Welcome to my web space. Feel free to browse my publications (with PDFs of most papers), check out the people I work with, see some recent activities (talks and travel), read about my work that’s been covered by the media, and find out what’s new. For brief summaries, download my CV and resume.

Professional Background

As a human-computer interaction (HCI) research scientist at Willow Garage, I study how people interact with and respond to personal robots. I completed my PhD at Stanford University in the Department of Communication, advised by Clifford Nass. I also completed a PhD minor in Psychology from Stanford, MA in Communication from Stanford, and BAs in Cognitive Science and Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. During my graduate studies, I worked part-time as a research assistant at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). My PhD dissertation, Throwing Voices: Investigating the Psychological Effects of the Spatial Location of Projected Voices, won the Nathan Maccoby dissertation award in 2008.

Research Focus

My work lies in the intersections of ubiquitous computing, embodied cognition, and personal robotics. Within the realm of human-computer interaction (HCI), I currently study how people interact with and through robots. In terms of people interacting with robots, I focus upon how people make sense of and interact with agentic objects. In terms of people interacting through robots, I study the behavioral, cognitive, and social implications of technologies that influence one’s own sense of agency by becoming invisible-in-use.