CHCI welcomes two new faculty affiliates

CHCI welcomes new faculty affiliates Jian Ni and Sehrish Basir Nizamani.

Jian Ni has recently joined the marketing faculty at the VT Pamplin College of Business. He received his PhD in Business with a minor in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include data analytics, people analytics, social media, mobile platforms, pricing, (non-)monetary incentive design, and empirical industrial organization. Ni has taught previously at Johns Hopkins and has been a visiting faculty at the University of Sydney, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

About his connection with CHCI, Ni says: "My research leverages applied machine learning, causal inference, and structural econometric models to study markets that are increasingly shaped by technological advancements, such as healthcare, education, and financial services. This aligns with the Center's objectives to advance knowledge of how humans interact with and through computers. My empirical work, particularly in healthcare utilization and educational inequality, offers nuanced insights into consumer behavior and decision-making processes, which are integral to enhancing user experiences in human-computer interactions and providing meaningful policy recommendations.”

Sehrish Basir Nizamani joined VT in Fall 2023 as a new Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department. Her PhD in Information Technology from the University of Sindh, Pakistan, included a usability evaluation of the websites of Pakistan's higher education institutes. She has previously taught at the University of Sindh as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests include Information Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Usability Studies, Technology Education, Data Mining, and Natural Language Processing.

About her connection with CHCI, Nizamani states: “Human-computer interaction is my major research field. More specifically, my work revolves around culture usability and the definition of culture in the context of human-computer interaction. My recent research interests involve technology acceptance, technology design to solve real-world problems, and technology intervention in digital education.”