HCII Seminar Series - Na Du
Speaker
Na Du
Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305
Video
Video link
Description
"Towards Situation-Aware and Trustworthy Technologies for Human-Agent Teaming"
Emerging autonomous technologies like automated vehicles, robots, and drones, must amplify human capabilities and partner reliably with people in safety-critical settings such as transportation, defense, and healthcare. This talk presents a program of research that bridges the gap between increasingly capable but complex autonomous systems and humans’ bounded information-processing abilities. First, I describe our work modeling drivers’ situational awareness and designing context-aware interfaces for highly automated driving. We show that short-window multimodal signals predict driver awareness and that criticality-adaptive interfaces deliver timely, targeted alerts. Second, I present a set of design techniques and empirical studies for producing explainable and trustworthy interactions with drones and robots. These studies investigate when and how explainable AI help (and when they can backfire), including evaluations in high-risk settings such as cyber-attack simulations. I conclude with implications and open directions for building situation-aware, trustworthy systems that enhance human performance, safety, and wellbeing in human–agent teams.
Speaker's Bio
Na Du is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include human factors in intelligent systems, human-robot interaction, human behavior modeling, and interaction design. She is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including NSF CAREER Award, HFE Women Rising Star Award, and Best Paper Awards from HRI and HFES international conferences. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Veterans Affairs, Honda Research Institute, and Hillman Foundation. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial & Operations Engineering from University of Michigan in 2021.
Host
Nik Martelaro