Designer
NASA	Mountain View, CA	Product Designer/UX Researcher
NCR	Atlanta, GA	User Researcher
Pandora	Atlanta, GA	Product Designer
Pumpkin	New York	Sr. Product Designer
PWC	Atlanta, GA
Resilient Cognitive Solutions	Pittsburgh, PA	Jr. Cognitive Systems Engineer
Roadie	Atlanta, GA	User Experience Designer
Salesforce	San Francisco, CA	Product Designer
SambaNova Systems	Palo Alto, CA	Software Engineer
SAP	Newport Beach, CA	UX Design Specialist
Spectral MD	Dallas, TX	Human Factors Engineer
Spin (Ford Mobility)		Product Design Intern
Tencent	Product Manager Trainee	Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
US Air Force	Product Designer	Austin, TX
US Army	Sumter, SC	Logistics Officer
Verily (Google Life Sciences)	Cambridge, MA	UX Designer
Verizon Connect	Alpharetta, GA	Experience Specialist II (I'll be doing UX research)
Viasat	San Diego, CA	User Experience Researcher
Volkswagen		VR Developer Intern
WHOOP	Boston, MA	Product Designer
WordLeap	San Francisco	Founder and Ceo
Zeplin	San Francisco	Product Designer
Zillow	Seattle, WA	UX Researcher

2022 Graduate Placement Report

masery3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 23:57:41 +0000

2022 Graduate Placement Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 18:57

2022 Graduate Placement Report

The table provided below displays information regarding the employment destinations of our graduates in 2022.

Company	Position	Location
Akupura Games	UX, Associate Producer	Los Angeles, CA
American Specialty Health	Product Designer	Pleasanton, CA
C3AI	UX Researcher	San Diego, CA
Carputty	Product Design	Atlanta, GA
CDC	UX Designer	Atlanta, GA
Endpoint Closing	User Researcher	Los Angeles, CA
Formlabs	User Experience Designer	Somerville, MA
Georgia Tech	Ph.D. Student	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech	Ph.D. Student	Atlanta, GA
Google	Interaction Designer	Atlanta, GA
Google	UX Designer	San Francisco, CA
Hallway Tile	Software Engineer	Columbus, MO
Honeywell	User Experience Designer II	Atlanta, GA
Innoso International	Product Strategist	Atlanta, GA
Intelsat!	UX Designer	Chicago, IL
Intuit Mailchimp	UX Researcher	Atlanta, GA
MathWorks	Experience Design Researcher	Boston, MA
MathWorks Inc.	UX Designer	Natick, MA
McKinsey & Company	Sr. User Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Microsoft	Software Engineer	Redmond, WA
MongoDB	UX Researcher	New York, NY
NCR	UI/UX Designer	Atlanta, GA
Rhymes with Reason	UX Designer	Atlanta, GA
Salesforce	UX Researcher	San Francisco, CA
SemanticBits	UX Researcher
ServiceNow	Product Designer
State Farm	UX Researcher	Santa Clara, CA
UPS	Digital Experience Research Analyst	Dunwoody, GA
User Interviews	Product Designer	Atlanta, GA
WizeHive	UX Designer	New York, NY
Worn City	UX Researcher

2022 Internship Report

masery3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 23:48:41 +0000

2022 Internship Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 18:48

2022 Internship Report

First-year MS-HCI students are required to complete an internship in the summer between years 1 and 2 in the program. Due to the COVID pandemic in the summer of 2022, the process of finding an internship was especially complicated. Most students reported working remotely with their employers.

