I am a PhD student at the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department. I work with Professor James Fogarty and Dr. Srinivas Bangalore. I am part of the DUB Group, UW’s interdisciplinary HCI and design group, and Scientific Collaboration and Creativity Lab. I am an AT&T Labs Fellow, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, a Microsoft Research Graduate Woman Scholar, and a Google Anita Borg Scholar. I got my BA in Mathematics and Computer Science at Oberlin College in 2010. More fun facts about academic pursuits: CV [PDF]
March 7 at Town Hall Seattle: I’ll be talking about interactive machine translation; Come check it out!
Research Interests
My research is at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). I am interested in developing new channels for interaction with text and written language.
Interactive Machine Translation (ongoing)
Thousands of different languages are spoken around the world, limiting our ability to communicate globally. Translation can help to overcome this barrier, but is often prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Automatic translation can allow people to communicate ideas and experiences across languages and cultures, but current technologies still struggle with expressive language. Nuance, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references pose fundamental challenges to how machines translate from one language to another. However, people reading a translation can easily locate problematic wording, suggest possible corrections, and help to improve translation quality. We are exploring how interfaces for editing a translation can change the user experience as well as provide feedback that improves machine translation systems. I am working on this project with UW CSE Professor James Fogarty and Dr. Srinivas Bangalore, my AT&T Labs Fellowship mentor.
- 2012 Town Hall Seattle talk about interactive machine translation
- 2011 AT&T Research article about the first prototype I built for enabling interacting with translation
Automating Emotion Detection in Text-Based Communication (ongoing)
Exploring ways of leveraging interactive learning and visualization for support building automatic detection of emotion in text-based communication; working with UW HCDE Professor Cecilia Aragon
Communication in Introductory Foreign-Language Classrooms (2011)
Characterized influences on student communication through a qualitative study of student
interactions in three introductory Russian classrooms over a period of two months; working with UW HDCE Professor Charlotte Lee
Conflict and Uncertainty in Health Information Online (2009-2010)
As an undergraduate student, I worked with Professor Jen Mankoff at CMU HCII on studying how people with chronic illness navigate conflicting health information online.
- 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about Professor Mankoff and this project: Computer scientist researched her own condition, Lyme disease
- 2011 Conference paper [pdf]: J. Mankoff, K. Kuksenok, J. A. Rode, S. Kiesler & K. Waldman. Competing online viewpoints and models of chronic illness. CHI 2011.
- 2009 Conference extended abstract [pdf]: K. Kuksenok, J. Mankoff. End-user moderation of cognitive accessibility in online communities: Case study of brain fog in the Lyme community. ASSETS 2009, pp. 233-234.
- 2009 Weekly journal about research as an undergraduate, as part of CRA-W DREU program
Fun Facts!
My husband Michael Brooks and I got married at Oberlin College a few months before graduating. He is also a PhD student at UW, in the Human-Centered Design and Engineering department.
I read like a fish, draw, make jewelry, play guitar, and occasionally write the odd short story. One of my resolutions this year is to finish this novel I’ve been writing and haven’t named yet. Recently, I helped to put together the latest issue of UW CSE’s creative arts journal, Mossy Bits. I strongly believe life is a cheesecake.