Michelle Lam

Michelle Lam is a first-year PhD student at Stanford in the HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) Group in the Computer Science department! She started in Winter 2021, currently rotating with Prof. James Landay, and previously rotating with Prof. Maneesh Agrawala. Broadly, Michelle is interested in understanding and building upon the lived experiences of users as they interact and collaborate with algorithmic, AI-powered systems. In the domain of creative tasks like photo-editing and dance/movement-learning, this looks like redesigning our systems and algorithms to better map to the cognitive state of users as they approach their creative goals. In the realm of algorithmic fairness, this looks like studying how sociotechnical systems can be better designed to (1) make developers aware of downstream user outcomes and (2) make everyday users more empowered to drive more equitable outcomes and reshape the design of these very systems. Outside of academics, Michelle loves design, art, and movement (preferably in combination)!