Student Spotlight: Alisha Pradhan, PhD Student
Alisha Pradhan’s interest in accessibility and aging research had sparked after pursuing the HCIM program at the UMD iSchool as well as working alongside iSchool faculty on compelling research projects related to HCI, aging, and accessibility.
Alisha Pradhan’s interest in accessibility and aging research had sparked after pursuing the HCIM program at the UMD iSchool as well as working alongside iSchool faculty on compelling research projects related to HCI, aging, and accessibility. From there, she was inspired to pursue her PhD in the Fall of 2018. Since joining the PhD program, Alisha has acted as a mentor for undergraduate computer science and iSchool students, designed and led a hands-on research experience for undergraduate women interested in HCI research, and developed workshops on using commercial voice technologies for older adults in local community settings. Alisha is currently investigating how commercial or customized voice technologies can support older adults’ health and well-being. She was honored as a recipient of a Health Informatics Fellowship for this work. She is heavily involved within the research community serving as a paper reviewer for HCI conferences such as CHI and DIS and as a student volunteer for iConference 2019. She loves the interdisciplinary nature of the iSchool and its continuous research support in the form of research improvement and travel grants, which helped to send her to CSCW 2019 to present her first research paper as a PhD student under the guidance of her faculty advisor, Dr. Amanda Lazar. In her free time, Alisha enjoys going on local adventures around the greater D.C. area and watching movies.