Hello, I'm Vineet Pandey.

I'm a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher and an Assistant Professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah. Starting Spring 2025, I am also a Responsible AI Faculty Fellow at the university.

I build human-centered computing tools that expand and improve the interface between communities and institutional experts, especially in science and medicine. My research supports motivated communities in performing scientific and medical work that is personally meaningful, institutionally relevant, and that advances our understanding of health, disorders, and public involvement in institutional processes. By intervening at three levels––individual tools, social platforms, and institutional processes––my research finds direct applications in digital health and citizen science.

All of my research builds on collaborations with real-world communities and institutional experts to design new ways of creating and acting on evidence.

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As a Postdoctoral researcher at MIT (2022-23), I explored novel characterizations of online social movements around clinical trials in neurodegenerative disorders - in collaboration with Arvind Satyanarayan (HCI, Visualization) and Graham Jones (Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology).
(First paper in re-preparation)

As a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (2020-22), I collaborated with neurologists at Mass General Hospital and multiple rare disorder communities (SCAs, ALS, Ataxia-telangiectasia) to advance our understanding of neurological disorders with remote health assessment tools.
(ACM TACCESS 2023, The Cerebellum 2022, Brain Communications 2023).

During my Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC San Diego (2013-19), I worked with microbiologists at the American Gut Project and fermenters to support community-led experimentation with novel online platforms. I was lucky to receive wisdom from Jim Hollan, Rob Knight, and Don Norman.
(ACM CHI 2021, Learning@Scale 2018, CHI 2017, Defense Video)

My dissertation was awarded the 2019 School of Engineering Henry Booker Award for Exemplary Ethical Engineering.

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Recent work

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In Submission
Carly, Nastaran	Paper: Characterizing digital participation in healthcare regulatory processes by a terminal rare disorder community
Janet, Asma	Paper: Learning from Specialists’ Communication Strategies to Inform the Design of Tools for Clinician–Patient Communication
Mutaz, Janet	Paper: Cognitive Changes and Life Transitions of Older Adults and Their Relationship with Technology Use
Nastaran, Megan	Paper: Ways of Knowing During Pregnancy: Personal, Embodied, and Technological Information Practices
Janet Ikhile	Paper: Understanding Specialists’ Workflow and Decision-Making for Designing Digital Tools
Sujit K. Kamaraj	Paper: Breaking Down Cognitive Activity during Errors with Fine-Finger Tracking on Touchscreens
Sujit K. Kamaraj	Paper: Investigating the Process-Platform Gap: How a Patient Community’s Efforts Teach us About the Limits of Social Platforms in Supporting Institutional Processes
Published/Presented
2025
Nastaran Jadidi	Paper: Rhetoric and linguistic strategies in an online advocacy movement ACM Collective Intelligence 2025, San Diego, CA
Carly, Nastaran	Extended Abstract: Left to their own devices: How people with ALS use digital platforms as advocacy space. ACM ASSETS 2025, Denver, CO
Janet Ikhile	Abstract: Supporting Movement Disorders Specialists with Digital Tools that Integrate with their Workflows. Movement Disorder Society International Congress 2025, Honolulu, HI
Nastaran, Sujit	Abstracts/Posters: Engaging scientific authority for participatory decision-making + Cognitive Profiles Using Fine-Finger Performance on Touchscreens. Conference for Advancing Participatory Sciences 2025, Portland, OR
Nastaran, Carly, Asma, Sujit	Abstract/Poster: One Size Does Not Fit All: Two Approaches to Better Support Women in Understanding and Managing their Health. First Prize in Posters, Women's Health Symposium, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
2024
Nastaran Jadidi	Abstract: A spectrum of stance: How non-expert communities communicate with institutional experts on digital platforms. 8th Digital Humanities Utah Symposium (DHU8) 2024, Salt Lake City, UT

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Research Group for 2025 Fall (August-December)

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PhD students
Janet Ikhile	Does fine-finger tracking on touchscreens yield reliable, valid, actionable knowledge for telemedicine/remote clinical work?
Mutaz Hennawi	How to run quick and effective co-design sessions with busy specialists in healthcare?
Nastaran Jadidi	How might we design social platforms that support affected communities participate in relevant policymaking?
Sujit K Kamaraj	How are educators integrating AI in their teaching?
Sujit, Yuvraj	Does repurposing bioinformatics tools/datasets for patient-led research work?
BS MS students
Asma Khan (with Janet)	What do Occupational Therapists want and need from digital health tools for clinical work in motor assessment?
Carly Atwell Comp BS MS 25	TBD PS: Carly is applying for PhD programs! (carly.atwell@utah.edu)
BS students (thesis/capstone/UROP)
Megan Genetti (Capstone) BS CE	What challenges do people face when using prosthetic implants?
Yuvraj Malik (UROP) BS CS	How fast do people demonstrate practice effects in touchscreen-based remote health assessments?

Group Alumni

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MS students
Jenny Yijun Zhan (MSD)	→ Production Engineer, Meta Designing software for caregiver-validated remote health assessments
Gunasekhar Athuluri (CS MS)	Visualizing institutional datasets for patient-led hypothesis-testing
BS students
NSF REU: Research Experiences for Undergrads: Intelligent Computation	Alex Goff (CS, Summer 25, University of Utah) Hannah Larsen (CS, Summer 25, University of Utah) Vivian Zheng (CS, Summer 25, Stony Brook, NSF REU) Belén Edgar (CS, Northwestern, Summer 24) Timi Omoteso (CS, Summer 24, Georgia Tech)
Price College Engineering Scholars Program	Logan Wood (CS, Spring 24) Kunal Kamtekar (CS, Spring 24) Olivia Styler (CS, Spring 25)
High School students
Price College High School Summer Research Internship	Kevin Siju Eappen (Hillcrest High School, Summer 25) Om Sanghvi (Hillcrest High School, Summer 25) Lincoln Gierisch (Itineris Early College High School, Summer 24) Silas Fay (Academy for Math, Engineering and Science, Summer 24)
University of Utah Science & Engineering Fair	Lavanya Mohnani (Hillcrest High School, Spring 24). First Prize at Computer Science & Applied Computational Methods

Committee member (PhD, MS, BS)

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Maxim Lisnic	Computing PhD: Data-driven Misinformation (Advisors: Marina Kogan, Alex Lex) → Assistant Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), MA
Noelle Brown	Computing PhD: Ethics in Computing (Advisor: Eliane Wiese) → Assistant Professor/Lecturer, University of Utah
Caden Hamrick	ECE PhD: TBD (Advisor: Jacob George)
Sujit K. Kamaraj	(Chair) CS MS: Crossroads: Understanding Cognitive Activity through Fine-Finger Tracking on Touchscreens
Naman Rastogi	CS MS: Platform Migration in Online Communities
Semil Jain	CS MS: Citizen Science on CloudLab
Khawar Murad Ahmed	Computing MS: Mixed-methods studies for characterizing online discourse
Brennan Cook	(Chair) Data Science BS: Optimal Strategies in Basketball