Hi, I'm Mara Ulloa
I am a National Science Foundation GRFP Fellow and third-year PhD student in the department of Computer Science (CS) at Northwestern University (NU) in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. As a member of the Personalized & Adaptive Technology for Health (NU-Path) lab, my PhD work is mentored by Dr. Maia L. Jacobs.
My research interests span across the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Preventive Medicine, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), converging to explore the interplay between technology design and personalized health tools.
The objective of my work is to design novel strategies and interventions that apply user-centered design to address usability, safety, and ethical challenges when implementing machine learning insights into real-world settings.
I am currently working with the Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence (CASMI) in my department to Co-Design Patient-Facing Machine Learning for Prenatal Stress Reduction.
News
- 👩🏻🏫 06/2024 Will be presenting ongoing research on the design of patient-facing machine learning (ML) at The International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) in Limerick, Ireland
- 👩🏻🏫 05/2024 Will begin collaborating on user experience (UX) research initiatives with The National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado
- 👩🏻🏫 04/2024 Will be attending the 2024 CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for IDEALS in Minneapolis, MN
- 👩🏻🏫 11/2023 Gave a talk on public scholarship & building impactful research as an alum of The Graduate Engagement Opportunities (GEO) Community Practicum
- 👩🏻🏫 11/2023 Attended the Gender and Intersectional Bias in Artificial Intelligence Conference in Chicago, IL
- 👩🏻🏫 10/2023 Presented at the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing (CSCW) workshop on Supporting User Engagement in Testing, Auditing, and Contesting AI in Minneapolis, MN
- 👩🏻🏫 10/2023 Served as a JEDI Ambassador at UbiComp/ISWC conference in Cancún, Mexico
- 👩🏻🏫 07/2023 Served as a panelist in the NEIU SCSE, TRIO, and McNair Graduate School Panel
- 👩🏻🏫 06/2023 Served as a volunteer at the Interaction Design for Children conference in Chicago, IL
- 🎓 06/2023 Received a Master of Science (MS) degree in Computer Science from Northwestern
- 👩🏻🏫 04/2023 Served as a panelist in the NEIU Computer Science Alumni Forum
- 👩🏻🏫 04/2023 Presented at the CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for Women in San Francisco, CA
- 🏆 03/2023 Awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
- 👩🏻🏫 02/2023 Attended the Preparing Future Faculty of Color Conference at NIU
- 📝 11/2022 First-authored Invisible Clinical Labor Driving the Successful Integration of AI in Healthcare
- 👩🏻🏫 10/2022 Presented at NU's Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design conference
- 🏆 09/2022 Awarded the Segal Design Cluster Fellowship
- 👩🏻🏫 09/2022 Attended the Tapia Conference in Washington, DC
- 🏆 07/2022 Awarded the Social Justice Mini-Grant from Northwestern
- 👩🏻🏫 07/2022 Served as a panelist in the NU SROP Navigating Graduate School Event
- 👩🏻🏫 03/2022 Started my PhD Internship with We All Code
- 👩🏻🏫 09/2021 Started my PhD studies in CS at Northwestern University
- 🎓 05/2021 Graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Computer Science from NEIU
- 🏆 01/2021 Awarded the NEIU CS Scholarship
- 🏆 11/2020 Awarded the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award
- 👩🏻🏫 07/2020 Presented at the UCLA National McNair Conference
- 👩🏻🏫 07/2020 Presented at the The National Center for Atmospheric Research Presentations
- 👩🏻🏫 05/2020 Started my internship with The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
- 👩🏻🏫 10/2019 Attended and presented at the 2019 SACNAS Conference in Honolulu, HI
- 👩🏻🏫 09/2019 Presented at the 11th Annual NEIU Student Symposium
- 👩🏻🏫 08/2019 Started leading programming workshops with the NEIU CS department
- 👩🏻🏫 05/2019 Started my summer research internship at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) SCSE
- 🏆 09/2018 Awarded The National TheDream.US Scholarship