Specializations

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Education
  • Computing Education Research
  • Justice-Centered Technology Design

Biography

Alannah Oleson is a postdoctoral scholar and co-founder at the UW Center for Learning, Computing, and Imagination (LCI). They work toward a world where everyone can authentically interact with technology by contributing novel strategies for teaching critical, inclusive, and accessible HCI & design principles within computing education contexts. Dr. Oleson uses qualitative and community-based participatory methods in their research, working alongside HCI and computing educators to help tomorrow's computing professionals critically reflect upon the societal and individual impacts of technological design decisions. They have taught courses in user interface design methods and software engineering at the UW Information School, where they also received the 2023 Husky 100 award for excellence in scholarship, teaching, service, and mentoring.

Education

  • Ph D, Information Science, University of Washington, 2023
  • MS, Information Science, University of Washington , 2021
  • BS, Computer Science, Oregon State University, 2018

Awards

  • Best Paper Award - ACM ICER, 2023
  • Best Paper Award for Diversity & Inclusion Contribution - ACM CSCW Best Paper Award for Diversity & Inclusion Contribution, 2022
  • Husky 100 - University of Washington, 2022
  • Graduate Research Fellowship - National Science Foundation (NSF), 2018
  • Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher, Finalist - Computing Research Association (CRA), 2018
  • Best Paper Honorable Mention - ACM CHI, 2017
  • Women-in-Technology Scholarship - Adobe Research, 2017
  • Drucilla Shepard Smith Academic Excellence Awards - Oregon State University, 2015-2016

Publications and Contributions

  • Conference Paper
    Funds of Knowledge Used by Adolescents of Color in Scaffolded Sensemaking around Algorithmic Fairness (2023)
    ACM International Computing Education Research Authors: Jean Salac, Alannah Oleson, L. Armstrong, A. Le Meur, Amy J. Ko
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Teaching Inclusive Design Skills with the CIDER Assumption Elicitation Technique (2023)
    ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Authors: Alannah Oleson, M. Solomon, C. Perdriau, Amy J. Ko
  • Conference Paper
    A Decade of Demographics in Computing Education Research: A Critical Review of Trends in Collection, Reporting, and Use (2022)
    ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER) 2022 Authors: Alannah Oleson, Benjamin Xie, Jean Salac, Jayne Everson, Megumi Kivuva, Amy J. Ko
  • Conference Paper
    A Decade of Demographics in Computing Education Research: A Critical Review of Trends in Collection, Reporting, and Use (2022)
    Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research Authors: Alannah Oleson, Benjamin Xie, Jean Salac, Jayne Everson, Megumi Kivuva, Amy Ko
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    CS and Design (2022)
    Critically Conscious Computing: Methods for Secondary Education Authors: Amy J. Ko, Alannah Oleson
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Surfacing Equity Issues in Large Computing Courses with Peer-Ranked, Demographically-Labeled Student Feedback (2022)
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW 2022) Authors: Benjamin Xie, Alannah Oleson, Jayne Everson, Amy J. Ko
  • Conference Paper
    Computing Students' Learning Difficulties in HCI Education (2020)
    Proceedings of the 38th annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI '20) Authors: Alannah Oleson, Meron Solomon, Amy J. Ko
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    It Is Time for More Critical CS Education (2020)
    Communications of the ACM, 63(11), pp. 31-33, ISBN/ISSN: 0001-0782 Authors: Amy J. Ko, Alannah Oleson, Neil Ryan, Yim Register, Benjamin Xie, Mina Tari, Matthew Davidson, Stefania Druga, Dastyni Loksa
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    On the Role of Design in K-12 Computing Education (2020)
    ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 21(1) Authors: Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko, Brett Wortzman
  • Conference Paper
    Scout: Rapid Exploration of Interface Layout Alternatives through High-Level Design Constraints (2020)
    Proceedings of the 38th annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI '20) Authors: Amanda Swearngin, Chenglong Wang, Alannah Oleson, James Fogarty, Amy J. Ko
  • Conference Workshop Paper
    Toward the Development of HCI Pedagogical Content Knowledge (2020)
    ACM SIGCHI Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI 2020) Authors: Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Inclusive Design (2018)
    ACM International Computing Education Research Conference Authors: Alannah Oleson, C. J. Mendez, Z. Steine-Hanson, C. Hilderbrand, C. Perdriau, M. Burnett, Amy J. Ko
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Semi-Automating (or not) a Socio-Technical Method for Socio-Technical Systems (2018)
    Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing Authors: C. J. Mendez, Z. Steine-Hanson, Alannah Oleson, A. Horvath, C. Hill, C. Hilderbrand, A. Sarma, M. Burnett
  • Conference Paper
    Gender-Inclusiveness Personas vs. Stereotyping: Can We Have it Both Ways? (2017)
    ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Authors: C. G. Hill, M. Haag, Alannah Oleson, C. J. Mendez, N. Marsden, A. Sarma, M. Burnett
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    General Principles for a Generalized Idea Garden (2017)
    Journal of Visual Languages & Computing Authors: W. Jernigan, A. Horvath, M. Lee, M. Burnett, T. Cuilty, S. Kuttal, A. Peters, I. Kwan, F. Bahmani, Amy J. Ko, C. J. Mendez, Alannah Oleson
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Toward Theory-Based End-User Software Engineering (2017)
    New Perspectives in End-User Development Authors: M. Burnett, T. Kulesza, Alannah Oleson, S. Ernst, L. Beckwith, J. Cao, W. Jernigan, W. Grigoreanu
  • Conference Paper
    GenderMag Experiences in the Field: The Whole, the Parts, and the Workload (2016)
    Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing Authors: C. G. Hill, S. Ernst, Alannah Oleson, A. Horvath, M. Burnett
  • Conference Paper
    Programming, Problem Solving, and Self-Awareness: Effects of Explicit Guidance (2016)
    ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Authors: Dastyni Loksa, Amy J. Ko, W. Jernigan, Alannah Oleson, C. J. Mendez, M. Burnett

Presentations

  • CIDER: A Method to Teach Practical Critical Software Design Skills (2022)
    SIGCSE DC at 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Lugano, Switzerland/Hybrid
  • Supporting Critical Software Design Decision-Making in HCI Education (2022)
    2022 DUB Doctoral Consortium at the University of Washington - Seattle, WA
  • Can Researchers Enhance Diversity and Inclusion? (2021)
    International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) - Virtual
  • The GenderMag-Teach Project (2019)
    EduCHI Annual Symposium on HCI Education - Glasgow, UK
  • Gender Biases in Software for Problem-Solving (2018)
    Designing Technologies to Support Human Problem Solving - Lisbon, Portugal
  • Research Symposium Welcome Address (2018)
    OSU Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) - Corvallis, OR