Part of 杏吧原创 University鈥檚 Women in Engineering & Information Technology (WiE&IT) Program, Industry Networking is a virtual speed networking event for women students and alumnae in STEM to build their professional network by talking directly with 16 leading industry and government companies in engineering and information technology.

On November 17th, 2021, from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (ET), women students and alumnae will leave the event having made up to 64 valuable contacts with working professionals from the following organizations: ,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听,听, 补苍诲听.

BONUS: The first 200 women students who attend the event will receive a $25 UberEats gift card!

The event will run on Airmeet. To register please visit:

Questions about the event? Please email Rachel Deneault, the WiE&IT Program Administrator:聽WiE@carleton.ca.

This research builds off of Rocheleau鈥檚 master鈥檚 thesis in聽聽which investigated autistic and non-autistic teenagers鈥� privacy attitudes and behaviours on social media, and identified factors influencing their privacy and safety online.

Says Rocheleau: 鈥淲ithin the past few decades, more autistic people are using the Internet to promote their community鈥檚 rights and needs; however, this increased online presence heightens safety threats like discrimination and harassment.鈥�

She aims to investigate autistic self-advocates鈥� experiences with preventing and coping with online safety threats and the role of intersectionality on autistic self-advocates鈥� online safety.

鈥淢y interest in the autistic self-advocacy in online platforms comes from my own journey with discovering my identity as an autistic person, based on my experiences conducting autism research and connecting with the #ActuallyAutistic community on social media over the past four years,鈥� shared Rocheleau.

Jessica Rocheleau

Her research will help to shed light on the challenges that autistic people experience with safety online resulting in the development of solutions to make the Internet a more inclusive place for this population.

Rocheleau is designing this study to be as inclusive for autistic people as possible. 鈥淚 will recruit autistic adults who engage in autism self-advocacy online to give feedback on the project and research materials through a short online survey and a video or instant messaging interview over the Internet. I will implement the recommended changes, and then in Phase 2, I will recruit autistic self-advocates to complete the main part of the study, which includes an interview and online survey about their safety online.鈥�

Dr. Sonia Chiasson聽from the聽School of Computer Science聽补苍诲听Dr. Kasia Muldner聽from the聽Department of Cognitive Science聽have been supervising Rocheleau throughout this research.

鈥淚 can always count on them to provide me with detailed feedback and recommendations on all phases of my research work, from initial brainstorming to publication,鈥� shared Rocheleau. 鈥淭hey are also very positive and encouraging 鈥� they help to boost my morale when I feel discouraged about my work and motivate me to keep moving forward when I hit a setback. I鈥檓 extremely grateful to both of them for their support over the years.鈥�

Rocheleau is in the process of recruiting for this research with the aim of sharing her findings through peer-reviewed articles, presentations at scientific conferences, local autism organizations, and social media posts.

鈥淢y dream is for inclusive research to be the norm, rather than an afterthought,鈥� said Rocheleau. 鈥淎 fellow PhD student and I are working on starting a group that will be dedicated to respectful and inclusive autism research at 杏吧原创. We hope that this group will help put 杏吧原创 on the map as an ally to the autistic community and a supporter of the neurodiversity movement.

The PhD student continued: 鈥淚 hope that this research will help to change the general public鈥檚 views on autism. Autism is not a terrible, tragic disorder that makes people na茂ve to safety threats and incapable of protecting themselves online. It鈥檚 a type of neurodiversity that makes people vulnerable to safety threats online because of society鈥檚 lack of awareness, understanding, and acceptance towards it. Therefore, it鈥檚 up to us as a society to work towards making both the real and digital world more compassionate and accepting of diversity so that autistic people can thrive.鈥�

Source:

Monica Zaczynski

This article is part of our Alumni Stories series, which focuses on perspectives of graduates of 杏吧原创鈥檚 Human-Computer Interaction Master鈥檚 program. Today, we are talking to Monica Zaczynski.

Q: What did you do before coming to 杏吧原创?

A: Prior to 杏吧原创, I completed an undergrad in graphic design at York/Sheridan. While working in the industry as a graphic designer, I gained an interest in user experience design and research and knew I needed to dive deeper. This drove me to apply to the 杏吧原创 HCI program.

Q: What did you do in your HCI Master鈥檚?

