Hi! I'm Lynn Kirabo.

About Me

Who Am I?

Hi! I'm Lynn Kirabo. (or just Kirabo)

My exciting news first... ✨✨ I will be starting as an Assistant Professor of Climate and Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College in the Fall of 2023. 🍁💃🏿 *insert confetti & your favorite dancing gif*

I'm a Ph.D. candidate I passed my dissertation defense (3.20)✨ at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. I am part of the TBD lab at Carnegie Mellon and I'm advised by Aaron Steinfeld. I am also a Siebel Scholar, Class of 2023 – awarded annually for academic excellence and demonstrated leadership to over 90 top students from the world’s leading graduate schools.

I enjoy teaching students classes at the intersection of Intro CS, HCI, and Accessibility. My teaching philosophy is heavily influenced by my experiences as a student and instructor in multiple departments on two different continents. My classes have included a mix of PhD, masters, and undergraduate studentes.

My research focuses on investigating and designing equitable transit solutions in diverse geographical contexts (i.e., North America & East Africa). I enjoy adapting qualitative methods to understand the lived experiences of research populations from diverse backgrounds.

I am also part of initiatives that seek to broaden participation in STEM in Uganda, Rwanda, and the United States. I have done this by being part of organizations such as Women In Technology Uganda (Kampala), InnovateHer Africa (Kampala), OurCS (Pittsburgh), Women in CS (Pittsburgh); and by invitation to events like MissGeek (Kigali), STEMforHER (D.C.) and Women in Data Science (California). I have also co-created and been a part of spaces that foster belonging like AfroGSA, BIPOC in HCI, and Young Researchers in ICTD.

Quick download links: bio | resume.

Teaching

Co-instructor & Teaching Assistant Positions

Download CV

Publications

Conference & Journal Proceedings

Conference Proceedings (peer reviewed)

[under review] Climate Financing from a Global South Perspective.

Kirabo, L., Carter, E.J., Barry, D., and Steinfeld A. (2021). Priorities, Technology & Power: Co-Designing an Inclusive Transit Agenda in Kampala, Uganda. In 2021 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21), May 8-13, 2021. Yokohama, Japan. [ACM DL | PDF | Video Presentation]

Kirabo, L., Namara, M., and McNeese, N. (2021). The Power of the Blue Tick: Ugandans' experiences and engagement on Twitter at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 ACM African Human-Computer Interaction Conference (AfriCHI '21), March 8-12, 2021. Maputo, Mozambique. [ACM DL | PDF]

Gleason, C., Valencia, S., Kirabo, L., Wu, J., Guo, A., Carter, E.J., Bigham, J.P., Bennett, C.L., and Pavel, A. (2020). Disability and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Using Twitter to Understand Accessibility during Rapid Societal Transition. ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. (ASSETS ’20), October 26–28, 2020. Athens, Greece. https://doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3417023. [ACM DL]

Romero, O.J., Haig, A., Kirabo, L., Yang, Q., Zimmerman, J., Tomasic, A., and Steinfeld, A. (2020). A Long-Term Evaluation of Adaptive Interface Design for Mobile Transit Information. In 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI ’20), October 5–8, 2020. Oldenburg, Germany. https://doi.org/10.1145/3379503.3403536. [ACM DL] {Best Paper Honorable Mention}

Kirabo, L., Carter, E.J., and Steinfeld A. (2020). “You are asking me to pay for my legs”: Exploring the Experiences, Perceptions, and Aspirations of Informal Public Transportation Users in Kampala and Kigali. In ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS ’20), June 15–17, 2020. Guayaquil, Ecuador. https://doi.org/10.1145/3378393.34022691. [ACM DL | PDF | Video Presentation]

Journal Publications (non-peer reviewed)

Principe Cruz, E., Kirabo, L., Carrington, P., & Hammer, J. (2021). Building Anti-Racist Futures at the CMU HCII: Recruiting BIPOC Graduate Students: Virtual Recruitment Event Design. (In press). BIPOC Literary Journal: The Colors We Carry.

