Department Directory

Pegah Moradi is a PhD candidate in Information Science studying the social and organizational dimensions of digital automation, with a particular interest in work and workers. Her dissertation research focuses on how self-checkout and automated surveillance impact frontline retail work.

Pegah's work is supported by the NSF GRFP, Microsoft Research, the Siegel Public-Interest Technology Fellowship, and the MacArthur Foundation (through the Cornell AI, Policy, and Practice Initiative). Before starting her PhD, she received her B.A. in the interdisciplinary College Scholar program at Cornell and worked as a Project Manager for an enterprise software company in Washington, D.C.

Areas of Interest: Automation, Work and Labor, Digital Economy, Surveillance and Privacy, Policy
 

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University and Cornell Tech. As a qualitative researcher working at the intersection of tech entrepreneurship, platform studies, and the impact of computing technologies, she explores individual, institutional, and philanthropic approaches to fostering tech entrepreneurialism within marginalized communities, noting their lack of representation in global startup culture. Her work informs and supports the development of tech-enabled, entrepreneurial infrastructures and ecosystems that facilitate restorative economic justice for structurally exploited populations. 

Daniel is a PhD student in Information Science. His primary interests lie in the areas of sociotechnical systems and their governance. In particular, he is interested in infrastructures that mediate access – and transactions – in public and private spaces.

Areas of Interest: Science and Technology Studies (STS), Data and AI Governance, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D)

Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Aditya Vashistha. Broadly, her goal is to contribute to responsible AI systems. Currently thinking about and working on: (1) developing robust methods and benchmarks for the sociotechnical evaluation of LLMs; (2) critically assessing the validity, design assumptions, and limitations of existing model evaluations; and (3) applying insights from (1) and (2) to evaluate the downstream impacts of AI systems across diverse social contexts. Previously, she was a UX researcher at Coinbase and Uber. Before that, studied HCI at the University of Washington.

Areas of Interest: Human-AI collaboration, Misinformation, Content Moderation, ICTD
 

Aspen K.B. Omapang is a PhD candidate in the Information Science department at Cornell University. Broadly, she studies the legibility of Native Peoples' to the US government and political technologies' role in Native political participation. Aspen seeks to center Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) relationality as part of her responsibility to mālama the ‘āina (care for the land). Aspen serves on the ADVANCE Resource Coordination (ARC) Network External Advisory Committee and most recently was a sociotechnical systems intern for Intel Labs. Aspen's research is supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship and Sloan Foundation Fellowship.

Areas of Interest: Computational Social Science, Social Media & Online Communities, Infrastructure Studies, Feminist & Queer Studies, De/Anti-Colonial Futures

Erica is a PhD student in Information Science, at Cornell University. Her advisor is Prof. Susan Fussell. Her research focuses on understanding how communication technologies can support undergraduate student development. She is exploring how the use of CMC and online social spaces impacts the strength of relationships first-years build in their initial weeks on campus.

She received a Master of Arts in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies, Higher Education specialization, from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education in 2010, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and a minor in Economics from Bowdoin College in 2006.

Areas of Interest: How communication technologies can support undergraduate student development; formation of bonding relationships via digital communication

Calvin is a Ph.D. student in Information Science at Cornell University. His research centers on the design and development of interactive computing systems using socially-aware natural language technologies, with applications in healthcare domains. He has broad interests in philosophy of technology and science and technology studies, focusing on critical questions about interactions between technology, the natural and virtual worlds, and human behavior. 

Vyoma Raman (she/her) is completing her PhD with a focus on machine learning fairness and natural language processing. She is advised by Angelina Wang and is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a Cornell Graduate School Dean’s Scholar. Vyoma’s research centers on building and evaluating equitable language technologies, particularly to promote human rights and disability justice. She previously earned her master’s degree in computer science at Stanford University and bachelor’s degrees in computer science and interdisciplinary studies at UC Berkeley. In her free time, Vyoma enjoys writing satire and reading murder mysteries.

Mehrnaz Sabet works in the Collaborative Technologies lab at Cornell where she leads research on human-drone systems. Her research is focused on aerial autonomy through the design and development of drone systems to study how we can reliably increase drone autonomy when drones are deployed to work with humans in time-critical applications such as search and rescue operations. Prior to Cornell, she received her undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering.

Areas of Interest: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, HCI

Michael is a PhD student in the Communication and Collaborative Technologies Lab. His research explores how individuals leverage technology to support communication in collaborative settings. He is interested in understanding how social and cognitive factors might influence the way humans engage with other complex systems.

Areas of Interest: Human-Robot Interaction, Embodied Cognition, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Telepresence
 

Hauke Sandhaus is a PhD student in Information Science at Cornell Tech, currently researching wicked design problems in Human-AI-Interaction to create an ethical future of automation. Advised by assistant professor Qian Yang and co-advised by associate professor Wendy Ju, Hauke's methods address Design at the Policy and Tech level simultaneously. 

Jonathan Segal is a PhD student in Information Science at Cornell University. His research focuses on augmented and virtual reality, especially in healthcare settings. He is broadly interested in developing novel use cases for XR technologies. Prior to Cornell, Jonathan was at Iowa State University working with Dr. Michael Dorneich and Dr. Stephen Gilbert at the Virtual Reality Application Center. He is currently working with Andrea Stevenson Won.

Areas of Interest: Human-Computer Interaction, Augmented/Virtual Reality, Health Technology

Farhana Shahid (she/ her) is a PhD student in Cornell Information Science working with Professor Aditya Vashistha. She studies online communities in the Global South, and investigates issues around problematic online behavior and content moderation. Farhana did her Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Before joining Cornell she worked as a lecturer of Computer Science at Brac University.

Areas of Interest: HCI, Content Moderation, Online Communities

Eden is a Ph.D. student advised by Tanzeem Choudhury at the People-Aware Computing Lab. Before joining Cornell, Eden was a Bridge to Ph.D. Scholar at Columbia University in the Department of Computer Science and an instructor for Columbia's Pre-College Program (teaching courses in data science and machine learning). She's interested in public health infodemiology and reliable information extraction and interpretation for passive syndromic surveillance.

Areas of Interest: Public health infodemiology and reliable information extraction and interpretation for passive syndromic surveillance

Ian is a Ph.D. student in Information Science at Cornell Tech. He is co-advised by Dr. Nicola Dell and Dr. Aditya Vashistha. His research is focused on building and evaluating computing technologies that aim to improve the lives of underserved and marginalized populations. In particular, he is interested in community and in-home healthcare, mental health, climate resilience, and responsible artificial intelligence.

Neta Tamir is a WiTNY (Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York) Fellow and Information Science PhD candidate at Cornell University, focusing on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). She received her bachelor's in Psychology with a focus on HCI at IDC Herzliya with High Distinction in 2015.

At Cornell, she is supervised by Professor Shiri Azenkot. She applies new assistive technologies to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities.

Areas of Interest: Human-Computer Interaction, Assistive Technology, Educational Technology, Tangible User Interface, User-Centered Design.