A: My thesis, supervised by the late Anthony Whitehead, incorporated my interests in UX for health and fitness. I explored clarity of instruction and optimal modes of feedback delivery for two-dimensional (i.e., on a screen) delivery of fitness or physiotherapy movements. The goal was to examine how exercises could be provided safely and without risk for the patient for physiotherapy at a distance. During my degree, I appreciated the guidance from each of the professors to bring us back to the relevant and meaningful questions that needed to be answered.

Q: How has your career progressed since graduating?

A: Since 杏吧原创, I had the amazing opportunity to work at Akendi, a user experience consultancy. They provided design, research, and training services to a wide range of clients including Rogers, TD, The Ottawa Senators, Kijiji, and more.

Monica’s project with Akendi for the Library of Parliament – redesign of a responsive intranet website.

After completing a really challenging project at Akendi with a health-related application, I was reminded how much I cared about UX for healthcare. I found a position with TELUS Health where I could work on various areas of healthcare from benefits management to primary care applications, all of which contribute to improving the overall industry. Most recently, I lead the launch of a mobile app for allied health providers (massage therapists, optometrists, etc.) to submit service claims directly to insurance companies – so that the patients can avoid hurdles such as remembering to submit claims themselves, or paying out of pocket.

Currently, I’m on maternity leave.

Q: How can readers contact you?

A: You can find me on .

Leah Zhang

This article is part of our Alumni Stories series, which focuses on perspectives of graduates of 杏吧原创鈥檚 Human-Computer Interaction Master鈥檚 program. Today, we are talking to Leah Zhang-Kennedy.

Q: What did you do before coming to 杏吧原创?

A: Before my Masters, I had a specialized Bachelor of Design undergraduate Honours degree from York University. I worked in industry as a graphic designer afterwards for a marketing agency and developed e-learning courses and marketing materials for pharmaceutical companies and research institutes.

Q: What did you do during your HCI Master’s?

A: My Master鈥檚 thesis, 鈥淚mproving mental models of computer security through information graphics,鈥� investigated whether integrated visual-textual education strategies and interactive user experience help to form an effective, memorable, and persuasive approach for computer security understanding by altering user perception and improving user behaviour. I created and developed Secure Comics, a three-part interactive comic for teaching cyber literacy. This work was supervised by Dr. Robert Biddle and Dr. Sonia Chiasson, and promoted by MediaSmarts for use in elementary and high schools across Canada as part of cybersecurity lessons.

Illustration for Cyberheroes, Leah’s interactive children’s ebook about online privacy.

Q: How has your career progressed since graduating?

A: I am an Assistant Professor in Interaction Design and User Experience Research at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo. Previously, I joined the Stratford School as a Lecturer teaching user experience design and research after completing my Ph.D. in Computer Science at 杏吧原创 University.

Q: Any reflections?

A: When I began my Masters in 2011, 杏吧原创 was one of Canada’s first universities that offered an interdisciplinary HCI research Master鈥檚 program. My favourite part about the program is its interdisciplinarity and the opportunity to work with researchers and students from various backgrounds. Through the program, Drs Sonia Chiasson and Robert Biddle introduced me to usable privacy and security, which became my research area.

Q: How can readers contact you?

A: Feel free to connect with me on or see more of my work on my .

Eli Fares

This article is part of our Alumni Stories series, which focuses on perspectives of graduates of 杏吧原创鈥檚 Human-Computer Interaction Master鈥檚 program. Today, we are talking to Eli Fares.

Before I joined the HCI Masters program, I was doing my undergraduate in Engineering at 杏吧原创 University. I discovered UX and learned about the industry when I did a co-op term at BlackBerry. I realized how important user research is and how a good experience can affect an entire company’s future as we’ve seen in the tech industry again and again. This is what made me want to do a masters in HCI. There are many stakeholders when it comes to building a product but I feel that Product Designers are the real gatekeepers of what goes in a product and what doesn’t.

Coming into the HCI Masters program, I knew very little about what UX actually was. In the span of 2 years, I was able to develop a good foundation to start my UX career with confidence. In my first role after graduating, I was already educating colleagues about best practice and how to conduct proper research so as to not waste hours and money on features customers don’t want. My entire career has been working in start-ups as the sole designer and owning every part of the design process from beginning to end. This helped build up my skills quickly. I am now a Senior Product Designer where I mentor junior designers and teach a UX Design course at a bootcamp in Toronto.

Feel free to or learn more about my work on .

Eli’s final UI design for Freenics Inc. access control application