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 (2009), named an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 award (2013), and is the only faculty member in the UW College of Engineering to receive both the Faculty Research Innovator (2014) and Teaching Innovator (2019) 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 am excited to be the UW lead on the Jacob’s Foundation-funded Connecting the EdTech Research EcoSystem (CERES) Center, hosted by UC Irvine.
- I’ll be co-organizing the Doctoral Consortium this year at CHI 2022 in New Orleans.
- Due to COVID-19 and managing full time work and supporting my children with remote schooling, I may be slower to respond and am declining many service requests. Please join me in advocating for more support for families during this time.
- My research lab was awarded an NSF RAPID grant to study how families are using technology to navigate remote learning and connection during COVID-19. You can follow along on our Families & Tech Medium page.
- I’m happy to have been named Department Chair of UW’s Human Centered Design & Engineering and look forward to leading the department for the next five years (2020-2024).
The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.