Mind maps for research ideas and literature review themes

Research and Goals

My research interests include:

Human-centered AI;

Future of work;

Augmenting skill;

Ethics of technology;

Social factors in technology;

AI and work teaming

At this point, I hope to:

Refine my research interests;

Develop a map toward the end of my educational career;

Study social and ethical impacts of AI on the concept of work, and identify productive ways to augment human skill with increasingly intrusive AI.

This year, I did:

Research
- Worked on There's no AI in Team project
  - Added to draft around the area of trust.
  - Paper is being split into different focuses and I'm assisting in several areas for preparation to submit for publishing.
  - Currently addressing pre-pub review questions on paper submission for INGroup conference (5th author)
  - Drafting small paper about design implications of AI and team interaction. (3rd author)
- Worked on the shift handover (HATIT) project
  - Helped develop interview protocol
  - Recruited participants
  - Interviewed analysts to facilitate development of the research tools
  - Synthesized analyst interview information in order to fine-tune requirements for development team
  - Developed imitation documents for use in future experiments
  - Worked with an interdisciplinary team

Coursework
- INST 800
  - Created a research plan
  - Led a class with a partner - Life After PhD 2 - Beyond Academia
    - Outlined class plan
    - Created class survey and Jamboard
    - Created slides and discussion questions for small groups and full class
    - Facilitated discussion
  - Created a "Sarah Strategic Plan" outlining tentative plans for my time in this program.
    - Including this SWOT
- INST 888
  - Led class discussion with a partner - Sociotechnical Perspectives (and slides)
    - Outlined required texts
    - Researched text authors and found connections
    - Created a Doodly video to engage students
    - Created more in-depth slides for further reference
    - Explored epistemology and AI/ethics
- INST 808 (Quant)
  - Research Project
    - Became familiar with common NLP models currently used: BERT; GPT3
    - Became familiar with coding python to run a model based on Covid-19 media information
    - Became familiar with Google Colab
    - Became familiar with Overleaf/LaTeX
- INST 631
  - CHI paper comparisons
  - UX research
    - Became familiar with heuristic apps
    - Used evaluation software to run user studies with task completion and survey components.
    - Became familiar with foundational accessibility in design principles
- INST 888 (Spring)
  - Paper proposal
    - Narrowed down research focus
    - Completed a literature review on creativity in AI and jobs
    - Created a research proposal (in-progress)
- CSMC 828L (AI and Existential Threats)
  - Became more familiar with common NLP models
  - Learned about machine learning's use and impact in addressing issues such as climate change, fake news detection, and Covid-19
  - Created a research proposal based off an NSF template (in-progress)
  - Created a presentation on my proposal that addressed machine learning from a social science perspective, and presented to a highly technical, mostly computer scientist audience.
- INST 810 (Independent Study with Dr. Shilton)
  - Focused on a literature review intended to provide a foundation in tech ethics.
  - Read and summarized 10 curated texts focused on tech ethics (in progress)
  - Joined and attended EVID lab

Independent work
- Created academic website (several times!)
- Collected and organized documents from various university career and graduate student sites that can be helpful for current PhDs or when looking for career/professional development information.
- Collected and created a repository of links to useful, free datasets to share with my cohort.
- Learned many new programs to a functional level, including Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition, Doodly, Scrivener, Paperpile, Zotero, Overleaf, Mindomo, Notion, Wix, XKCD-style chart developer, etc. etc. etc, as well as many sites that aid in better design.
- Attended (either in-person or on-demand) workshops, meetings, roundtables, forums, conferences, presentations, etc. related to human-centered AI and the future of work
- Familiarized myself with literature, research organizations, researchers, seminal products, etc. related to human-centered AI and the future of work.
- Reviewed submissions to IEEE VR 2021 Conference and Creativity and Cognition 2021 Conference
- Reviewed several classmates' papers prior to submission for publication.
- Survived(ing?) a global pandemic

Next year I plan to:

Complete independent study course over summer in preparation for Fall 21 integrative paper;

Continue to work on the HATIT project;

Apply for ARLIS Fellowship

Continue to attend HCIL events;

Continue to work with the EVID lab;

Continue to attend seminars, workshops, talks, etc.

Submit at least 2 papers/posters to journals or conferences as a co-author;

Complete my integrative paper in such a way that it can be modified to submit on my own.

Read research papers related to each of my interests described above, and covering a broad representation of research methods;

Develop stronger research skills;

Identify areas that I need to shore up on in order to conduct my research;

Shore up on these areas;

Complete my integrative paper;
Connect with UMD's social robotics group;

Connect with other professors and students in the program;

Consider taking a course in qualitative research methods;

Consider continuing EDMS certificate;

Consider auditing ANTH666 - Anthropology of Work;

Consider pros and cons of PhD by publication and examine actual feasibility;

Plan work on dissertation proposal

This relates to my dissertation and PhD program completion by:

Strengthening my academic foundation so that I can develop good and novel research questions.

Developing stronger research methodology skills

Identifying research goals;

Keeping me up-to-date on my areas of interest;

Keeping me up-to-date on related areas/disciplines;

Giving me experience researching, submitting, and hopefully publishing;

Continuing to fulfill PhD program requirements

Continuing after next year, I hope to:

Get a stronger grasp of these areas that will help with my research;

Read papers related to research and dissertation ideas;

Attend conferences, talks, symposia, etc.;

Network at said events;

Develop stronger research skills;

Submit papers for publication;

Become involved in organizations related to my research interests;

Refine my dissertation ideas and begin to work on the proposal