Neelma Bhatti
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Habib University
I am an assistant professor in the Computer Science program in the Dhanani School of Science and Engineering at Habib university. As a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship, I completed my MS and PhD in Computer Science (Human Computer Interaction) from Virginia Tech, where I was advised by Dr. Scott McCrickard, and co-advised by Dr. Aisling Kelliher. In my doctoral research, I used and adapted a variety of qualitative research methods to investigate parents’ use of technology as a care-giving tool to design interactive media for young children based on parents’ context of use and sought gratifications. I also explored the potential of using screen and voice-based interfaces to facilitate young children’s secondary language learning.
Prior to my research trajectory at Virginia Tech, I investigated how disorientation occurs in various tech-centered activities in online and outdoor environments, and developed means to identify and resolve it to facilitate learning in different educational contexts. I have published work in IEEE and ACM conferences including Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Interaction Design and Children (IDC), International conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP), Human-Agent Interaction (HAI), and Interactive Media Experiences (IMX). My work on designing mobile applications to minimize disorientation in informal learning environments won an honorable mention award for short papers at ACM IDC 2021.
Research Interests
Research Areas: Parent-child Computer Interaction; usability engineering, technologies for families and children; participatoryand ethnographic methods; distractions/disorientation; digital childcare assistants.
Methods: Surveys, interviews, probes, auto-ethnography, personas.
Recent publications All publications
Rehnuma: Interactive Companions for Speech-Delayed Children
IDC '25: Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference
Understanding Pakistani Mothers’ Use and Non-Use of Screen Media-based Devices: Gratifications, Strategies, and Design Implications
CHI '25: Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Using Technology To Improve Awareness, Convenience, And Communication About Neurodivergence In Higher Educational Institutes In Pakistan
INMIC' 24: In Proceedings of 26th IEEE International Multi Topic Conference 2024
News
I feel extremely honored and humbled to be invited as one of the three outstanding graduate student speakers at Virginia Tech Spring 2022 graduate commencement. In my speech, I got to express my gratitude to the people and entities which helped me during my journey of obtaining a PhD. Watch
It’s a wrap for our virtual Tech4Children@Home workshop for #GROUP2022! Amazing group of people, great (and fun) ideas. Hope to meet everyone next year in Sanibel Islands, Florida!
Our paper about designing mobile applications to minimize disorientation in informal learning environments got a best paper honorable mention award at ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference 2021!.
Participated in Connect with Google: UX Research Roundtables along with Erin Buehler and five other talented female PhD candidates from across the world!
Served as a session co-Chair at the "International Virtual Conference Of Emerging Trends In Computing And Software Engineering-2021" organized by Faculty of Science & Technology, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan
Presented my poster paper at the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI2021)
Presented my full paper titled "Revealing And Resolving Disorientation In An Online Course Module Of Java Programming" at the 2020 15th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE)
Attended ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference 2020 as a student volunteer and design competition participant. I also presented my preliminary PhD research plan titled "Digital childcare: need of the hour for international student mothers" .
Presented my paper in the "Parenting and family" session at the online ACM CSCW 2021 conference.
Our workshop proposal has been accepted to be included in the 2023 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work.
$3000 funding approved by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.” to study children's engagement with remote contacts using commercial screen-based devices