Workshops (peer reviewed)

Citational Justice Collective, León, G.M., Kirabo, L., Marisol Wong-Villacres, M., Karusala, N., Kumar, N., Bidwell, N., Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Borah, P.P., Garg, R., Oswal, S.K., Chuanromanee, T., and Sharma, V. (2021). Following the Trail of Citational Justice: Critically Examining Knowledge Production in HCI. In Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 360–363. https://doi.org/10.1145/3462204.3481732 [ACM DL]

HCI Across Borders, (2020). ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Doctoral Consortium

Kirabo, L., "“Our perspective matters.” Using Universal Design Goals to Guide Technology Design in the Global South" ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. Doctoral Consortium, (2019). [SIGACCESS Newsletter]

Posters

Reig, S., Carter, E.J., Kirabo, L., Fong, T., Steinfeld, A., and Forlizzi, J. (2021). Smart Agents and Devices of Today and Tomorrow: Surveying Use and Desires. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI ’21), November 9–11, 2021, Virtual Event, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. {{Forthcoming}}

Kirabo, L., "HCI4D through the Lens of Assistive Technology Research Concepts" ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. Poster, (2018).

ACM Articles

Valencia, S. and Kirabo, L.. "Twitter, COVID-19, and disability: what worked and what didn't." XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 28, no. 2 (Winter 2021), 20–23. [ACM DL]

Kirabo, L., "The one about resilience, energy, culture, and crafting." XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 26, no. 2 (2019): 60-63. [ACM DL], [PDF]

Kirabo, L., "Global cultures and computing." XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 26, no. 2 (2019): 8-9. [ACM DL], [PDF]

Service // Invited Talks // Awards

Academic Service & Leadership

Academic Service

1. Active Listener Cohort, Parables of AI in/from the Global South (2021). Data & Society
2. Student Volunteer: CHI 2022
3. Student Volunteer - Accessibility Taskforce: CHI 2022
4. Associate Chair: CHI Late Breaking Works, LBW (2020)
5. Program Committee:
   • ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, EAAMO (2021, 2022)
   • Mechanism Design for Social Good, MD4SG (2020)
6. Reviewer:
   • ACM Conferences: CHI, DIS, AfriCHI
   • Journals: Journal of Reliable Intelligent Environments (Springer)
   • Symposiums: iD4A

Leadership

1. Host, All About Tech Conversations: Applying to Grad School (2021)
2. Host, All About Tech Conversations: Careers in Tech (2021)
3. Facilitator, EAAMO’21 Regional socials - Africa (2021)
4. HCII BLM Subcommittee (2020)
5. Officer, AfroGSA (2020)
6. ACM XRDS Guest Editor (2019)
7. Women in SCS PhD Committee (2019)
8. OurCS Conference Committee (2019)
9. HCII Graduate Student Assembly Representative (2018)
10. HCII TroastMaster (2017 - 2019)
11. National Technovation Challenge Judge (2016)
12. InnovateHerAfrica, Founding Member (2016)
13. Carnegie Mellon Africa, Research & Development Officer (2014)
14. Y-Save Donations Committee, Secretary (2012 - 2016)
15. Women of Technology Uganda, Founding Member (2010)

Invited Talks

1. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Colgate University, 2022
2. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Olin College of Engineering, 2022
3. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies - PNC Technology for Social Change series, University of Pittsburgh, 2022
4. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Smith College, 2022
5. Speaker: Learning & Teaching CS-Related Topics: Context Matters, NC State University, 2022
6. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Pomona College, 2022
7. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Wellesley College, 2022
8. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies, Harvey Mudd College, 2022
9. Panelist: Pursuing Higher Education in STEM - Fundi Girls Champions Talk Series, 2022
10. Speaker: Trust & Equity in Public Transit Technologies - Hosted by the Student ACM, Bucknell University, 2022
11. Guest Lecture: Global Cultures & Computing, 2022. (CSCI 320, Computer Architecture. CS)
12. Panelist: Instructional Design - Teach the teacher, 2021 (Metatopia 2021)
13. Guest Lecture: Global Cultures & Computing, 2021. (05-430/05-630, Programming Useable Interfaces. HCII)
14. Appeared in Best of WiDS session, 2021. (Women in Data Science 2021)
15. Speaker: Investigating Algorithmic Bias in Sociotechnical Systems, 2020. (STEMforHER Virtual GEM Hunt)
16. Speaker: Investigating Equitable Mobility, 2020. (Alumni Series, Carnegie Mellon Univeristy-Africa)
17. Speaker: The Power of Technology in C-19 Pandemic, 2020. (Webinar, Uganda Unites)
18. Panelist: Ethics in Data Science, 2020 (Women in Data Science 2020 , Stanford University)
19. Speaker: Investigating Equitable Mobility in Kampala Uganda, 2020. (21st Annual Roundtable on Inclusive Transportation in Developing Countries, TRB Annual Meeting, Washington DC)
20. Panelist: OurCS Conference 2019 (Carnegie Mellon University)
21. Panelist: Youth Connekt - Transform Africa Summit, 2017
22. Panelist: LeO Africa Economic Forum, 2017
23. Commencement Speaker: National Technovation Challenge, 2017

