PhD Student in Human-Computer Interaction
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
I explore whether and how we can design for human-AI complementarity:
partnerships between humans and AI systems that build upon each others’ strengths and compensate for each others’ limitations.
To poke at this problem space, I currently use mixed methods to study the use, design, and impacts
of algorithmic decision support tools in high-stakes, complex domains such as social work.
While addressing model- and interface-level design challenges,
I aim to consider the impacts of organizational structures and pressures
to contextualize our understanding of what effective human-AI partnerships might look like in the real world.
I care deeply about extending research to have non-negative real-world impact. My aspiration is to produce knowledge
and approaches that can easily be transferred to support relevant community members, policymakers, and researchers.
I am a first-year PhD student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. I am fortunate to be co-advised by Ken Holstein (CoALA Lab) and Haiyi Zhu (Social AI Lab). I recently graduated from Wellesley College, a historically women's liberal arts college, with a BA in Computer Science (with honors) and a minor in Economics, as a Durant Scholar and Trustee Scholar. During my undergraduate years, I was a research intern at Microsoft Research (Aether) and a visiting student and research assistant at Oxford University.
Anna Kawakami*, Venkat Sivaraman*, Logan Stapleton, Hao-Fei Cheng, Adam Perer, Steven Wu, Haiyi Zhu, Kenneth Holstein. “'Why Do I Care What's Similar?' Probing Challenges in AI-Assisted Child Welfare Decision-Making through Worker-AI Interface Design Concepts" To appear in Designing Interactive Systems Conferece, DIS 2022.
Anna Kawakami, Venkat Sivaraman, Hao-Fei Cheng, Logan Stapleton, Yang Cheng, Diana Qing, Adam Perer, Steven Wu, Haiyi Zhu, Kenneth Holstein.
“Improving Human-AI Partnerships in Child Welfare: Understanding Worker Practices, Challenges, and Desires for Algorithmic Decision Support.”
In ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022.
[paper]
[video]
[preview]
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award (Top 5%)
Hao-Fei Cheng*, Logan Stapleton*, Anna Kawakami, Venkat Sivaraman, Yang Cheng, Diana Qing, Adam Perer, Steven Wu, Haiyi Zhu, Kenneth Holstein.
“How Child Welfare Workers Reduce Racial Disparities in Algorithmic Decisions.”
In ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022.
[paper]
[video]
Anna Kawakami, Khonzoda Umarova, Jennifer Huang, Eni Mustafaraj.
“The 'Fairness Doctrine' lives on? Theorizing about the Algorithmic News Curation of Google's Top Stories”
In ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, HT 2020.
[paper]
Anna Kawakami, Khonzoda Umarova, Eni Mustafaraj.
“The Media Coverage of the 2020 US Presidential Election Candidates through the Lens of Google’s Top Stories.”
In International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020.
[paper]
Ada Lerner, Helen He, Anna Kawakami, Silvia Zeamer, Roberto Hoyle.
“Privacy and Activism in the Transgender Community.”
In ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020.
[paper]
Camille Cobb, Milijana Surbatovich, Anna Kawakami, Mahmood Sharif, Lujo Bauer, Limin Jia.
“How Risky are Real Users’ IFTTT Applets?”
In Sixteenth Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy, SOUPS 2020.
[paper]
Anna Kawakami, Luke Guerdan, Yanghuidi Cheng, Anita Sun, Alison Hu, Kate Glazko, Nikos Arechiga,
Matthew Lee, Scott Carter, Haiyi Zhu and Kenneth Holstein.
“Towards a Learner-Centered Explainable AI.”
Conditionally accepted to Workshop on Human-Centered Explainable AI (HCXAI) at the ACM Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022.
[short paper]
Anna Kawakami, Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Ben Zorn, Nathan Liles, Ece Kamar. “AI Reliability & Safety: Practices and Challenges at Microsoft.” Microsoft-internal technical report, 2021.
Anna Kawakami. “The News We See When Searching: Exploring Users’ Mental Models of Google’s Top Stories.” Senior honors thesis, 2021.
I didn’t follow this exactly but it was a good frame of reference. Also many HCI / I-School and CS PhD programs removed the GRE requirement in the past year. It could make sense to make a list of programs you'd definitely be excited to attend before studying for the GRE (maybe you'll find you don't need to take it, like me!).
Every lab is different but this guide is spot-on for Eni's Wellesley Cred Lab. I like to read through the common scenarios for validation.
I especially like the sections on Ideas and Doing research. He also links an awesome PhD meeting agenda template that I ~aspire~ to follow.
If you're interested in Carnegie Mellon's HCI PhD program (or any other CS-related PhD program at CMU), you could get feedback on your application materials from a wonderful team of PhD student volunteers: Graduate Application Support Program.