Company	Location
Addepar	NYC, New York
Agora	Shanghai and Santa Clara
Amazon	Austin, TX
Amazon	New York, NY
Amazon Web Service	Seattle, WA
Apple	Mountain View, CA
Asana	New York City, NY
ASML	San Jose, California
Assurant	NYC, New York
Axon	Seattle, Washington
Brivo	Bethesda, MD
C3.ai	Redwood City, CA
Cardlytics	Atlanta, GA
Cardlytics	Atlanta, GA
Cisco	San Jose, California
Cisco	San Francisco, CA
Coinbase	Remote
CVS Health	Chicago, IL
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Demandbase	San Francisco, CA
DocuSign	San Francisco, CA
EA - Industrial Toys	Pasadena, CA
ExxonMobil	Spring, TX
Georgia Pacific	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Google	New York City, NY
GTRI	Smyrna, GA
Honeywell	Atlanta GA
Honeywell	Atlanta GA
Hubspot	Boston, MA
IBM	Raleigh, NC
Infoblox	Santa Clara, CA
Krikey	San Francisco
Lark Health	Mountain View, CA
LinkedIn	New York, NY
Lucid Software	South Jordan, Utah
Mastercard	New York City
Microsoft	Redmond, WA
MongoDB	New York City
Motorola Solutions	Chicago, IL
NCR	Atlanta, GA
Nokia Bell Labs	New Jersey
Revel Systems	Atlanta, GA
Rivian	Palo Alto, CA
ServiceMaster Brands	Sandy Springs, GA
ServiceMaster Brands	Atlanta, GA
ServiceMaster Brands	Atlanta, GA
ServiceNow	Santa Clara, CA
ServiceNow	Santa Clara, CA
SoFi	San Francisco
GT Lab	Atlanta, GA
United Nations	New York
United Parcel Service	Atlanta, GA
Universal Music Group	New York City, NY
Visa Inc.	Austin, Texas
Visa Inc.	San Francisco
Walmart	San Bruno, CA

2023 Internship Report

masery3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 23:42:02 +0000

2023 Internship Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 18:42

2023 Internship Report

The table provided below displays information regarding the internship destinations of our first-year students in 2023.

Company	Location
Amazon	Seattle, WA
American Society for Clinical Oncology	Alexandria, VA
American Society of Clinical Oncology	Alexandria, VA
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, GA
Duolingo	Pittsburgh PA
Duolingo	Pittsburgh PA
Emory University	Atlanta, GA
FanDuel Group	Atlanta, GA
Garmin	Olathe, KS
Georgia Tech Ka Moamoa Lab	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech OIT	Atlanta, GA
Honeywell	Atlanta, GA
IBM	Brookhaven, GA
Infoblox	Santa Clara, CA
iSolvRisk	Remote
Masonite	Tampa, FL
MathWorks	Natick, MA
Mayo Clinic	Rochester MN
Medline Industries, LP	Northfield, IL
Microsoft	Redmond, WA
Moss	Pittsburgh, PA
My Influency	Atlanta, GA
Palantir	New York, NY
PlayStation (Sony Interactive Entertainment)	San Diego, CA
Prophia	San Francisco, CA
Roche	Santa Clara, CA
Service Master	Atlanta, GA
Service Master	Atlanta, GA
Service Master	Atlanta, GA
Service Master	Atlanta, GA
Service Master	Atlanta, GA
ServiceMaster	Atlanta, GA
SpaceX	Hawthorne, CA
T-Mobile	Bellevue, WA
Tegus	Chicago, IL
Teladoc Health	Remote
USCIS Coding It Forward Fellowship	Washington DC
Viasat	Carlsbad, CA
Whistle	San Francisco, CA

2023 Graduate Placement Report

masery3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 23:28:06 +0000

2023 Graduate Placement Report masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 18:28

2023 Graduate Placement Report

The table provided below displays information regarding the employment destinations of our graduates in 2023.