Awards

1. Siebel Scholar, Class of 2023 – awarded annually for academic excellence and demonstrated leadership to over 90 top students from the world’s leading graduate schools
2. Aspiring PUI Faculty - Inaugural Cohort - 2022
3. CRA Grad Cohort for Women - 2020
4. CRA Grad Cohort for URMD - 2020
5. CRA Grad Cohort for Women - 2019
6. Facebook Vivid in Research - 2019
7. FLIP Fellow - 2018
8. Grace Hopper Scholar - 2018
9. UN Women Scholarship - 2014 to 2015
10. UN Women Scholarship - 2013 to 2014

Fun Projects

Class & Side Projects

Human-Robot Interaction Ethics Integration

I co-designed 7 ethics mini-modules for the HRI course. Our intention was to integrate ethics-type dicussion through out the course to allow students to identify ethical topics in the domain, foster vocabulary and make connections between IRL events and future implications.
[Spring 2021] Class: Ethics and Robotics with Illah Nourbakhsh, Victoria Dean

This is just, More Of The Same

For our futures assignment, I wrote an Afro-Futurist themed Black Mirror Episode. This was particularly fun because I got to fuse cultural legends with present day ethics discussion.
[Spring 2021] Class: Ethics and Robotics with Illah Nourbakhsh, Victoria Dean

UTH, A Transit Audit

I perfomed an audit of transportation interfaces and drafted several design recommendations.
[Spring 2021] Class: Accessibility with Patrick Carrington

Chrome is speaking to me

I wrote a chrome extension that speaks... So. Much. Fun!!!
[Spring 2021] Class: Accessibility with Patrick Carrington

“Can I beat it?” Co-designing Human-Robot Interactions for Public Spaces

I conducted an online user study that was based on a speculative design approach to envisioning new types of interactions with robots at a public transit terminal. The study activity was based on the `The Thing From The Future Game`.
[Fall 2020] Class: Human Robot Interaction with Henny Admoni

Sparky Vibes

I designed a wearable that pulsates to the beat of music playing. It uses a mini vibrator motor, a microphone, a neopixel ring and an Arduino Nano. The purpose of this project was to create a proof of concept that school teachers teaching dance can use to encourage students with disabilities to participate in dance.
[Fall 2019] Class: Gadgets, Sensors and Activity Recognition with Scott Hudson

Design Recommendations for CSCW systems based on Social Capital among Informal Entrepreneurial Networks in the Global South

I explored existing literature to identify the types of social capital that are prevalent/being leveraged by entrepreneurs ininformal economies across multiple domains. I then presented an analysis of the results by looking at commonalities and differences that cut across country and domain, and also identified areas that apply to structural hole theory. Lastly I presented design recommendations for digital technologies that can be used by these communities to enable social capital creation and expansion.
[Spring 2019] Class: Social Perspectives in HCI with Geoff Kaufman

Rootin Around

We designed a game that allowed players to experience the gratification that comes during harvest season. Our team constructed a trellis, that contains fruit and vegetables. Players worked in teams to harvest as much as they can... Blindfolded. Their teammate would pull out a card and describe the fruit or vegetable on it with out using certain terms. Through testing, players noted how fun it was using all their senses and how it also created a sense of trust between the players.
Client: Phipps Conservatory
[Fall 2018] Class: Transformational Game Design Studio with Jess Hammer

Goodnight: Magnetic Fridge Texting

We designed a game that fostered communication between night/swing workers and their family member. The game was designed around a fridge as a central item that most people in a home interacti with. Using a velcro board and emojis, family members leave stories about the hightlights and low points of their day for each other.
Client: Philips
[Fall 2018] Class: Transformational Game Design Studio with Jess Hammer

Code-Breaker

We designed a game that helps players reflect on their personality (i.e., either a collectivist or individualist) as well as identify their implicit biases (if any). Games like these can help group members in organisations understand how to effecitevly communicate with each other.
Client: Group Project
[Fall 2018] Class: Transformational Game Design Studio with Jess Hammer

The Perfect Smoothie

We've all been there, aching to create the perfect smoothie... No? Well, it was a fun thought while it lasted. In this project, we used signal processing to determine when the smoothie was just right. A useful skill for all the smart blenders that will be out there soon
[Fall 2017] Class: Persuasive and Ubiquitous Computing with Mayank Goel