I am an Assistant Professor in the school of Computer Science at Emory University.
An Upcycled IoT:
What if programming cutting-edge technologies were so approachable anyone
could imbue them with their own meanings and ways of life? Today’s families use household objects
to organize and manage daily life in idiosyncratic ways that resist generalization and differ from family
to family. If the Internet of Things (IoT) is to fit with these idiosyncratic arrangements, it will
need to be customizable, lightweight, and substantially cheaper (perhaps even
<$0.10). To enable this kind of IoT, I use emerging techniques in backscatter communication to create a
battery-free and wireless user interface that incorporates existing possessions into an IoT ecosystem
through interactive stickers. Instead of replacing everyday objects in favor of internet-enabled
equivalents (e.g., a smart bulb for a lightbulb), my work allows existing possessions to be upcycled with IoT:
like giving an old, favorite teddy bear a friendly, voice interface. As a human computer interaction
(HCI) researcher, I enable an Upcycled IoT by both studying how households use everyday objects and
building lightweight, customizable technology to integrate with these possessions.
I received a PhD from the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. I was advised by Scott Hudson and Jess Hammer. I was also part of the wonderful research groups the Devlab and the OH! Lab.
This includes students who will be enrolled at Emory in the Fall or those who would like to apply to the master's or PhD program. Please get in touch if this sounds like you.
Selected Publications (Peer Reviewed)
- Beyond Cases and Deaths: The Benefits of Auxiliary Data Streams in Tracking the COVID-19 Pandemic
Reinhart, A., Brooks, L., Jahja, M., Rumack, A., Tang, J., Al Saeede, W., Arnold, T., Basu, A., Bien, J., Cabrera, Á., Chin, A. Chua, E.J., Clark, B., DeFries, N., Forlizzi, J., Gratzl, S., Green, A., Haff, G., Han, R., Hu, A.J., Hyun, S., Joshi, A., Kim, J., Kuznetsov, A., La Motte-Kerr, W., Lee, Y.J., Lee, K., Lipton, Z.C., Liu, M.X., Mackey, L., Mazaitis, K., McDonald, D.J., Narasimhan, B., Oliveira, N.L., Patil, P., Perer, A., Politsch, C.A., Rajanala, S., Rucker, D., Shah, N.H., Shankar, V., Sharpnack, J., Shemetov, D., Simon, N., Srivastavab, V., Tann, S., Tibshirani, R., Tuzhilina, E., Van Nortwick, A.K., Ventura, V., Wasserman, L., Weiss, J. C., Williams, K., Rosenfeld, R., and Tibshirani, R.J.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS 2021) Vol. 118, No. 51
link | pdf - The Upcycled Home: Removing Barriers to Lightweight Modification of the Home’s
Everyday Objects
Williams, K. Pullivarthy, R., Hudson, S., and Hammer, J.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) pp.1-13
link | pdf - Celebrating Everyday Success: Improving Engagement and Motivation using a System
for Recording Daily Highlights
Avrahami, D., Williams, K., Lee, M., Tokunaga, N., Tjahjadi, Y., and Marlow, J.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) pp.1-13
link | pdf - Understanding Family Collaboration around Lightweight Modification of Everyday
Objects in the Home
Williams, K. Pullivarthy, R., Hudson, S., and Hammer, J.
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (PACM 2019) Vol. 3, Paper No. 185.
link | pdf - Find and Seek: Assessing the Impact of Table Navigation on Data Look-up with a
Screen Reader
Williams, K., Clarke, T., Gardiner, S., Tomasic, A, and Zimmerman, J.
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS 2019) Vol. 12, Issue 3.
link | pdf - Occupational Therapy is Making: Clinical Rapid Prototyping and Digital Fabrication
Hofmann, M., Williams, K., Kaplan, T., Valencia, S., Hann, G., Hudson, S., Mankoff, J., and Carrington, P.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019) Paper No. 314.
link | pdf - Scopist: Building a Skill Ladder into Crowd Transcription
Bigham, J., Williams, K., Banerjee, N., and Zimmerman, J.
Proceedings of the 14th Web for All Conference on The Future of Accessible Work Article No. 2 (W4A 2017)
link | pdf - The Cost of Turning Heads: A Controlled Comparison of a Head-Worn Display and a
Smartphone to Support Conversation of Persons with Aphasia
Williams, K., Moffatt, K., Faroqi-Shah, Y., and Findlater, L.
Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2016) pp. 111-120.
link | pdf - Dytective: Towards Detecting Dyslexia Across Languages Using an Online Game
Rello, L., Williams, K., Ali, A., Cushen-White, N., and Bigham, J.
Proceedings of the 13th Web for All Conference Article No. 29 (W4A 2016)
link | pdf - Designing Conversation Cues on a Head-Worn Display to Support Persons with Aphasia
Williams, K., Findlater, L., Moffatt, K. and McCall, D.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2015) pp. 231-240.
link | pdf - A Denial of Photocopy Virtue: A Problem of Student Passivity in Education
Williams, K.
Proceedings of the 13th Annual SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference: The Art of Living (2008) 12pp.
Author's Copy: pdf
Other Writings (Light Peer Review + Invited Articles)
- Why Do We Need to Learn about Citational Practices? Recognizing Knowledge Production from the Global Souths and Beyond
Amy Ogan, Frederick van Amstel, Gabriela Molina León, Juan Fernando Maestre, Kristin Williams, Nicola Bidwell, Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar, Saiph Savage, Sushil Oswal, and Vishal Sharma
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students - Transforming the Future of Education, Vol. 29 No. 3 (Spring 2023)
link | pdf - Citational Practices: Interrogating Hegemonic Knowledge Structures in Computing Research in Latin
America
The Citational Justice Collective: Déborah de Castro Leal, Gabriela Molina León, Juan Fernando Maestre, Marisol Wong-Villacres, Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar, Sushil Oswal, Teresa Cerratto Pargman, and Vishal Sharma
CLIHC 2021: X Latin American Conference on Human Computer Interaction, Nov. 2021, No. 19
link | pdf - An Upcycled IoT: Building Tomorrow’s IoT out of Today’s Household Possessions
Williams, K., Hammer, J., and Hudson, S.
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students – Computing and Sustainability, Vol. 27 No. 4 (Summer 2021)
link | pdf - The Environmental Impact of Research Communities: Insights from Conference Sustainability Chairs
Williams, K., Kane, B., Clarke, C., and Widdicks, K.
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students – Computing and Sustainability, Vol. 27 No. 4 (Summer 2021)
link | pdf - The IoT Codex: A Book of Paper Engineering Techniques for Authoring and Composing Embedded Computing Applications
Williams, K., Hammer, J., and Hudson, S.
The 11th Annual Workshop on the Intersection of HCI and PL (PLATEAU 2020) pp.1-6
link | pdf - IoT Stickers: Enabling Lightweight Modification of Everyday Objects
Williams, K.
UIST '20 Adjunct: Adjunct Publication of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2020) pp. 183-188
link | pdf - Unmaking Digital Fabrication Using Glitch and Upcycling
Williams, K. and Albaugh, L.
Workshop on Troubling Innovation: Craft and Computing Across Boundaries (CHI 2019)
Author's Copy: pdf - Building a Brighter Future for Crowd Work
Bigham, J., Williams, K.
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students - The Future of Work, Vol. 23 No. 2 (Winter 2016)
link | pdf - Reasoning Outside Normative Requirements: Disability and Technology Design
Williams, K.
Workshop on Ethics and Obligations for Studying Digital Communities. ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP 2016)
link | pdf - NGO Prehistory: Lessons to be Learned from Failure
Williams, K.
Insights into Development – Book project on NGO development in Kazakhstan (2010)
2010 Conference | Latest Conference - Learn to Get a Job? An Examination of Education Policy and Integration into the Global Economy
Williams, K.
Proceedings of The Challenges of Globalization and Tendencies in the Modern World: Intercultural Communication, hosted by the Aktobe Oblast In-Service Teacher Training Institute (2009)
Theses
- The Cost of Turning Heads: The Design and Evaluation of Vocabulary Prompts on a
Head-Worn Display to Support Persons with Aphasia
Williams, K.
University of Maryland at College Park, M.S. (Human-Computer Interaction) 2015
link - 'Pursuit in Action or Capable of Being Acquired’, An investigation of the role of
Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean in education
Williams, K.
Reed College, B.A. (Philosophy) 2008
link