I am an experienced UX researcher and designer at the intersection of human-centered design and learning technologies. I have a PhD in computer science with 10+ years of experience in qualitative/quantitative research methods, design methods, agile development, project management, and leadership. I have published and presented my research in several top scientific venues. 

Lead UX Researcher

ETS, Educational Product Innovation & Development, Princeton, NJ

Aug 2021 – Jan 2024

• Led UX research in developing AI-powered educational products that provide personalized learning and assessment solutions with targeted instruction, assessment of progress, and immediate feedback.

• Managed and grew a team of seven UX researchers and designers responsible for creating AI-enabled products across K-12, language learning, and workforce portfolios (four products).

• Drove research and developed plans to move and export B2C products to B2B domain (two products).

• Established processes to streamline the workflow across User Research and Product Design, enabling efficient prioritization and strategic integration of user research in agile product development.

• Fostered collaboration with product managers, data scientists, learning scientists, and AI/ML engineers, guiding executive leadership towards data-driven decision-making and product development enhancements. 

Research Scientist

New York Hall of Science, Museum Digital Learning, New York, NY

Apr 2019 – Jul 2021

• Drove a program of research to create digital platforms that support the professional development of on-the-floor museum educators.

• Led participatory design research with museum educators and managers to co-design a tablet dashboard, using live exhibit data, to facilitate visitors’ interaction with immersive digital exhibits.

• Designed and conducted research (observational studies, interviews, surveys) on youth engagement in design thinking practices in Maker Ed workshops.

• Managed and mentored 2 researchers on qualitative research in museum studies.

Postdoctoral Researcher
Northwestern University, Technology & Social Behavior, Evanston, IL
Sep 2017 – Mar 2019                                                                        

• Executed research on users’ engagement with a novel haptic feedback technology (TanvasTouch) through close collaborations with researchers, engineers, and product managers.

• Designed, tested, and iterated on two tablet applications to support children science learning using haptic feedback technology.

• Conducted lab studies with 50+ parent-child pairs to understand how they learn and interact with haptic feedback on tablet devices. 

Instructor: Human-Centered Design
DePaul University & Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Mar 2018 –  Dec 2018                                                                    

• Developed and led a project-based course on human-computer-interaction to introduce the principles of UX/UI design including user-centered design, user needs, visual design, and usability testing for developing mobile and web-based applications (with ~70 students in two classes).

Graduate Researcher
Northwestern University, Human-Computer-Interaction & Learning Sciences, Evanston, IL
Sep 2012 – Jun 2017

• Built, tested, and iterated on a science museum exhibit using tangible and augmented reality technologies to enhance children’s understanding of electrical circuits.

• Drove user research (qualitative and quantitative testing, and interviews) with 200+ family visitors at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago to study visitors’ learning and interaction with different versions of an augmented exhibit.

• Co-designed and evaluated online interactive assessment tools for K-12 computing education. Co-developed prototypes of an online learning tool to teach coding through creating music.

• Conducted field interviews with scientists and engineers to gather insights on the nature of computational practices in their work.

• Conducted lab studies on users’ interaction and navigation ability with digital maps comparing mouse and touch input strategies.

• Conducted attitudinal analysis on survey data from visitors at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

• Co-taught and assisted in teaching 8 courses in computer science, human-computer interaction, human-centered design, and design thinking.

• Managed and mentored 4 research assistants on two projects in learning experience design.

Research Intern
Museum of Science and Industry, Evaluation & Research department, Chicago, IL
Oct 2014 – Dec 2014

A part-time research intern at the Evaluation & Research department of the MSI, assisting in data analysis and publications on educational studies of Museum programming.

• • Conducted behavioral and attitudinal analysis on survey data from visitors at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Visiting Research Scientist
The Concord Consortium, Educational R&D, Concord, MA
Jun 2014 – Aug 2014

During the summer of 2014, I worked at the Concord Consortium as a researcher and developer on a number of NSF-funded projects.

• Developed algorithms for analyzing large-scale user data from an online lesson portal.

• Conducted qualitative coding of video data from K-2 students using a digital science learning platform. 

Research Methods

Field studies, participatory research, experimental research, contextual inquiry, usability testing, interviews, surveys, A/B testing 

Data Analysis

Grounded theory, discourse analysis, interaction analysis, web analytics, statistical modeling 

Product Design

Lean UX, design sprints, user personas, journey mapping, storyboarding, wireframing, paper prototyping.

Programming & Software

JavaScript, React, HTML/CSS, Unity, C#, Python, SQL, SPSS, ATLAS.ti, Qualtrics, Fimga, Miro, UserZoom. 

• Published 15 co-authored (8 first-authored) articles on innovative designs in top-rated journals and refereed conference proceedings (Full publication list and references available on Publications page)

• Selected as a finalist for Schimdt Futures Tools Competition, January 2021

• Invited Keynote Speaker, Iran Science and Technology Museum Convening, November 2015

• Winner of Northwestern Segal Design Institute Cluster Fellowship, 2013-2014

• Ranked 99+ percentile in the nationwide university entrance exam, Iran, 2002 

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Northwestern University, 2017

• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2009

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology in Iran, 2006 

• Reviewer & Co-Chair, Association for Computing Machinery conference proceedings (2012 – present)

• Founder & President, Iranian Students Association at Northwestern University (2012 – 2014)

• President, Grads in EECS Student Organization at Northwestern University (2012 ­– 2013)

• Member (musician), The Middle East Music Ensemble in Chicago (2014 – 2021)