Aline ROC 

I'm a UX Researcher & Human Factors Engineer based in Bordeaux, France. I help teams build solutions that are usable, acceptable, safe, and actually used!

Since 2018, I've worked across public and private sectors (including healthtech, digital learning, innovation, and e-commerce) managing projects, conducting user research, designing experiments, and analyzing mixed-methods data. I thrive in multidisciplinary teams, working closely with other experts to achieve responsible and meaningful projects. Outside of work, I'm a board game geek, a decent singer, and I volunteer for the Pint Of Science festival. Don't miss our next events on May 2027!

Current position, role & responsibilities

As an R&D engineer, I'm part of the Human-Centered Systems team (SCH) led by Florian LARRUE at CATIE, a non-profit technology resource center (CRT). Our mission is to facilitate the transfer of technology and knowledge between the worlds of research and industry. As an R&D engineer at CATIE, my job is to plan, manage, conduct, support and promote research that explores the human-technology relationship. Some examples of my current projects include improving education in photonics in the national PhOENIX project, exploring how to measure trustworthiness in human-AI collaboration for the european PEER project, or supporting early-stage healthtechs through the station [e]-Santé initiative.

Research interests

I specialize in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), as well as applied cognitive science, human factors, user experience research (UXR), and research operations (ReOps). Whenever possible, I seek an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach that borrows from the fields of computer science, ergonomics, psychology, usability engineering and design.

Over the past years, my work has focused on building and measuring usability, accessibility, explainability, trustworthiness, trust, acceptability, or performance in: 

• Human learning (cognitive load, adaptive learning, e-learning platforms, gamification for learning, VR simulations, e-health therapeutic patient education)

• Brain-Computer Interfaces (electroencephalography-based interactions, mental tasks, motor imagery, neurofeedback)

• Human-AI collaboration (route planning, assisted decision-making, intelligent tutoring systems, robotics)

Experience

Here is a summary of my professional experience:

• Human Factors engineer at CATIE (since march, 2024) — designing user studies and bridging the gap between academia, industry stakeholders, policymakers, educators, and end-users of innovative technologies to foster a real-world impact of R&D activities.

• UX Researcher at EDF (6 months, 2023) — promoted and led large-scale surveys to study both the usability and user experience (UX) aspects of employees' internal industry tools for the workforce of the French electricity producer.

• UX Researcher at Decathlon (4 months, 2023) — coordinated with product teams to understand and improve the user experience of the e-commerce checkout journeys (web and mobile) at the world's largest sporting goods retailer.

• PhD Student at Inria (3.5 years, 2019-2022) — worked in the team of Fabien LOTTE on the standardization, evaluation and design of learning experiences for novice users of a unique interactive technology: brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

• UX Researcher at Mobalib (8 months, 2018-2019) — conducted field research that led to the MVP of a mobile app dedicated to pedestrian routes for users with disabilities at a startup promoting the dissemination of accessibility data.

As part of my engineering program, I also completed three internships:

• Assistant researcher at Inria (6 months, 2018) — designed and conducted a scientific experiment on the influence of psychosocial factors in experimental settings, especially experimenter-related biases, raising awareness among the computer scientists/neuroscientists in the BCI research community. Supervised by Lea PILLETTE.

• Designer/developer at AT Internet (4 months, 2017) — designed and developed from scratch a web application for database monitoring (Angular; C#/.Net; SQL, MongoDB; Jenkins) at the european leader in web analytics services.

• Assistant engineer at Marcireau (1 month, 2016) — facilitated qualitative workshops (interviews, focus group, card sorting session), and conducted functional/QA tests, data processing and web programming for a local company specializing in professional IT.

Education

Here is a summary of my education and degrees:

• Ph.D in computer science from the University of Bordeaux, prepared in the Potioc team with Inria and LaBRI (Univ Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS), under the (super) supervision of Fabien LOTTE, graduated in 2022. 

• MCF Qualification (section 27), obtained in 2023.

• Engineering degree (MSc) in Cognitive Science engineering from Bordeaux INP ENSC, graduated in 2018.

• Preparatory school in maths, physics, computer science (MPSI/MP) at Lycée Camille Guérin (Poitiers), in 2013-2015.

Teaching

I am in charge of the training programs offered by CATIE, and we regularly provide training for professionals (B2B contracts) or students (e.g., through AFPA) on topics such as human functioning, human learning, immersive technologies, human factors methodologies, and more.

Meanwhile, I have taught over 160+ hours of classes at the Bordeaux INP ENSC engineering school, participating in setting up projects, exams and assessment for groups of ~20 students ranging from 1st year (bachelor) to 3rd year of engineering (end of master).

