You are thinking about applying to the HCDE PhD program...

Are you accepting PhD students?

For autumn 2027, I anticipate working with 1, possibly 2, new students. I am prioritizing recruiting a student whose studies will focus on human-centered AI support for personal health informatics in clinical settings (see recent NSF award). I will also consider applicants proposing to study digital mental health; my capacity for this depends on pending funding.

If you are interested in AI support for personal health informatics, Dr. James Fogarty and I are jointly recruiting for this project. Please look into both the HCDE and CSE PhD programs and apply to whichever best supports your goals. Applying to both is fine. If you are applying to CSE, name Dr. Fogarty as your primary adviser in the CSE application; if you are applying to HCDE, name me in the HCDE application.

Admission decisions depend on my current capacity, research group composition, applicant alignment with my group's research direction and with the department, specific project needs, and anticipated funding.

You can also see other HCDE faculty members' plans for advising new doctoral students.

Should I email you before applying?

You do not need to. Emailing me does not affect how your application is reviewed.

I welcome email with a specific question about my research that this page and my papers do not answer. For example, a question about how a project handles a design tension you've run into in your own work. I usually reply in writing, and an interesting question sometimes leads to a conversation. If you have emailed a specific question and I haven't answered after a week, it is okay to resend it.

I do not reply to requests to discuss openings, assess fit, review a CV, or schedule an introductory call — if I do, it will be to refer you to this page. Please do not email me a CV or statement.

What do you look for in a PhD application?

Speaking for myself, I look for:

Is there research alignment? Are there at least two faculty members with whom you might find a research match, both topically and with respect to methods you want to use / that the faculty use in their research groups? See my research areas, though my recruitment in any given year may be more focused.
Is there departmental alignment? There are several departments at UW that do great (and, at times, very similar) HCI and design research, so we try to admit students to programs where they will benefit from the coursework. You can apply to multiple departments if you see multiple potential matches (and sometimes students get admitted to multiple departments if we each see matches).
Do you know what you are getting yourself into? A PhD is long, and so we want it to be a good investment for you (and for us!). Past research experience — to the extent you could get research experience, since opportunities are not always evenly distributed — can help, but is not required. We also use personal statements, recommendation letters, and (as needed) interviews to evaluate this.
Are you someone who will contribute to the culture of the lab, department, and university? Everyone who joins us influences us, and so I try to admit people who will contribute to our collaborative culture and who have a healthy respect for balance between work and other aspects of life.

It's good to connect your interests to a potential adviser's work, but please lead with what you want to study and why. Statements that mostly describe my research areas and current projects back to me tell me little about you. I'd rather read what you've seen or done that raised a question for you, what you want to find out, and how that might connect to or push on work in my group. My closest and longest-term collaborators often see problems differently than I do and start from different goals, and that’s a large part of why the collaborations work.

Beyond that, there's a lot of variability. Based on how funding is going, I may recruit fewer students or more students. Based on who else I've admitted, how current students' interests and projects are evolving, and who is graduating, I may recruit to fill certain niches with respect to interests or skills.

Also, everybody brings their own idiosyncrasies to application reviewing (despite rubrics and other things we do to promote a systematic process). Please do not take my opinions as representative.

What should I look for in a PhD program?

My advice here aligns with what I look for when reading applications: the match between you, potential mentors, and the program matters most. Advising matters more than the specific program, but if the program has many course requirements that do not fit you or does not have opportunities to develop the expertise you need for your research, it will become a barrier rather than support.

To that, I'd also add living somewhere that you can be happy. The PhD is long, and your context matters. As someone who loves to hike and who loves the combination of city, mountains, and water, I'm happy in Seattle. Our summers are great, but our winters are dark and Seattle's cost of living is high; others love access to skiing and other snowsports in the winter. There may also be advantages or disadvantages to being close to your current support networks.

UW has a lot of PhD programs. To which should I apply?

You should apply to all departments in which you could imagine yourself thriving. As noted above, despite good intentions and practices, there is variability in the review process. We also often have to say no to many of our strongest applicants, just based on advising capacity. Multiple applications increase the chances of finding a match (even though multiple application fees are not great). If you end up with multiple offers, we're happy to help you navigate among the options (the culture at UW is great this way).

Similarly, if you end up with one offer but see mentoring matches across departments, I've experienced UW to be wonderfully cross-disciplinary and supportive of students finding the right overall advising and mentoring team regardless of program. If, however, the availability of mentors affects your decision of whether to matriculate, I recommend having conversations before you make the decision. Sometimes faculty may not be available to add mentees or advisees, even with a strong research alignment, due to existing commitments or plans such as leaves of absence or sabbaticals.

How do you run your research group/lab?

You can read the research group guide that my lab and I update.

Can you tell me more about the HCDE application process or PhD program?

The HCDE website has comprehensive information on admission, the curriculum, milestones, costs & financing, and more.

Should I reach out during the application review period?

Typically, no. There's no need to send me an email expressing your interest, especially after the application deadline, when my response can no longer inform your application. HCDE's application review process is systematic, so an email restating your application's highlights will not result in your application getting any more consideration than anyone else's. Additionally, because multiple faculty may be reviewing and considering you for admission, I am unable to comment on your application status outside of the formal process.

One exception is if your funding situation changes — for example, if you receive a fellowship. Admission is constrained by various factors. One is the size of HCDE's PhD cohort, which can be limited by available funding; independent funding can sometimes relieve that constraint and make admission possible when it otherwise would not be. Other constraints include my own advising capacity and research priorities, which funding does not change. A fellowship is worth telling me about, but it will not make me available if I am already at capacity, or if your research interests do not align with my recruitment priorities.

Should I contact your advisees?

You are welcome to reach out to them if it would affect your application. If not, I encourage you to wait until visit days, when you will have an opportunity to meet students in the research group and program.

If you do reach out, please ask them specific questions not answered here, and if you plan to contact multiple advisees, please respect their time by including them in the same email.

Do you have opportunities to work with your group before or while I apply?

I do not currently have research positions, paid or volunteer, for students outside UW, so the PhD application is the way to join the group. If you're a current UW undergraduate or master's student, check out directed research group postings.

Will you read and provide feedback on my personal / research statement?

No. That introduces a potentially harmful feedback loop in which I pre-review your materials and give feedback about what I'm looking for in admission, and then your materials become about what I'm looking for rather than about your goals.

I make an exception for current or past HCDE students, especially when you are applying to work with other mentors or to other programs—mentoring you is a part of this job that I love!