Julie A. Kientz
(pronounced like “Keentz”) is a Professor and Chair of the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. She directs the Computing for Healthy Living and Learning Lab, is active in the Design, Use, Build (dub) alliance, and has adjunct appointments in The Information School and Computer Science & Engineering.
Dr. Kientz’s primary research areas are in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Health Informatics, Ubiquitous Computing, and Interaction Design & Children. Her research focuses on understanding and reducing the user burdens of interactive technologies for health, education, and families through the design of future applications. Her primary research methods involve human-centered design, technology development, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. She has designed, developed, and evaluated mobile, sensor, and social applications for numerous areas in the health, education, and family domains. The populations she has designed with in her research include individuals and families managing sleep health, parents of young children monitoring developmental progress, families managing screen time and remote learning, adolescents managing stress, and inclusive education teachers and therapists working with neurodiverse children.
Dr. Kientz received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008. She was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, named an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 award, named an ACM Distinguished Member, inducted to the CHI Academy, and is the only faculty member in the UW College of Engineering to receive both the Faculty Research Innovator and Teaching Innovator awards. Her research has been featured in a number of media outlets, including the NY Times, Parent magazine, the Atlantic, Geekwire, Time magazine, ABC News, and USA Today.
Updates
- I will be admitting at most 1 new Ph.D. student in HCDE for the Fall 2027 admissions cycle who is passionate about designing novel technologies with children, youth, and families. Please note that I receive hundreds of email inquiries and cannot reply to them nor meet with you prior to the application deadline. If you feel like I may be a fit as an advisor, you can list me as a potential advisor on your application, and I will read your application. If your application is highly rated, you will be invited to interview where we can discuss more about a potential fit.
- While I love supporting youth in their education, please note that I am not able to take on high school student research advising. I already do not have the bandwidth to advise students who are already admitted to UW, and I am obligated to work with those students first. I encourage you to instead participate in programs specifically designed for high school students, such as the UW Center for Digital Youth’s Youth Advisory Board.
- I was renewed for a second term as Department Chair of UW’s Human Centered Design & Engineering and look forward to leading the department for the next five years (2025-2029).
- I was honored to be inducted to the CHI Academy in 2024 and the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2025!
- For the next 5 years, I’ll be serving as co-PI and UW lead on the NSF and IES $20 million AI Institute for Exceptional Education, hosted at the University of Buffalo, where we will be transforming education for children with speech and language processing challenges
- I am excited to be the UW lead on the Jacob’s Foundation-funded Connecting the EdTech Research EcoSystem (CERES) Center, hosted by UC Irvine.
In HCDE, we thrive at the critical junction of research, education, and community to cultivate equity, access, and opportunity. With these values in mind, I’d like to acknowledge that we educate future human-centered designers and researchers on the unceded lands of the Duwamish and Coast Salish people, who are still here, honoring their ancestral heritage.