Company	Position	Location
Acuity Brands	Software Engineer	Atlanta, GA
Addepar	Product Designer	New York, NY
Amazon Web Services	UX Researcher
Asana	Product Designer	New York, NY
Atrium Health	Clinical Research Coordinator	Charlotte, NC
BlackRock	Analyst	Atlanta, GA
C3.ai	Product Designer	San Francisco Bay area
Center for Inclusive Design & Innovation	Research Assistant	Atlanta, GA
Cisco Meraki	Engineering Product Manager	San Francisco, CA
Cortex	Head of UX	San Francisco Bay area
CVS Health	Product Manager	Chicago, IL
Demandbase	Associate UX Designer	San Francisco, CA
Docusign	Product Designer	Atlanta, GA
Ebay	UX Researcher	San Jose, CA
Emory University, Center for AI Learning	Senior Program Coordinator	Atlanta, GA
FanDuel	Product Designer	Atlanta, GA
FanDuel	UX Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech	Ph.D. Student	Atlanta, GA
Georgia Tech	Research Technologist II	Atlanta, GA
Gitwit	UX Researcher	Tulsa, OK
Hashing	Product Designer	Seattle, WA
Honeywell	UX Designer II	Atlanta, GA
IBM	UX Researcher	Atlanta, GA
IBM	UX Designer	Atlanta, GA
Invesco	Senior Engineer	Atlanta, GA
Krikey AI	Design Lead	New York, NY
Lextant	Human-Centered Design Research Associate	Columbus, OH
LinkedIn	Associate Product Designer	New York, NY
Meta Reality Labs	Research Assistant	Redmond, Washington
MongoDB	UX Researcher	New York, NY
Pulse Labs	User Experience Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Samsung Research America	Product Designer	Mountain View, CA
ServiceMaster	UX Team Lead & Product Designer	Washington, D.C.
ServiceMaster	UX Consultant	Lithonia, GA
ServiceNow	Product Designer	Blacksburg, VA
ServiceNow	Product Owner	San Francisco Bay area
SoFi	User Experience Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Student Outlets	UX Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Sunwater Capital	Product Designer	Washington, D.C.
TheIncLab	UX Engineer	Washington, D.C.
UPS	UX Research Analyst	Atlanta, GA
UPS	Customer Experience Associate	Atlanta, GA
UPS	Customer Experience Supervisor	Atlanta, GA
Visa	Sr. Associate Design Researcher	Bellevue, WA
Visa	Designer Researcher	Atlanta, GA
Wells Fargo	Senior Product Designer	New York, NY

Interactivity@GT Offers Networking Opportunities for MS-HCI/IPaT Students

masery3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:48:10 +0000

Interactivity@GT Offers Networking Opportunities for MS-HCI/IPaT Students masery3 Thu, 01/18/2024 - 12:48

Interactivity@GT Offers Networking Opportunities for MS-HCI/IPaT Students

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Amin El Asery

Human-Computer Interaction

Foley Scholars 2023 Winners and Finalists

masery3 — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:23:02 +0000

Foley Scholars 2023 Winners and Finalists masery3 Tue, 01/16/2024 - 11:23

Foley Scholars 2023 Winners and Finalists

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Walter Rich

Human-Computer Interaction

The Foley Scholar Awards recognize the achievements of top graduate students whose vision and research are shaping the future of how people interact with and value technology. Winners and finalists for the 2023 Foley Scholar Award were celebrated at Georgia Tech’s hotel and convention center on October 30, 2023. The event was hosted by the Institute for People and Technology with its executive director, Michael Best, serving as the master of ceremonies as each finalist was recognized for their innovative research. James Foley, professor emeritus and for whom the awards are named for, joined in the evening’s festivities to celebrate the achievements of all finalists.

“Congratulations to the two awardees and all the finalists who represent the best that Georgia Tech has to offer,” said Michael Best. “Departing from previous years, this year we only awarded two prizes making them even more precious. Next year we will return to awarding multiple prizes among the finalist,” said Best.

Congratulations to the newly named Foley Scholars for 2023-2024 who are:

Karthik Seetharama Bhat, Ph.D. student in Human-Centered Computing, in the
in the doctoral category who was awarded $5,000.
Arianna Mastali, master’s student in Human-Computer Interaction, in the
master’s category who was awarded $1,000.

The finalists in the Ph.D. category were Karthik Seetharama Bhat, Arpit Narechania, Sachin Pendse, and Alexandra Teixeira Riggs.

The finalists in the master’s category were Arianna Mastali and Josey Benandi.

