Hi, I’m Zainab.

I’m a Ph.D. Candidate at Brown studying Computer Science. I work in the Brown HCI Lab advised by Jeff Huang.

My research focuses on AI-assisted communication tools within Human-Computer Interaction to understand how people connect, build and make meaning of their online relationships across different modes of temporality.

About

Previously, I worked as a software engineer at Pantera Energy and then as a Research Associate at HCI for Social Well-being Lab. I received my B.Sc. from NUCES in 2018, where I majored in Computer Science. Then I worked as a software engineer at Pantera Energy and as a Research Associate at HCI for Social Well-being Lab.

I’m an avid matcha and plant lover.

Projects

(C)heese(B)urger (T)herapy: an accessible chat-based platform that provides peer support administered through Cogntive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) [website]

Live Typing: real-time typing indicators designed to support interaction rich text-based conversations [code] [npm package]

COVID Assisted: Pakistan’s first chat-based platform that integrates eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for fact-checking information on COVID-19 [website]

HumQadam (Securing Activists for Freedom and Empowerment]: Pakistan’s first AI question-answering system designed to educate women regarding legal actions that can be undertaken for violence and abuse. [app]

Publications

HCI work I have published.

• “Together but not together”: Evaluating Typing Indicators for Interaction-Rich Communication
  Zainab Iftikhar, Yumeng Ma, Jeff Huang
  ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Hamburg, Germany, 2023

• Child-Computer Interaction in the Global South: Designing for Children on the Margins
  Suleman Shahid, Zainab Iftikhar, Rabiah Arshad, Omar Mubin, Abdullah Al Mahmud
  In Interaction Design and Children, 2021.

• Technology, Privacy, and User Opinions of COVID-19 Mobile Apps for Contact Tracing: Systematic Search and Content Analysis
  Mahmoud Elkhodr, Omar Mubin, Zainab Iftikhar, Maleeha Masood, Belal Alsinglawi, Suleman Shahid, Fady Alnajjar
  Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) 23, no. 2 (2021): e23467.

• Designing Parental Monitoring and Control Technology: A Systematic Review
  Zainab Iftikhar, Qutaiba Rohan ul Haq, Osama Younus, Taha Sardar, Hammad Arif, Mobin Javed, Suleman Shahid
  Human-Computer Interaction–INTERACT 2021: 18th IFIP TC 13 International Conference, Bari, Italy, August 30–September 3, 2021, Proceedings, Part IV 18

Blog

Fun things I develop and share with the internet.