I am an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Maryland, College Park. Before joining UMD, I have worked at Adobe Research as a research scientist and at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow. I received my PhD degree in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech.

I serve as a co-chair (with Erin Molloy) of the Computer Science Departmental Honors Program, which offers undergraduate students an opportunity to engage more deeply with computer science through research and advanced study. Interested students are encouraged to enroll in CMSC396H: Undergraduate Honors Seminar, a 1-credit introduction seminar to the program.

Research

My research centers on Computational Design for Data Visualization and Analytics: investigating computational approaches to designing expressive data visualizations and supporting effective analytical reasoning. The broader goal is to enhance human understanding and communication in an increasingly AI-mediated world.

In data visualization design, I investigate computational representations that are both generative and manipulable: providing high-level abstractions and operations for systematically creating and extracting visualization structures and behaviors, while exposing the resulting semantic components as first-class objects that can be inspected, transformed, and reasoned about. Mascot, a scene-centric grammar for data graphics, embodies this perspective.

In data analytics, I study how people formulate and carry out analytical tasks, how computational techniques influence analytical outcomes, and how domain knowledge informs analytical decisions. Through empirical studies and computational frameworks, I seek to identify generalizable principles for designing more effective analytics systems and agentic analytical workflows.

My research is also informed by application-driven visualization problems in domains such as cybersecurity, where real-world information and user needs motivate new visualization approaches and reveal new computational design challenges.

I direct the Human-Data Interaction Research Group, where we study how people interact with data for analysis and communication, and design computational systems to better support these interactions. We also explore broader problems in human–computer interaction, where new representations, interaction techniques, and intelligent systems can improve how people understand information and accomplish complex tasks. Visit our lab website to learn more about our current research, projects, and publications.

If you are an undergraduate or Master's student at UMD looking for research opportunities with me, please read this page first.