Hi, I am Brenna!

I am a PhD student in the Computer Science Department at the University of Toronto . I work in the intersection of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Conversational Agents, and Health care with Professors Khai Truong and Alex Mariakakis.

I am particularly interested in the ways conversational agents, in the form of chatbots, can be used to facilitate communication between patients and physicians in remote settings. For my dissertation I will be working with real-world patients and physicians to explore the use and design of a chatbot that can act as a medium for patients and physicians to establish a bi-directional form of communicaiton, understanding and information gathering.

Select Publications

Work Experience

  1. Univeristy of Toronto - PhD Student & Teaching Assistant (2018 - present)

  2. Samsung AI Research - Part-time Research Intern (2022 Summer)

  3. British Columbia Cancer Agency - Computational Biologist (2017 - 2018)

  4. University of British Columbia - Undergraduate Researcher (2013 - 2017)

Volunteer

  • Reviewer for CHI, IMUT, CSCW (2021 - Present)
  • CHAI Lab Social Coordinator (2021 - Present)
  • Prime Mentors of Canada - Mentor middle school student on research (2021 - Present)
  • University of Toronto Computer Science Graduate Student Society - Social Coordinator (2019 - 2022)
  • HerCodeCamp Intro to coding workshop for high school students - Director of Finance (2019 - 2021)
  • CHI Conference Student Volunter (2019)
  • UBC Hospital (2014-2017)
  • UBC Korle-Bu Neuroscience Club - President (2013 - 2017)
  • Vancouver High School Biomedical Engineering Symposium (2015 - 2016)
  • Hacking Health and eHealth Conference (2014 & 2016)

Hobbies

    Skiing Curling