Students

Current Ph.D. Students & Postdocs

  • Hyewon Suh, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Caroline Pitt, Postdoctoral Scholar (co-advised with Jason Yip)
  • Leslie Coney – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering
  • Aayushi Dangol – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering
  • Adrian Rodriguez – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering
  • Nisha Devasia – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering (co-advised with Jin Ha Lee)
  • Meghna Gupta – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering
  • Nichole Sams – PhD Student, Human Centered Design & Engineering (co-advised with Sean Munson)

Graduated Ph.D. Students

  • Eun Kyoung Choe – Information Science (co-advised with Wanda Pratt) – now an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland
  • Kyle Rector – Computer Science & Engineering (co-advised with Richard Ladner) – now an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa
  • Matthew Kay – Computer Science & Engineering (co-advised with Shwetak Patel) – now an Assistant Professor at the Northwestern University
  • Jared Bauer – Information Science – now at GitHub
  • Alexis Hiniker – Human Centered Design & Engineering – now an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington
  • Kiley Sobel – Human Centered Design & Engineering – now at DuoLingo
  • Sean Mikles – Biomedical & Health Informatics (co-advised with Anne Turner), now at MITRE
  • Hyewon Suh – Human Centered Design & Engineering, now a Postdoc at UW HCDE
  • Ruth Ravichandran – Electrical Engineering (co-advised with Shwetak Patel), now at Amazon
  • Arpita B – Human Centered Design & Engineering (co-advised with Sean Munson), now an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington
  • Dawn Sakaguchi-Tang – Human Centered Design & Engineering, now at iHeartMedia
  • Saba Kawas – Information Science (co-advised with Katie Davis), now a Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of Minnesota
  • Calvin Liang – Human Centered Design & Engineering (co-advised with Sean Munson), now an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University
  • Akeiylah DeWitt – Human Centered Design & Engineering, now at Google
  • Jay Cunningham – Human Centered Design & Engineering (co-advised with Daniela Rosner), now a Just Tech and Bonderman Fellow

Former Postdocs

  • Maitraye Das, CREATE Postdoctoral Scholar (co-advised with Heather Feldner) – Assistant Professor at Northeastern University
  • Elizabeth Bales – Postdoctoral Research Associate (co-advised with James Fogarty) – Software Engineer at Google
  • Laura Pina – Postdoctoral Research Associate (co-advised with James Fogarty) – UX Researcher at Google

Prospective Ph.D. Students

I work with students of all levels on a variety of research projects. Because much of my research is in the design of new computing applications, students with design and prototyping skills or a desire to learn are especially encouraged. I have more students interested in working with my lab than I can accommodate, so I currently work only with students who have already been admitted to UW. Please note that if you are not yet a student at UW, please apply to HCDE, the iSchool, or CSE directly. While I am open to advising students from a number of PhD programs across UW, I do require you to have a co-advisor in your home unit if you in a department other than HCDE.

For the Fall 2025 Ph.D. admissions cycle, I plan to accept at most one new PhD student interested in designing novel computing technologies with children and families. Please note that due to fairness of all applicants, I am not able to meet individually with prospective students prior to the admission deadline. If your application is a match for my lab, HCDE has an interview process where we will have the opportunity to meet and discuss alignment. I also will not reply to emails reaching out in advance, asking me to review your CV or papers, etc. I receive almost 100 of these per year, so this does not help in making your application stand out. I will review your application if you name me as a potential advisor on it. I do encourage you to attend one of HCDE’s Info Sessions or reach out to our PhD Ambassadors if you need advice on preparing your application.

I am very open to co-advising and collaboration. If you’re interested in the areas of health, technology, accessibility, and kids, you might also consider reaching out to some of my many amazing colleagues at UW, such as Sean Munson, Gary Hsieh, Beth Kolko, Jen Mankoff, Leah Findlater, Jon Froehlich, Alexis Hiniker, Katie Davis, Wanda Pratt, Andrea Hartzler, James Fogarty, Jason Yip, or Mark Haselkorn.

Prospective Undergraduate and M.S. Students

If you are a current undergraduate or M.S. student at UW interested in getting involved with my research or the CHiLL lab, please start by applying for currently offered Directed Research Groups (DRG) on various topics offered each quarter, which is HCDE 496/596. After you successfully complete at least one quarter of a DRG with me or my current PhD students, we can discuss possibilities of independent studies or other opportunities.

If you are not currently at UW, please note that due to high demand from existing students, I am not able to take on any students not currently enrolled (including requests for summer internships, visiting positions, volunteer work, etc.). The one exception is if you are an undergraduate student not at UW – you can consider applying to the CRA’s DREU program or the DUB REU summer program.