Faculty Mentors and their graduate student teams work closely with both the Helen Fellows and BridgeUP STEM Scholars to broaden the students’ exposure to computing research. During the BridgeUP STEM program, the faculty and their graduate students mentor the undergraduate Helen Fellows as the Fellows work in an assigned faculty mentor’s research lab on real world research projects. Together the faculty mentors, their graduate students, and their Helen Fellows facilitate the interactive BridgeUP STEM Scholars research class during the academic year.
Meet Georgia Tech’s BridgeUP STEM Faculty Mentors:
Dr. Rosa Arriaga
Dr. Arriaga is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She directs the UbiComp Health and Wellness Lab. Her research emphasis is on using psychological theories and methods to address fundamental topics of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Social Computing. She designs human-centered mHealth systems that address gaps in chronic care and mental health management. These systems foster patient engagement and self-advocacy, facilitate continuity of care between scheduled healthcare visits, and mediate communication between patient and healthcare provider.
Learn more about Dr. Arriaga.
Dr. Sonia Chernova
Dr. Chernova is an Associate Professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She directs the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning (RAIL) lab, where her research focuses on the development of intelligent and interactive autonomous systems. Dr. Chernova’s contributions span robotics and artificial intelligence, including semantic reasoning, adaptive autonomy, human-robot interaction, and explainable AI. She also leads the NSF AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING), whose mission is to develop collaborative AI partners-in-care that help support a growing population of older adults, helping them sustain independence, improve quality of life, and increase effectiveness of care coordination across their care network.
Learn more about Dr. Chernova.
Dr. Betsy DiSalvo
Dr. DiSalvo is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing and founder of the Culture and Technology Lab (CAT Lab) and the interim chair of the School of Interactive Computing. Her research engages in the study of informal learning and the impact of cultural values on technology use and production. Dr. DiSalvo’s work has included the development of educational games such as Beats Empire, Hemonauts, and Click! Urban Adventure. She has created business-like structures within the Institute to promote entry level work in computer science and to scaffold those workers to pursue more advanced computer science skills. These projects include the Glitch Game Testers and DataWorks.
Learn more about Dr. DiSalvo.
Dr. Andrea Parker
Dr. Parker is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Parker holds a Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech and a B.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University. She is the founder and director of the Wellness Technology Lab at Georgia Tech. Her interdisciplinary research spans the domains of human-computer interaction and public health as she examines how social and interactive computing systems can be designed to address health disparities. Dr. Parker’s research has been funded through awards from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Aetna Foundation, and Google. She has received several best paper honorable mention awards for her research on digital health equity.
Learn more about Dr. Parker.
Funding for the BridgeUP STEM program is provided by a generous grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.