Data Science Institute

I am a Data Science Institute (DSI) postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. My research aims to investigate how humans or other intelligent agents make meaningful decisions, and how to enhance human-technology partnerships through the development of AI systems that promote inclusion and assist people. My research methods focus on combining cognitively inspired computational approaches with reinforcement learning (RL) techniques.

In my Ph.D., I designed a cognitively inspired computational architecture that uses RL techniques and artificial sensations, emotions, and feelings to model moral reasoning, and that illustrates the emergence of cooperation in multi-agent systems. In my Postdoctoral research, I am investigating how internal visualizations and semantic meaning facilitate open-ended visual data exploration. I am designing a cognitively inspired computational architecture that uses RL to funnel data and fulfill goals visually. An outcome I envision for this project is to propose novel methods for helping individuals from a wide variety of developmental, educational, and cultural backgrounds (e.g., neurotypical, neurodiverse, elderly, non-STEM-educated, etc.) develop data literacy skills.

I am a member of the AIVAS lab (Artificial Intelligence and Visual Analogical Systems), the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-intensive Astrophysics (VIDA), and the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.