I am an assistant professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), Ensenada Campus, where I direct the Technology for Social Good Research Lab (Tech4Good Lab). My research interests are in human-computer interaction, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, accessibility, and videogames for health. My research focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating technology to support the cognitive and motor development of children with neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders such as autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. All my current research projects intersect computing, design, medical, and social sciences. I work very closely with specialists in the care of children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as neuro pediatricians and physical and occupational therapists, as well as, psychotherapists and special education teachers. My overall research aim is to create technology for supporting the care of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, contributing to the acquisition and practice of the necessary skills to achieve children's independence.
I received my Ph.D. in computer science from the Center of Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE Research Center). I worked under the supervision of Dr. Ana I. Martínez and Dr. Monica Tentori. I studied my master´s degree in the same research center. I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Computing and Informatics and in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University.
News and Activities:
Please visit the Tech4Good Lab news page for the latest news.
My amazing MSc. Student, Aurora Ruiz-Rodriguez that I co-advising together with Dr. Ana I. Martínez, won an Honorable Mention Award for her work-in-progress work: "Gesture-based Video Games to Support Fine-Motor Coordination Skills of Children with Autism" at the 2019 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference (June 2019).
I got a scholarship from the Russell Sage Foundation to attend to the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS 2019) at Princeton University from June 16th to June 29th.
On May 2019, I attended to PervasiveHealth 2019, I co-presented a paper with Dr. Gabi Marcu. I also served as a publicity and social media chair. It was an amazing conference with very high-quality papers. You can see some photos of the conference here.
During the Brain Week 2019 (March), I gave a talk on "Autism and Technology" in the Faculty of Administrative and Social Sciences of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC).
During the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2019 (February 11th), I was part of the forum "Scientific Women and Girls: opening roads" in the Faculty of Administrative and Social Sciences of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC).
On January 23th, 2019, I gave a talk on "Intervention Technology to Support Vulnerable Populations" as a part of the invited talk series of the Department of Electronics and Communications of the CICESE Research Center.
I attended to GoodTechs 2018, where I presented a paper about the research I did at UC Santa Cruz during my short-term research stay in my PhD (November 2018).
I am the publicity and social media chair of the 13th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth 2019). Send your contributions and come to Trento! (October 2018)
I got a position as assistant professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) at Ensenada, Mexico (August 2018).
I am a co-organizer of the Student Design Competition (SDC) of the Seventh Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (MexIHC 2018). In collaboration with Jessica Beltran.
I attended to PervasiveHealth 2018, where I co-presented a paper from the Empathic Design and Technology Research Group, I presented a paper from the Procedural eXpression Lab (PXL), and a demo about the BeeSmart project (May 21st - 24th, 2018).
Our workshop on Designing with Diverse Populations: Sharing Experiences, Best Practices and Opportunities (Design4Diversity) was a success during the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2018. We had ten amazing submissions, interesting discussions, and we started to frame a taxonomy about techniques, practices, and challenges in designing with diverse populations. Wait for the workshop outcomes! You can see a photo of the amazing workshop participants and organizers here.
On May 17th, 2018, I gave a talk on "BeeSmart: A Gesture-based Videogame to Support Literacy and Eye-hand Coordination of Children with Down Syndrome" as a part of the invited talks series for the Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Class in the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University.
I attended to CHI 2018, where I co-authored a full paper, a workshop paper and a late breaking work paper from the Empathic Design and Technology Research Group and the Procedural eXpression Lab (PXL), (April 21st - 26th, 2018).
On April 6th, 2018, I gave a talk on "Videogames to Support Developmental Skills of Diverse Populations" as a part of the invited talks of the M.Sc. Seminars at the Escuela Politecnica Superior of the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Dr. Gabriela Marcu and I had the opportunity to visit Alenta, an amazing organization at Madrid, Spain, that provides services to children and adults with developmental disorders and disabilities. We were so happy for this opportunity to start new collaboration projects. Special thanks to Guadalupe Montero, Director of Alenta, for her hospitality and for making us feel so welcome. (March 2018)
I am a co-organizer of the Design4Diversity Workshop: Designing with Diverse Populations: Sharing Experiences, Best Practices and Opportunities to be held in conjunction with the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2018. We want your submissions! See you in New York.
