The SocialWorlds Research Group

	Mark Ackerman is a professor in the School of Information and in the Division of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering. Mark is a member of the CHI Academy (HCI fellow) and an ACM Fellow. personal website
	Ayşe Büyüktür was a PhD student in the School of Information and is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan. Ayşe is interested in Health/Medical Informatics, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Science Technology and Society (STS). She received her Bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in mathematics from Smith College. She received her Master’s degrees in public health (Epidemiology/International Health, MPH) and pharmaceutical sciences (MS), both from the University of Michigan. She also holds a certificate of graduate studies in STS from the University of Michigan. Previous project: Information use and handoffs in bone marrow transplant Current projects: Patient studies for Spinal Cord Injury Community-based health programs in Washtenaw and Jackson counties, Michigan personal website
	Elizabeth (Liz) Kaziunas is a PhD student in the School of Information. Liz is interested in Human-Computer Interaction, Social Computing, Computer-supported Cooperative Work, and healthcare. She received a MA in Religion from Yale University in 2005 and a MS in Information Management in 2011 from Syracuse University. Current projects: Augmenting health information for diabetics and in other chronic diseases How people use health information in the community of Flint, Michigan People's use of data in managing their chronic conditions The lived experience of behavioral health (in Jackson, Michigan) personal web site
	Jasmine Jones is a PhD student in the School of Information. She is interested in the intersection of technology design and socio-cultural studies, especially with regards to the future of pervasive computing. Her goal is to combine design, ethnographic, and technical methods to tackle challenging socio-technical issues. Her thesis examines how to construct useful memory artifacts for pervasive environments in the home, and it centers on new roles these artifacts can have in shaping and maintaining memory. She received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Current projects: The design of family memory artifacts The use of technology in livelihood strategies among people with disabilities in Sierra Leone. personal website
	Pei-Yao (Perry) Hung is a PhD student in the School of Information. Pei-Yao is interested in Human-Computer Interaction, End-User Programming, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. He received a BS and MS in Computer Science and Information Engineering from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan, and an MS in Information from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Current projects: User data estimation and monitoring in spinal cord injury FIT - patient and caregiver translations of healthcare information Past projects: Discount expertise estimation using browsing history Escalier applications and general configuration editor personal website
	Shuang Liu is a Master’s student in the School of Information, studying Human-Computer Interaction. She received a BS in Psychology and Studio Art (oil painting) from Centre College in 2012. Current Project: FIT

Alumni

	David Merritt graduated with a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering. David is interested in Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-supported Cooperative Work, and Usable Privacy and Security. He received his MS in Computer Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2011 and his BS in Computer Engineering from the US Air Force Academy in 2002. He is currently on active duty with the US Air Force.Current projects: Community-sourced knowledge to assist end-user configuration and control Hybrid architectures using crowd-sourcing and machine learning to do automated curation of digital materials
	Tao Dong graduated with a PhD from the School of Information. Tao is interested in Human-Computer Interaction, Social Computing, and Computer-supported Cooperative Work. He received a BS in Management Information Systems from Fudan University, China, and a Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan. Tao was co-advised by Mark Newman. He is currently a researcher at Google. Projects: The Memory of Things: How Houses Could and Should Remember Social Overlays: Collectively Making Websites More Usable Jigsaw: a Discovery-based Learning Game for Photoshop
	Jina Huh graduated with a Ph.D. from the School of Information and is currently an assistant professor in Medical Informatics at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Previously she was an assistant professor in Media and Information at Michigan State University and a post-doctoral fellow in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington. She was a post-doctoral fellow in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington, and received a MHCI from HCI Institute, Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Multimedia design from the Korean National University of Arts.Thesis: Collaborative Help for Individualized Problems: Learning from the MythTV User Community and Diabetes Support Groups (2011) personal website
	Jiang Yang is a researcher at Alibaba Research. She graduated with a PhD from the UM School of Michigan and was also a post-doc at SI working on inter-cultural effects in online communities, especially in question-answering. Jiang has a BS degree in Information System & Management and a MS in Financial Engineering from the University of Science & Technology of China. Jiang was co-advised by Lada Adamic.Previous projects: Examining what keeps people online at three large Q&A communities Using social computational methods to understand the complexity in people's social interactions and co-evolution in the systems Thesis - Incentive and Culture: Shaping Information and Social Dynamics in Online Information Sharing Systems (2011) personal website
	Jake Mandel was a research programmer analyst with the Social Worlds research group until 9/13. He received his Master's degree in computer science from the University of New Hampshire and his Bachelor's in mathematics from Williams College. His interests include pervasive computing and artificial intelligence.Previous projects: Escalier core system.
	Kevin Nam graduated with a PhD from the School of Information and is currently at MIT/Lincoln Labs. He is interested in human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work. Kevin also has an MS in computer science from the University of Michigan and a BS in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas.Thesis: Arkose: A Prototype Mechanism and Tool for Collaborative Information Generation and Distillation (2010)
	Ben Congleton was a PhD student in the School of Information and a co-founder of Olark.com. He is interested in ubiquitous computing, CSCW, HCI, and the design of interactive systems. He has a BS in business information technology and a BS and MS in computer science from Virginia Tech.Projects: Prospero, a toolkit for Audience Aware Public Displays. SSAPP, a simple sensor architecture for simulating and prototyping privacy aware pervasive environments.
	Xiaomu Zhou is currently faculty in the Informatics department at Northeastern University. Previously, she was a faculty member at Rutgers in the School of Communication and Information. Her dissertation research examined informal information use in a hospital setting, with a focus on patient psychosocial information.Xiaomu has a BS in computer science and technology, Shandong University, and a MS in computer science and application, Beijing Institute of Technology.Thesis: Information in Healthcare: An Ethnographic Analysis of a Hospital Ward (2010)
	Jun Zhang graduated with a PhD from the School of Information and is a Research Fellow Pitney-Bowes Research in Connecticut. He is interested in expertise sharing, social networks, and CSCW. Jun also has a BS in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University.Previous work: Understanding and Augmenting Expertise Networks (2008, thesis) Community Network Simulator Q&A communities

Previous alumni include: Dave McDonald, Wayne Lutters, Jack Muramatsu, Stephen Cotterill, Anne Swenson, Brian Starr, Andy Tipple, Winnie Hui, and Jeff Dorsz.