Ashratuz Zavin Asha

👩‍🎓HCI Researcher at iLab, AB, Canada

✉️ashratuzzavin.asha@ucalgary.ca

I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Calgary, advised by Dr. Ehud Sharlin and Dr. Sharifa Sultana. My Ph.D. committee also included Dr. Helen Ai He and Dr. Sowmya Somanath.

My research focuses on empowering underserved and marginalized populations to mitigate societal challenges by leveraging digital and AI-driven technologies. I apply Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Inclusive Design principles to study human factors, user needs, and usability issues while designing novel interface solutions for autonomous vehicles (AVs), virtual reality (VR), and social media. My projects explored the challenges and opportunities of the evolving AV mobility landscape, pioneering accessible solutions to enhance safety and mobility for vulnerable road users, including older adults, women from the Global South, and people with disabilities. Please see my research statement and publications for more details.

My works have been published in top venues like CHI, DIS, TSC, and AutomotiveUI and have been recognized with Best Paper "Honorable Mention" and "Best Poster" Awards. My research is supported by provincial and federal grants, NSERC, Alberta Innovates, and Mitacs, Canada.

Recent News

July 2026: Officially, Dr. Asha! Thrilled to share that I've successfully defended my PhD thesis. #PhDDone!
June 2026: Received University of Calgary Graduate Scholarship 2026!
May 2026: Paper on Older Adults and LLM-powered Conversational AI in AVs got accepted to DIS'26!
April 2026: Invited Guest Speaker for the Ethics in AI class at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
February 2026: Serving as a Program Committee member at CHIWORK'26 conference!
🏆November 2025: Received special recognition for outstanding review at CHI'26 paper reviewing cycle!
May 2025: Received University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship 2026!
January 2025: Serving as a Head TA for CPSC 481 (Human-Computer Interaction I) course at the University of Calgary.
September 2024: Presented the AV-Sketch paper at AutoUI'24 and attended the CARS lab at Stanford University.
August 2024: Passed the candidacy exam and officially became a PhD candidate 🎉!!
🎖️July 2024: Yay! Our Women's Safety paper received the "Best Paper Honorable Mention Award" at DIS'24!
June 2024: Hooray! Paper on AV-Sketch: Immersive Participatory Design Tool for Automated Vehicle got accepted to AutoUI'24!
May 2024: Another nomination as an outstanding TA for the "Fred A. McKinnon Graduate Teaching Award" at UCalgary!
May 2024: Nominated for the "Teaching Award" at the Department of Computer Science, UCalgary!

Past Activities

April 2024: Yahoo! Paper on Global South Women’s Safety Challenges in Public Transport and Gender Inclusive AV Design got accepted to DIS'24!
February 2024: Woohoo! Started an Entrepreneurial Internship at Mitacs Accelerate, Canada!
January 2024: Paper on Interfaith learning through VR application got accepted to CHI'24. (Research collaboration with Thirdspace Group at UofT)
🏆November 2023: Received special recognition for outstanding review at CHI'24 paper reviewing cycle!
October 2023: A paper on Islamophobic content mitigation online has been accepted to TSC. (Research collaboration with Thirdspace Group)
July 2023: Visited Prof. Wendy Ju and her lab at Cornell Tech, New York City.
July 2023: Presented VR demo on AV-passenger scenarios at DIS'23!
July 2023: Attended DIS at Pittsburgh, USA, and visited the CMU HCII.
🏆 May 2023: Hooray! Received "Best Poster Award" at GI'23!
April 2023: Our paper on older adults and AV interaction is conditionally accepted at DIS'23!
March 2023: Invited talk at CSRMP, Google's CS Research
October 2022: Attended MobileHCI'22 as a student volunteer in Vancouver, BC
September 2022: One paper is accepted at IEEE CW'22!
April 2022: Attended CHI in New Orleans, USA, and presented workshop paper at AutomationXP'22!
September 2021: Received the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship at the University of Calgary
September 2021: Received the prestigious Eyes High Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship at the University of Calgary
September 2021: Started Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Calgary!
August 2021: Yay! Successfully defended master's in Computer Science at the University of Calgary!