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:
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Research
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Worked on There's no AI in Team project
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Added to draft around the area of trust.
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Paper is being split into different focuses and I'm assisting in several areas for preparation to submit for publishing.
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Currently addressing pre-pub review questions on paper submission for INGroup conference (5th author)
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Drafting small paper about design implications of AI and team interaction. (3rd author)
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Worked on the shift handover (HATIT) project
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Helped develop interview protocol
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Recruited participants
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Interviewed analysts to facilitate development of the research tools
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Synthesized analyst interview information in order to fine-tune requirements for development team
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Developed imitation documents for use in future experiments
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Worked with an interdisciplinary team
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Coursework
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INST 800
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Created a research plan
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Led a class with a partner - Life After PhD 2 - Beyond Academia
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Outlined class plan
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Created class survey and Jamboard
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Created slides and discussion questions for small groups and full class
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Facilitated discussion
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Created a "Sarah Strategic Plan" outlining tentative plans for my time in this program.
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Including this SWOT
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INST 888
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Led class discussion with a partner - Sociotechnical Perspectives (and slides)
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Outlined required texts
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Researched text authors and found connections
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Created a Doodly video to engage students
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Created more in-depth slides for further reference
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Explored epistemology and AI/ethics
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INST 808 (Quant)
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Research Project
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Became familiar with common NLP models currently used: BERT; GPT3
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Became familiar with coding python to run a model based on Covid-19 media information
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Became familiar with Google Colab
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Became familiar with Overleaf/LaTeX
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INST 631
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CHI paper comparisons
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UX research
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Became familiar with heuristic apps
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Used evaluation software to run user studies with task completion and survey components.
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Became familiar with foundational accessibility in design principles
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INST 888 (Spring)
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Paper proposal
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Narrowed down research focus
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Completed a literature review on creativity in AI and jobs
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Created a research proposal (in-progress)
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CSMC 828L (AI and Existential Threats)
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Became more familiar with common NLP models
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Learned about machine learning's use and impact in addressing issues such as climate change, fake news detection, and Covid-19
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Created a research proposal based off an NSF template (in-progress)
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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.
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INST 810 (Independent Study with Dr. Shilton)
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Focused on a literature review intended to provide a foundation in tech ethics.
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Read and summarized 10 curated texts focused on tech ethics (in progress)
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Joined and attended EVID lab
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Independent work
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Created academic website (several times!)
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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.
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Collected and created a repository of links to useful, free datasets to share with my cohort.
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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.
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Attended (either in-person or on-demand) workshops, meetings, roundtables, forums, conferences, presentations, etc. related to human-centered AI and the future of work
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Familiarized myself with literature, research organizations, researchers, seminal products, etc. related to human-centered AI and the future of work.
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Reviewed submissions to IEEE VR 2021 Conference and Creativity and Cognition 2021 Conference
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Reviewed several classmates' papers prior to submission for publication.
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Survived(ing?) a global pandemic
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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