Melody
Jackson

General Information

Email:
melody@cc.gatech.edu
Phone:
404-277-1324
Location - Building:
TSRB
Location - Room:
140
Roles:
Professor (any rank)
Primary Unit:
School of Interactive Computing
Website URL
Melody Jackson

Details

Degrees with subject and Postdoc Experience:
Degree Type
Ph.D.
Subject
Computer Science
Year
1998
Institution
Georgia Institute of Technology
Location
Atlanta, GA
Degree Type
M.S.
Subject
Information and Computer Science
Year
1988
Institution
Georgia Institute of Technology
Location
Atlanta GA
Degree Type
B.A.
Subject
Computer Science
Year
1980
Institution
The University of Texas at Austin
Location
Austin, TX
Statement of Research Interests:

    Dr. Jackson is the co-creator and Director of the Georgia Tech Animal-Centered Computing Lab, whose mission is to investigate ways that technology can enhance partnerships between humans and animals such as dogs, horses, dolphins, elephants, and sea otters. Through wearable systems and environmental devices, they are creating technologies for animal communication, health monitoring, behavioral quantification, and enrichment.  

She also is the creator and Director of the GT BrainLab, who researches Brain-Computer Interfaces entailing direct control of computing and devices from brain signals, typically for people with severe physical disabilities to restore mobility, environmental control, and communication.

Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NINDS), NIDRR, DARPA, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Google, Inc. 

Statement of Teaching Interests:

Dr. Jackson currently teaches a class she created, "Animal-Centered Computing", a project-based course devoted to improving the lives and communication between animals and humans.   She also teaches Computing and Society, a class that explores the ethics of computing and technology.   Previously, she has taught software engineering and user interface design and development.  

Selection of recent research, scholarly, and creative activities:

Received the Research Impact Award from the GT GVU center, 2022

Publications:

Mastali, A; et. al,  “Keeping it Trunky: Engineering Improvements for Enabling Long Term Interactive Enrichment for Elephants”, in Proceedings of the ACM 12th International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, Article No 18, pp 1-8, Bloomington, IL, Dec 2025.   
BEST PRESENTATION

Ramey, C; et.al,  “Shelling Out the Fun: Quantifying Otter Interactions with Instrumented Enrichment Objects”, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI ’24), Glasgow, Scotland, No 10, pp 1-10, Dec 2024.  
BEST PAPER, EMERGING WORK, BEST PRESENTATION

Freil, L., et.al, (2017). Canine-Centered Computing. Foundations and Trends® in Human–Computer Interaction, 10(2), 87-164.  
LISTED IN THE “82 Best Human-Computer Interaction Books of All Time”, bookauthority.com.

Jackson, M; et.al., “FIDO – Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations: Wearable Dog-Activated Interfaces”.  International Symposium on Wearable Interfaces (ISWC ’13), Zurich, Switzerland, Sept 9-12, 2013.  
BEST PAPER,  ISWC 10 YEAR IMPACT AWARD 2023