Hi, I am Brenna!

I am a PhD candidate in the Computer Science Department at the University of Toronto . I am advised by Professors Khai Truong and Alex Mariakakis. My research lie in the intersection of HCI, health informatics, and conversational agents.

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 clinical settings. For my dissertation I am 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 communication, understanding and information gathering.

Select Publications

Work Experience

  1. University of Toronto - Teaching Assistant (2018 - present)

  2. Google - Student Researcher on the Health AI team (2023 Summer)

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

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

  5. 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 Tennis