The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) is pleased to announce that Leah Findlater will be joining its faculty as an assistant professor, beginning September 2017.

Dr. Findlater joins HCDE from the College of Information Studies and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. There, she directed the Inclusive Design Lab, whose mission is to lower barriers to technology use and information access for people with a range of physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities.

Findlater’s research focuses on ensuring that the next generation of mobile and wearable technologies meet the needs of the broadest range of users. A major theme in her work is on designing new interfaces and interactions to improve technologies for people with visual or motor impairments.

Findlater holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia. Before joining the University of Maryland, she spent two years here at the University of Washington as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellow.

Findlater has published 60 papers in top-tier academic venues, nine of which have been recognized with Best Paper or Honorable Mention awards at ACM CHI. She holds an NSF CAREER Award and her research is funded by NSF, the Department of Defense, Nokia and Google.

HCDE Chair David McDonald welcomes Dr. Findlater, saying, "The department and faculty are excited to have Dr. Findlater joining HCDE. Her expertise in adaptive technology, mobile, and wearable technologies will augment and extend the human-centered focus in the department. As well, we expect that many HCDE students will be thrilled to take her courses and contribute to her research projects."

Findlater will also hold an adjunct appointment in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. In total, the University is welcoming five new faculty members in the area of human-computer interaction, with the hiring of HCDE PhD alumna Alexis Hiniker as Assistant Professor and Anind K. Dey as the Dean of the Information School, and Jennifer Mankoff and Jon Froehlich to the Allen School as Professor and Associate Professor, respectively.

Please join HCDE in welcoming Dr. Findlater to our community.