I recently defended my PhD thesis at the School of Computing and Information (SCI) at the University of Pittsburgh on the topic of “Improving Human-Agent Collaboration through Effective Gestured Based Communication”. I am advised by Dr. Rosta Farzan. I have also worked with Dr. Michael Lewis at the DIST Usability Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh.

My research interests lie in the interaction of Game Analytics, Team Communication, Distributed Collaboration, and Human-Robot Teaming. I utilize various platforms, such as multiplayer games, to study human interactions in a team setting and explore new technologies that facilitate effective human team communication and collaboration. Through increased understanding of human interactions within a team, I explore various methods to improve the teaming experience and effectiveness of humans and robots/AIs.

Project

Communicative Agent for Competitive Multiplayer Games

• Using game analytic method to explore how players in competitive online multiplayer games (i.e., Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2) communicate and collaborate using non-verbal communication methods, such as Pings.
• Designing frameworks for bots/agents in the competitive online multiplayer games to enable improved communication between human players and bots/agents in a hybrid human-agent team.

ASIST - A Robust and Adaptive Agent that Supports High-Performance Teams

• Using Theory of Mind (ToM) to study people’s decision-making and collaborative behaviors during a search and rescue mission in Minecraft.
• Designing models using ToM to identify misbeliefs or information imbalance among team members, and interventions to target these obstacles in team collaboration using deep reinforcement learning agents.
• Collaborating with a team of researchers at CMU-RI, we developed AI agents capable of making ToM inferences in a make-up team and providing helpful interventions to improve team performance.

Studying Community Influence of Substance Abuse Behaviors.

• Using Agent-Based Simulation to develop models on the community influence of alcohol/substance abuse behaviors.

Experience

• Teaching Fellow, School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Course: INFSCI0510 Data Analysis (Spring 2024, Summer 2024, Fall 2025, Spring 2026)
  • Course: INFSCI0201 Intermediate Python Programming (Fall 2024, Spring 2025)
• Teaching Assistant, School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh, PA. (Fall 2023)
  • Courses: INFSCI2430 Social Comuting, INFSCI2160/1530 Data Mining