Dr. Rachel Franz is an incoming Assistant Professor of Computational Media and Arts as well as Internet of Things at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). She earned her PhD in 2024 from the Information School at the University of Washington. She received her master’s degree from the University of Toronto and her bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Her research focuses on accessible technology design and evaluation for users with disabilities and low digital literacy. She seeks to make novel technologies usable and accessible to people with disabilities (e.g., people with sensory, physical, or cognitive impairments) and older adults (ages 65+). One of her goals is to leverage AI to adapt interactions and systems to users’ preferences and abilities, thereby enabling their use of mainstream technologies. Her other research topics include designing accessible AR/VR/XR environments and interactions, as well as measuring the impact of different impairments on technology use. She has published several conference and journal papers at top HCI and accessibility venues including ACM ASSETS, CHI, TOCHI, and TACCESS. During her PhD, she was an Apple AI/ML Scholar and also received a Meta Reality Labs Research Fund for her dissertation work.
She is actively recruiting students with the following profile: Students should have prior research experience and be strong in two of four skills:
- Interaction design
- Study design and statistical analysis
- Developing systems
- Building ML/AI models
Students should also be interested in accessibility or working with older adults. If this sounds like you, please email me.
Email: franzrac@uw.edu
Personal website: rachelfranz.com