natalie
I am a (first year!) PhD student studying computer science at Northeastern University, based in Boston. I am interested in understanding how social systems are represented through digital systems, and specifically, how this impacts young people finding future opportunities. Read more about my prior research experience work in my CV or find me on LinkedIn.
My interests are concerned with the “ecology” of labor, or how circumstances from technology to community mediate workforce opportunities. My PhD work look at the many environmental barriers — from a lack of technical access to inequitably distributed information — that prevent young people from having agency and possibility as they enter the workforce, and how tools like AI and natural language processing (NLP) can bridge the gap. Particularly, I am interested in systemic inequalities and how the wider environment can be designed to better support under-resourced students and young workers.
While attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, I found a love for information science! I felt that it combined sociology and data while still maintaining the human aspects the number represents. My Master’s thesis was concerned with speculating on methods to increase the general accessibility of school board meetings through discourse analysis, traditional NLP methods, and AI NLP methods. While I’m not working, I love hiking, visiting Boston’s beautiful art museums, and practicing yoga!