A short description of each finalists’ unique research along with their Georgia Tech faculty advisor is listed below:

Karthik Seetharama Bhat is a Ph.D. student in Human-Centered Computing and is advised by Neha Kumar. Bhat’s research explores the future of carework by studying how emerging technologies can support and augment caregiving interactions and relationships. His research examines telehealth efforts in India to understand technology adoption for formal and informal caregiving across socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural boundaries. He is designing new technologies and technology-aided workflows as probes into the potential futures of telehealth. He is also examining the role that emerging AI and data-driven technologies (like conversational agents) could play in informal care environments. He has partnered with ARMMAN—a Mumbai-based NGO that is employing mHealth technologies towards improving maternal and child health outcomes through information provision and care delivery to pregnant women and new mothers. He is also working on the design and deployment of a chatbot that can perform automated tasks that reduce burdens on community health workers who moderate a chat-based online health community for maternal and child health. This is a collaborative study with researchers at IIIT Delhi, India, and SWACH Foundation—an NGO in Haryana, India, that runs multiple WhatsApp-based online health communities for maternal and child health, serving thousands of pregnant women and new mothers from rural and urban regions of north India.

Arpit Narechania is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science, advised by Alex Endert. Narechania designs mixed-initiative, guidance-enriched interfaces that facilitate visual communication of appropriate and timely guidance between users and systems, and promotes the design of new visualization tools for enhanced human-data experiences from data preparation through analysis. He also develop tools that augment visualization interfaces with the querying power of natural language. A recent team research project of his examined how misrepresentation using fertility maps could change how funds are distributed to different locales and how people perceive the state of fertility in India. This project involved 16 cartographers and GIS experts from 13 global organizations such as the World Bank, UN, NASA, CDC. His team findings revealed that even the most expert map-makers find choosing appropriate binning methods challenging; this is due to limited knowledge, lack of awareness of harmful implications of using arbitrary binning methods, and organizational protocols conflicting with cartographic principles and map-maker’s preferences. His research team invented “Resiliency”, a new “goto” binning method. As a result of this research, the World Bank invited him, Dr. Clio Andris, and Dr. Alex Endert [fellow team members] to give a talk, and the United Nations offered to integrate this new map-making method into their website.

Sachin Pendse is a Ph.D. student in Human-Centered Computing and is advised by Munmun De Choudhury and Neha Kumar. Pendse is addressing mental health challenges and the positive role that technology can play. There are diverse and effective approaches to treating mental health concerns, but the process of being diagnosed and finding care can be extremely intimidating. Individuals in distress are confronted with diverse barriers, including the stigma associated with being labeled as mentally ill, the trial-and-error process of determining the medication or forms of therapy that work best for an individual, and economic or cultural factors that limit access. Navigating the pathway to care can be an ordeal as taxing as the experience of mental illness itself. He is working to better understand where technology-mediated support may be able to reduce and eliminate mental health-related barriers. He examines the role that identity and culture play in how people experience distress, and studies people from diverse backgrounds, including people in geographically sparse areas, people with limited financial means to access care, and people from minority backgrounds. He is using a mixed methods approach to understand the role that technology-mediated mental health support systems (such as helplines, online support communities, or Google search results) play in helping connect individuals in distress with effective, culturally valid support as they journey upon a pathway to care.

Alexandra Teixeira Riggs is a Ph.D. student in Digital Media, advised by Anne Sullivan. One of Riggs’s research projects, entitled “Button Portraits: Embodying Queer History with Interactive Wearable Artifacts,” is a wearable experience that explores Atlanta’s queer history using artifacts from the Gender and Sexuality Collections at Georgia State University. The project uses archival buttons from the collection to reveal oral histories of two Southern queer activists, linking the activists’ own objects to specific audio fragments. As a case study, “Button Portraits” offers insights on how wearability, embodiment, and queer archival methods can shape the design and experience of tangible historical narratives and their ability to call for reflection on our relationships to archival materials and history. By designing tangible experiences that center around queer community, history, and identity, she hopes to continue to express, loudly and proudly, that queer and trans people have always existed and will continue to exist, and that the design of technology, importantly, must center these histories, communities, and identities.

