About Me

I am an associate professor in the McGill School of Information and Canada Research Chair in Inclusive Social Computing. My research explores the ways in which technology can be employed to meet human needs and enable older individuals to overcome everyday challenges and obstacles.

The overarching goal of my work is to design and build new technologies that enable older adults to engage with the world and each other. To support this longterm goal and make these technologies possible, I also examine and address core accessibility issues. I focus on older adults because they form a diverse demographic leading to rich opportunities for exploring the ways that human abilities and disabilities impact our interactions with technology. Beyond my core focus of aging and accessibility, I am interested in human perception, adaptive interfaces, mobile devices, and ubiquitous computing.

My PhD in Computer Science, supervised by Dr. Joanna McGrenere, was completed at the University of British Columbia in 2010 and examined methods for improving pen-based interaction for older adults.

Currently, I get to work with a number of wonderful students and collaborators in the Accessible Computing Technologies Research Group (ACT Lab).

Publications

Most of my publications, along with links to full-text versions of them, are included on the ACT Lab's list of publications. For recent works, please try my ACM Digital Library or Google Scholar author pages.

Teaching

I currently teach two electives courses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): GLIS 626: Usability Analysis and Assessment and GLIS 627: User-Centered Design. I also teach one of the core required courses in our MISt program: Information Systems Design.

Students

Current Students

  • Taciana Pontual, Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Robert Ferguson, PhD Candidate
  • Afroza Sultana, PhD Candidate
  • Mauricio Fontana de Vargas, PhD Candidate
  • Allan Yong, PhD Student
  • Carrie Dai, PhD Student

Past Students

  • Rita Orji (Postdoctoral Fellow), Current positon: Banting Fellow, University of Waterloo
  • Candice Lin (M.Sc. Student), Current position: Director, TeachMe Education Limted

Prospective Students

I am always looking for motivated students interested in the design of accessible technology. If you think you might be interested in working with me, please check out the ACT Lab page before emailing me. Please note that you will also need to apply and be accepted into a relevant program of study, typically the MISt project or PhD.

Get In Touch

I'd love to hear from you and am always happy to chat about my research.