Welcome! I study how and why people with established offline relationships use online technologies to collaborate and connect with one another. My research focuses on technology-enhanced social support for technical support, identity formation, and long-term behavioral change.

My dissertation research examines collaboration involved with the maintenance of home computing infrastructures. Unlike in workplaces, when things go awry with technology at home, there are no technical support departments and no systems administrators available for consultation. In fact, there is not even a guarantee that there is a technologically sophisticated person within the home. My work contributes to our understanding of how and why householders engage with professional technical support, online communities, as well as people within their social networks to coordinate to solve complex technology problems at home. For the final portion of my dissertation, I am building and deploying Tech Clips, an application that allows people to share technology advice with members of their social network.

Of course, because it's no fun to work on just one thing, I have just begun been collaborating with Humana and the Georgia Tech GVU Center to evaluate a long-term deployment of the American Horsepower Challenge, a collaborative online game encouraging physical activity in school-age children.

While at GT, I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing people. My advisor is Keith Edwards, and my thesis committee includes Gregory Abowd, Beki Grinter, Mark Guzdial, Mike Twidale, and Ellen Zegura. In summer 2008, I interned with Jonathan Grudin at Microsoft Research; together we studied wiki usage in organizational settings.

I'm a member of the ACM US Public Policy Committee and was part of the Sam Nunn Security Program during the 2006-2007 academic year. In the past, I've spent time working at Privacy Office of the US Department of Homeland Security, Sandia National Laboratories, Motorola, SchlumbergerSema, and CERIAS. I graduated from Purdue University with a BS in computer science and Georgia Tech with an MS in computer science. God willing, I plan to graduate with my PhD in human-centered computing in Spring 2010.