Spring 2025
Exploring Engagement with Virtual Pet Sites
Instructors: Alyse Marie Allred, Cecilia Aragon
Virtual pet sites, such as Neopets, are browser games built around the core mechanic of collecting digital pets, often with additional features such as: minigames, forums, contests, dress-ups, and a tradesmarket. Although they rose to prominence in the early 2000s, virtual pet sites persist to this day. Moreover, while the original trend was associated primarily with children, many of the current users of these sites are adults--some of whom were the original children who have since grown up. This DRG seeks to understand how adults interact with and play in these virtual worlds, especially in comparison to prior observations of children in these spaces. Participants will be expected to make both passive observations and to actively engage with the site's core mechanics, guided by their own curiosity and enjoyment.
This DRG is a continuation of a project launched in Spring 2024, with the intent to use the combined data in an academic research paper.
What students should expect:
- Joining one of three virtual pet sites (Neopets, Flight Rising, Dappervolk)
Independently playing at least 30 minutes, four days of the week (2 hours playtime total) - Weekly short written reflections (1-3 paragraphs) relaying activities, observations, and other significant interactions
- Weekly slide(s) documenting pets, avatars, screencaps, and other significant visual artifacts
- Weekly 1 hour meetings (TBD) wherein students will share and compare their experiences and observations of the previous week
- Full reflections at midterms and finals
For questions, please contact: Alyse Marie Allred at alyse.allred@gmail.com.
Spring 2025
Building Resilience & Successful Mental Health Initiatives
Instructors: Research scientist Kimberly Perkins, PhD, and Professor Cecilia Aragon
As part of this Directed Research Group (DRG), participants will conduct a comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis focused on two key areas:
- Successful interventions supporting mental health initiatives.
- Strategies for building individual mental resilience and integrating resilience into broader organizational systems.
This work involves systematic literature searches, data synthesis, and critical analysis to identify patterns across various workplace mental health interventions. The group will assess how these interventions can be effectively operationalized at a systems level to enhance both individual well-being and organizational resilience.
Participants will also contribute to developing a foundational framework that links mental health initiatives with systemic implementation strategies, exploring how resilience at the individual level can enhance the adaptive capacity of entire organizations.
What might be group and individual outcomes of this work?
Group Outcomes:
- Publication of a meta-analysis on mental health interventions, particularly applicable for the workplace, identifying key success factors and trends.
- Development of an academic framework that bridges individual resilience with systemic organizational strategies.
- Contributions to high-impact academic publications and/or potential conference presentations.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration across fields such as psychology, human factors, organizational behavior, and resilience research.
Individual Outcomes:
- Experience in meta-analytic methodologies and systematic literature reviews.
- Deepened understanding of mental health resilience research and its application to workplace settings.
- Opportunity to contribute to academic publications, strengthening research credentials.
- Collaboration with fellow students in related fields, building professional and academic networks.
This DRG provides an opportunity for students and researchers to engage in meaningful, interdisciplinary work that has the potential to shape workplace policy, inform best practices, and contribute to long-term organizational resilience strategies.
Enrollment information
- Meeting time: meeting time will be determined based on student availability
- Credits: 2 - 5
- Who should apply: Students interested in mental health, human factors, organizational psychology, and resilience.
- This DRG counts toward the directed research requirement for PhD students.
- Application: Email Kimberly Perkins, pilot@uw.edu, with a brief bio and a few sentences explaining your interest in this project.
- Anticipated notification date: the first day of instruction
- Questions? Email Kimberly Perkins at pilot@uw.edu.
Autumn 2024 - Spring 2025
Research into the Harms caused by GAI Tools
This year-long DRG will explore various facets of working with Generative AI tools, with a specific focus on the ways in which their outputs can and do cause harm towards traditionally marginalized populations. Led by doctoral candidate Sourojit Ghosh, students in this DRG will be expected to conduct impactful novel research in this field and submit high-quality work to relevant conferences for publication. The DRG will have biweekly large-group meetings on Tuesdays from 12-1:30 p.m. (Fall quarter, Winter and Spring times TBD), as well as small group meetings scheduled throughout the year. Students can enroll for a maximum of 5 credits throughout the academic year, distributing them as they see fit over three quarters.
Ideal students will have some experience working with Generative AI tools, with prior knowledge of computational and/or human-subjects evaluations of their outputs preferred. Students must commit to participating for the entire academic year, as well as being available for the initial meeting time listed above. We are looking for a maximum of 6 students. Interested applicants can fill out this Google Form, or reach out to ghosh100@uw.edu for questions.