I completed my Ph.D. at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University under the advisement of Dr. Jennifer Mankoff. I received a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University and started my career as a software engineer with Intel Corporation. I developed desktop and network products for Original Equipment Manufacturers. While at Intel, I received a Masters of Science in Computer Science from the Oregon Graduate Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University before leaving to pursue my Ph.D. I was a recipient of the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship (2011, 2012), the Fran Allen IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award (2011), and served on the program committee for FLAIRS in 2011. I hold three patents with IBM Research.

Areas of interest

My research interests are in the areas of human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, and social computing. I am primarily interested in identifying needs and opportunities to further explore how theories from the social sciences can be used to design technologies that have a positive impact on individual behavior. I see an urgent need to explore the use of these technologies in understudied communities. Results from my past studies in the environmental sustainability domain suggest that improved communication provides individual community members with access to new information and helps to resolve common problems. I plan to continue to apply my past research techniques to clarify and potentially meet the needs of understudied communities in environmental sustainability and in other domains such as education and health. For more information about my research please see http://www.tawannadillahunt.com and for more information about my research group, please go to http://www.socialinnovations.us.

Education

B.S. in Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University,

M.S. in Computer Science, Oregon Graduate Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University

M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Carnegie Mellon University,

Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Carnegie Mellon University