About Me

I am Research Staff Member at IBM Research. My research focuses on factors that enable better outcomes in human AI interaction. At IBM, my research spans areas ranging from user mental models of AI agents, repair approaches in conversational breakdowns, impact of AI identity disclosure and communication directionality on collaboration outcomes, and user reliance in human-AI interaction. Most recently, I am examining the role of humans in the evaluation of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the context of LLM-as-a-judge.

Prior to joining IBM Research in 2017, I graduated with a Ph.D in Human Computer Interaction from University of Maryland, College Park. While working on my Ph.D, I did multiple internships at IBM Research (Almaden), Microsoft Research (Cambridge, UK), and Data Science for Social Good.

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Selected Publications

  • EvaluLLM: LLM assisted evaluation of generative outputs - M Desmond, Z Ashktorab, Q Pan, C Dugan, J Johnson. ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2024.
  • SME-in-the-loop: Interaction Preferences when Supervising Bots in Human-AI Communities - Z Ashktorab, M Desmond, JM Johnson, Q Pan, C Dugan, M Brachman, C Spina. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 2023. Link
  • Fairness Evaluation in Text Classification: Machine Learning Practitioner Perspectives of Individual and Group Fairness - Z Ashktorab, B Hoover, M Agarwal, C Dugan, W Geyer, HB Yang, M Yurochkin. Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), 2023. Link
  • Decision Making Strategies and Team Efficacy in Human-AI Teams - I Munyaka, Z Ashktorab, C Dugan, J Johnson, Q Pan. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, CSCW1, Article 43, April 2023. Link
  • AI-Assisted Human Labeling: Batching for Efficiency without Overreliance - Z Ashktorab, M Desmond, J Andres, M Muller, NN Joshi, M Brachman, A Sharma, K Brimijoin, Q Pan, CT Wolf, E Duesterwald, C Dugan, W Geyer, D Reimer. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 5, CSCW1, Article 89, April 2021. Link
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