New Faculty Affiliates: Christiana Garcia and Jamie Sikora

The Center for Human-Computer Interaction is pleased to introduce its two newest faculty affiliates: Christiana Garcia and Jamie Sikora. Christina and Jamie join more than 80 other faculty affiliated with CHCI from across the university.

Christiana Chamon Garcia is a new assistant professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Christina holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Texas A&M University and a B.S. from the University of Houston. Her research spans noise-based authentication, decentralized identity, and security in cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence. She is passionate about human-computer interaction, accessibility in engineering and kinesiology, and advancing exercise science.

She describes her interest in HCI in this way: "My research explores secure human-computer interaction methods, focusing on understanding human-centered vulnerabilities and leveraging physical noise for biometric authentication to enhance security in cyber-physical and space systems. I’m particularly interested in CHCI because of its interdisciplinary approach to HCI, which aligns with my work on usability and security in cyber-physical systems and embodied interaction. I’d love to collaborate on research that bridges security, human factors, and real-world deployment challenges.”

Jamie Sikora is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science. His research interests include Quantum Information, Semidefinite Programming, Quantum Machine Learning, Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Computational Complexity Theory, Bell Nonlocality, and Generalized Probabilistic Theories.

Jamie is interested in using information visualization and novel user interfaces to make learning quantum computing easier, and has been starting a collaboration with CHCI deputy director Ryan McMahan.