Arianna Mastali is a master’s student in Human-Computer Interaction, advised by Melody Jackson. Mastali has been working on a wearable activity and gait detection monitor for sled dogs and other canine athletes, called WAG’D. During her last undergraduate semester, she discovered the field of animal-centered computing. The WAG’D device consists of an IMU and a load cell and is focused on measuring gait anomalies and pull force in order to minimize injuries within sled dog racing. Her research team conducted several interviews with mushers and veterinarians who have been a part of the Iditarod in order to learn about the most common injuries in sled dogs and the existing methods to detect them. This work has significance as it will not only help better detect injuries, but will help dog owners and veterinarians better monitor dogs in order to prevent injuries.

Josey Benandi is a master’s student in Human-Computer Interaction, advised by Agata Rozga. Benandi is currently working on a project called the Care Coordination Study, which is funded by the AI-CARING Institute through the National Science Foundation. This project involves conducting qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews with people diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment and their informal caregivers, so that we may better understand how these folks manage their day-to-day activities, what challenges they face in doing so, and how they go about overcoming those challenges. The Care Coordination Study has been a joint effort between myself, Dr. Agata Rozga, Dr. Tracy Mitzner, and other students, where Josey has taken the lead role in all research activities. She is seeking to create a qualitative codebook of the findings which will serve as a guide for other researchers within AI-CARING and beyond whose work may require precedent real-world data regarding the experiences of those diagnosed with and those coordinating care for those diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

About the James D. Foley Endowment
The James D. Foley Endowment, established in 2007, is named for Dr. James D. Foley, professor and founder of the GVU Center (now integrated with IPaT as of January, 2023) at Georgia Tech. The award was established by Dr. Foley's colleagues and GVU alumni to honor his significant contributions in the field of computing, his influence on the work of others, and his dedication to the development of new research directions.

Funds from the Foley Endowment are used to support the students and research activities of the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), including the Foley Scholars Fellowships, awarded annually to two graduate students on the basis of personal vision, brilliance, and potential impact. Foley Scholars are selected by an advisory board comprised of alumni, current faculty, and industry partners during the fall semester.

Foley Scholar 2023 Finalists with Michael Best, IPaT's executive director (far left). Then left-to-right are Arianna Mastali, Josey Benandi, Karthik Seetharama Bhat, Arpit Narechania, Sachin Pendse, and Alexandra Teixeira Riggs

Professor Emeritus and GVU Founder Reflects on 50 Years of Attending SIGGRAPH

masery3 — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 19:34:39 +0000

Professor Emeritus and GVU Founder Reflects on 50 Years of Attending SIGGRAPH masery3 Fri, 01/12/2024 - 14:34

Professor Emeritus and GVU Founder Reflects on 50 Years of Attending SIGGRAPH

Monday, September 18, 2023

Amin El Asery

Human-Computer Interaction

Jim Foley stepped off the train in Los Angeles, ready to receive one of the biggest honors of his career.

A train fanatic since he was a boy, Foley wanted to enjoy the occasion and talked his family into taking the train to travel to the 1997 SIGGRAPH conference. After all, this SIGGRAPH differed from all the others he had attended. He was accepting the Steven Anson Coons Award for lifetime contribution in front of 48,000 people.

But once they arrived at their hotel in Los Angeles, there was a problem. Foley had booked the rooms for the day before he arrived. The hotel, believing he was a no-show, canceled his reservation.

“Fortunately, Scott Owen, a Georgia State professor who was the conference organizer that year and also happened to be from Atlanta and lived about two blocks away from me, heard our plight and pulled some strings,” said Foley, Professor and Fleming Chair Emeritus and founder of the GVU Center at Georgia Tech.

“I don’t think we would have been out in the street, but there were so many people at SIGGRAPH that year all the hotels close to the conference were full.”

Foley has too many memories to count from attending SIGGRAPH over the years. But if there’s anyone who should tell the story of SIGGRAPH from its inception in 1974 to its most recent conference in August, he would be an ideal candidate. SIGGRAPH celebrated its 50th edition this year, and Foley has been to all but one of them.