On February 17th, 2018, Dr. Gabriela Marcu, Amira Kinlaw and I conducted a workshop: "STEM - Coding" at the Teenshop program in Philadelphia, PA.
On February 7th, 2018, I gave a talk on "Researching & Writing a Literature Review" as a part of the invited talks of the Ph.D. Seminars at the Department of Information Science at Drexel University.
From January 2018, I am part of the National System of Researchers of Mexico (SNI-C).
On December 8th, 2017, Dr. Gabriela Marcu, Allison Spiller, Sara Seyd and I organized and instructed the workshop: "Identifying and incorporating technology to support children with ASD" for school practitioners working with children with ASD (including therapists, special education teachers, psychologists and social workers) at ELWYN in Philadelphia, PA. You can see some photos of the workshop here.
On November 27th, 2017, I gave a talk on "Movement-based games to support visual-motor integration of individuals with developmental disorders" as a part of the invited talks series for the Ubicomp Class in the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University.
I attended the Workshop on Interactive Systems in Health Care (WISH) 2017, in the Annual Symposium of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) at Washington, D.C. (Nov 4th, 2017).
I got a Faculty Scholar award to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration 2017 (Oct 3rd-6th, 2017). Thanks to my sponsor, Capital One for such great opportunity. It was amazing to have the opportunity to know and talk with wonderful and inspiring women that are working so hard to have a voice and make a difference in technology, women that are changing the world.
On September 7-8, 2017, Dr. Gabriela Marcu and I had the opportunity to attend the 8th Annual Conference for Pre-Tenure Women at Purdue University. It was a very enriching and motivating experience. We had the opportunity to meet very successful and inspiring women such as Jessica Bennett, Beronda L. Montgomery and Susan Butler.
I got a position as postdoctoral fellow in the College of Computing and Informatics and the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University to work under the supervision of Dr. Gabriela Marcu and Dr. Jichen Zhu. I am part of the Empathic Design and Technology Research Group and of the Procedural eXpression Lab (PXL) (May 2017).
I got a position as assistant professor in the Department of Computing and Design at the Sonora Institute of Technology (Jan - May 2017).
I am teaching the "Interactive Systems Design" Course at the Sonora Institute of Technology (Jan-May 2017).
I am teaching the "Distributed Systems" course at the Sonora Institute of Technology (Jan-Apr 2017).
I had the honor to give the graduation speech representing the CICESE Ph.D. Graduates from 2016 (Nov 25th, 2016).
I attended the annual meeting of AMEXCOMP 2016 at CDMX (Nov 17th, 2016).
I attended the Mexican International Conference on Computer Science (ENC) 2016 at Chihuahua, Mexico. Thanks to Karina Figueroa and UTCH for a great event! You can see a video of the event here.
I was invited as a speaker at the International Seminar on Computer Science organized by the Medellin University (Oct 27th-28th, 2016).
I attended the First Meeting of Mexican Women in Computing organized by AMEXCOMP (Sept 29th, 2016).
I am the general co-chair of the Mexican International Conference on Computer Science (ENC) 2016. In collaboration with Karina Figueroa.
I am teaching the "Multimedia" Course at Cetys Universidad (Aug-Dec 2016).
I am teaching the "Designing and Analyzing Experiments in Computer Science" course at CICESE (Aug-Dec 2016)
From February to April 2016, I did a short-term research stay in the Assistive Sociotechnical Solutions for Individuals with Special needs using Technology (ASSIST) Lab at University of California, Santa Cruz, under the supervision of Prof. Sri Kurniawan, and through the UC Mexus-CICESE Scholarship.
