Capturing Teens’ Voices in Designing Supportive Agents

I was a coauthor on this paper that addresses a 2021 study where we conducted participatory design sessions with the aim of producing content recommendations for a supportive conversational agent for teens. Twenty teens between the ages of 12 - 18 were invited to converse about issues they were experiencing and offer conversational support to each other. This paper discusses thematic analysis of those discussions and offers recommendations based on findings.

Paper to be presented at the ACM Conversational User Interfaces Conference, July 26 – 28, 2022, Glasgow, UK.

Lopatovska, I., Turpin, O., Davis, J., Connell, E., Denney, C., Fournier, H., Ravi, A., Yoon, J., & Parasnis, E. (2022). Capturing Teens’ Voice in Designing Supportive Agents. Paper to be presented at the ACM Conversational User Interfaces Conference, July 26 – 28, 2022, Glasgow, UK. https://doi.org/10.1145/3543829.3543838

The Kids are Alright: An exploration of adolescents’ experiences during COVID-19

I was a coauthor on this paper that addresses a 2021 study aimed to understand adolescents’ experiences, feelings and coping mechanisms associated with the major disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the study was to develop a baseline for understanding adolescents and their environment in order to assist future developments of technological and non-technological solutions to mitigate adolescents’ feelings of loneliness, as well as improve their wellbeing and strengthen their resilience.

This paper was accepted to the Journal of Information and Learning Sciences 2022.

Lopatovska, I., Garg, R., Turpin, O., Yoon, J.H., Vroom, L. and Brown, D. (2022), "The kids are alright: adolescents’ experiences during COVID-19 disruption", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-11-2021-0096

Talk it Out: Teen reactions to a supportive conversational agent

I was a coauthor on this paper that reports on a 2021 study that explored the use of conversational technology to offer a “small” source of enjoyment and distraction from teens’ negative feelings. This paper reviews relevant literature, describes the experimental Alexa agent and the testing procedure, reports and discusses teen participants' reactions to the agent as well as recommendations for similar solutions.

Paper to be presented at the 85th Annual ASIS&T 2022 Conference, Oct 29 – Nov 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.

Lopatovska, I., Turpin, O., Yoon, J. H., Brown, D., & Vroom, L. (2022). Talk it Out: Teen Reactions to a Supportive Conversational Agent. Paper to be published in the Proceedings of the 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). October 29 – November 1, Pittsburgh, PA. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.615

Measuring the Impact of Conversational Technology Interventions on Adolescent Wellbeing: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches

I was a coauthor in a study that reports on the effects of a conversational agent intervention on adolescent participants. We performed quantitative analysis of their self-reported mood states and qualitative analysis of their subjective views and opinions on the agent to help us understand their experiences. In reporting our findings, we aim to bring attention to the importance of the qualitative data for understanding human experiences with technology, as well as the limitations of the instruments developed in the field of psychology for human-information interaction research.

Paper to be presented at the 85th Annual ASIS&T 2022 Conference, Oct 29 – Nov 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.

Lopatovska, I., Turpin, O., Yoon, J. H., Brown, D., Vroom, L., Nielsen, C., Hayes, K. & Roslund, K. (2022). Measuring the Impact of Conversational Technology Interventions on Adolescent Wellbeing: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. Paper to be published in the Proceedings of the 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). October 29 – November 1, Pittsburgh, PA. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.639

 Designing for Transparency

A research paper submitted to the Pratt Institute as part of the Foundations in Information Science course. This paper explores concepts of ethical AI in recommendation algorithms and how information professionals can help design these systems for better transparency.

Nationality — The Forgotten Human Right

A research paper submitted to Virginia Commonwealth University as part of a capstone course in International Studies. This paper investigates the phenomenon of statelessness and the repercussions for stateless Syrian refugees amidst the Syrian civil war.