• Human factors methodologies: 

- Experimental methods and evaluation of technologies (2024-2025 4h30 CM + 24h TD, 2025-2026 4h30 CM + 24h TD)

- Experimental methods (2019-2020 2h TD)

- Semantic web and thematic analysis (2020-2021 6h TP 6h TD)

• Computer science:

- C# programming and algorithmics (2020-2021 36h TD)

- Web and database programming (2019-2020 8h CI 36h TD)

- Individual CS projects (2019-2020 4h TP,  2020-2021 6h TP).

Supervising & Mentoring

I've been a supervisor/mentor for internships of masters' students from different fields: Cognitive Psychology (L. Kolodzienski, 7 months in 2020) ; Neuroscience & Biotechnologies (S. Pramij, 6 months in 2021) ; Biomedical engineering (M.S. Yamamoto, 1 month in 2021 and N. Abo Alzahab, 3 months in 2021) ; and Cognitive Science (J. Azzouguen, 6 months in 2022 and B. Nakara, 2 months in 2025, Lamia Ziachi, 1 month in 2026).

Events of scientific outreach and research evangelization

I really enjoy supporting scientific transfer and popularizing science. 

• Speaker invited to outreach events presenting career paths and employment opportunities in cognitive science in events organized by the ASCOERGO (2026) or by the ADCOG (2026) student associations.

• Speaker invited at a roundtable in the "Equality and Equity" YoungPEx workshop to share my experience on women's career trajectories in science (2025).

• Speaker invited to lead the closing discussion of a Sci-Fi Reading Event of Bernard Beckett's Genesis book, discussing intelligence, consciousness, and the human/machine distinction (2025). 

• Speaker presenting scientific careers for MIMM women science students (2022). 

• Speaker at two workshops explaining BCI research for the Cap Science outreach center (2022).

• Co-organiser and speaker for the 4th OpenViBE Workshop held at the 3rd Neuroergonomics Conference (2021).

• Speaker invited in a video portrait for the Coulisses des sciences event of the IMST master's program (2021). 

• Lead author in writing "Apprendre à contrôler une interface cerveau-ordinateur" for Annales des Mines (2020). 

• Contributor in prototyping ARangement, an augmented reality (AR) app designed to assist in the setup and display of directional/safety markers within public spaces (2020).

Local responsibilities & academic community

I always took an active part in community support and mentoring.

• Event manager co-organising the "Star Tech" nights of Pint Of Science in Bordeaux where researchers are invited to present their work on stage in pubs around a beer (2024-2026). 

• Reviewer at request for academic publications (Frontiers, IJHCS, IJHCI, IEEE ISMAR, etc.).

• Coach for young students via the DEMA1N.org mentoring platform (2023-2024). 

• Student representative elected to the Board of the EDMI doctoral school for two years (2020-2022).

• Member of the psycho-social risks working group (RPS) of the LaBRI laboratory (2022). 

• Secretary of the association of computer science PhD students, the AFoDIB (2019-2021), then active member (2022), then appointed honorary member ♥ (since 2024).

• Communication manager of the ENSC art association BDA (2015-2016). 

Presentations in conferences

• Oral sessions (as speaker): 

3rd ESAIM (2025), 8th BCI meeting (2021a), CORTICO (2022, 2020), 10th EPIQUE (2019).

• Poster sessions (as speaker): 

10th BCI meeting (2023a), 8th Graz Conf (2019a), CORTICO (2019, 2018).

• Other contributions (not 1st author / speaker): 

JFXR (2026), 37th IHM (2026), 4th ESAIM (2026), 1st XR Numeria (2026), 13rd EPIQUE (2026), 36th IHM (2025), 18th IEEE ETOP (2025), 9th and 8th Graz Conferences (2024, 2019b), 10th and 8th BCI meetings (2023b, 2023c, 2021b), 45th IEEE ICASSP (2020), CORTICO (2024, 2021a, 2021b), CHIST-ERA (2020). 

Read my publications 

All my academic publications can be found on Google Scholar.

• Recent conference papers (R&D activities at CATIE) : 

JFXR (2026), 37th IHM (2026), 4th ESAIM (2026), 13rd EPIQUE (2026), 36th IHM TeC (2025), 3rd ESAIM (2025), 18th IEEE ETOP (2025)

• Older conference papers : 

9th and 8th Graz Conferences (2024, 2019a), 45th IEEE ICASSP (2020), EPIQUE (2019).

• Journal papers (related to my PhD) : 

Brain Research (2025), Brain-Computer Interfaces (2024), Nature Scientific Data (2023), Brain-Computer Interfaces (2022), J. of Neural Engineering (2021), Front. in human neuroscience (2021), Int. J. of Human-Computer Studies (2021).

• Book chapters: 

Annales des Mines, Réalités industrielles (2021)