Sana's Biography
I am a PhD student in Computer Science at Carleton University. I hold a bachelor’s degree in CS and a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction. I also have 10-years of industry experience in User Experience and Web development.
PhD student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.
In my PhD research, I am looking at using human-computer interaction theories to design educational games to teach kids about cyber security and digital literacy issues. This research is part of the MITACS Accelerate program which connects researchers with industry partners to solve a problem. Through this program, we have partnered up with MediaSmarts, a non-profit organization for digital and media literacy.
I enjoy evaluating my designs with end-users and hearing their feedback early in the design process. In traditional software development, software is tested with users at the end of the development cycle which leads to expensive changes.
I am really enjoying my current project. I am fascinated by how children use technology, and enjoy exploring ways to improve their experiences of using technology. I also found my masters thesis project really interesting, where I looked at user authentication on flexible display devices. I enjoyed this project, because it exposed me to new hardware and software technologies which I would not have learned otherwise.
Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to fail.
After obtaining my PhD, I would like to either pursue a career in academia or seek a research position in industry.
Children are pervasive users of technology and are going online at a younger age. Thus, they are exposed to a variety of online threats. By looking at new ways to educate children about these threats, we can increase their digital literacy, which will hopefully protect them from some of these threats.
I am motivated when faced with a challenging problem that has not yet been explored by others in my field. This is why I enjoy doing research!
