Ongoing Projects

I’m rethinking how we design digital tools in the context of substance use. Much of the existing research adopts a medical or sobriety-focused lens, often centering the needs of caregivers or clinicians. This research is grounded in human-centered, community-based co-design to explore how text messaging can better support the everyday social practices between people who use substances and their social partners. Maintaining close relationships is beneficial for everyone, and especially critical here: strong social ties are associated with reduced overdose risk, yet substance use can strain those same connections. I’m developing a research protocol with members of the community to study how people navigate and sustain these relationships, with the goal of identifying ways natural language processing could gently adapt text communication to support practices like boundary-setting and care. The study has recently passed ethics review, and data collection is beginning soon.

I’m currently collaborating with researches in aging and HCI as well as NLP to explore new directions for multi-modal voice assistants in online banking, with a focus on supporting older adults. While prior research has shown that voice assistants can help address physical and cognitive changes that come with aging, financial literacy often declines at the same time that financial independence remains essential for aging in place. I joined this project after concept design and took over development of a voice assistant prototype for a structured observational study with older adults. In under two months, I advanced it from a proof of concept to a fully functional prototype (working across Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) while also developing study protocols, conducting sessions, and leading ongoing data analysis. The project blends technical development with human-centered research, and the findings are still unfolding.