Carol J. Smith

About Carol J. Smith

Carol leads research to make trustworthy, human-centered, and responsible AI systems. Her work focuses on the complexities of human-machine teaming and she uses UX research and HCI methods to develop tools and resources to support AI engineering teams in developing AI systems. Trustworthy AI systems provide evidence of their capabilities and integrity, so that users (and those affected by the system) can determine potential risk, and calibrate their trust accordingly. Carol is a leader in the UX field with over 25 years of experience across industries, government agencies, and academia. Carol successfully connects creative and technical people, coaches them, improves processes, and empowers teams to thrive. She embraces diverse, inclusive environments, where clear communication is relied upon. Career highlights:• 25+ year career conducting and leading human-centered (UX/HCI) efforts to understand people, their needs, behaviors, and challenges with complex processes, through many types of research studies; making mid-fi clickable prototypes and using them to learn through usability and UX research studies; and improving interactions and experiences.• 10+ years improving artificially intelligent (AI) systems: Leading research at the CMU SEI AI Division for AI, machine learning and autonomous capabilities; leading novel research at Uber ATG (now Aurora) for the autonomous/self-driving vehicle experience; and leading design teams at IBM for Watson products.• International recognition - spoken at 250+ events in 40+ cities around the world on responsible AI, UX design, UX research, Agile, ethics, and demystifying AI. Adjunct instructor for the CMU HCII and lectured at many other universities.• Management experience with diverse, international teams of designers and other technical people, including product analysts, visual designers, product designers, interaction/UX designers, front-end developers, and UX researchers.• Leads the integration of UX design people and practices, into Agile software development teams.• Selected for prestigious IBM Health Corps program working with the American Cancer Society to improve Sub-Saharan African communities access to cancer treatment in 2016.• Mentor and community organizer - recognized with UXPA President\'s Award in 2014 for volunteer efforts furthering both the organization and the field of usability.

Experience

1. Principal Research Scientist, Human-machine Interaction, Ai Division

   Software Engineering Institute | Carnegie Mellon University

   Oct 2023 — Present · Pittsburgh, PA, US

   I lead the Trust Lab team in the AI Division of the SEI conducting research for trustworthy, human-centered, and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) system design and implementation. Our research includes improving the engineering of AI and machine learning systems, robotics, autonomous vehicles, other emerging technologies, and the engineering questions related to their human-centered development. Our research primarily supports critical U.S. government needs and includes these topics: responsible AI (RAI), ethics, calibrated trust, human-machine teaming (HMT), user experience (UX), user centered design (UCD), human-machine interaction (HMI), human-computer interaction (HCI), and more. We use rapid prototyping and iterative development as experiments to learn, and then shape academic and industry research.

Education

• DePaul University

  MS, Human Computer Interaction

• Denison University

  BA, Journalistic Photo & Video

• Harvard Business School Online

  Executive Education, Leadership & Strategy

  2018 — 2018

Skills

• Accessibility
• Mobile Applications
• Empathy Via Immersion
• Usability Engineering
• Usability Testing
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Usability
• User Interface Design
• Contextual Inquiry
• Customer Experience
• Participatory Design
• Focus Groups
• Wire Framing
• Human Computer Interaction
• Customer Insight
• Card Sorting
• Rapid Prototyping
• Empathy
• Mentoring
• Public Speaking
• User Experience
• Content Strategy
• Axure
• Omnigraffle
• User Research
• Eye Tracking
• Persona
• Information Architecture
• Experience Design
• User-Centered Design
• Information Design
• Design Thinking
• Research Design
• Paper Prototyping
• Service Design
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Wireframing
• Task Analysis
• Web Applications
• User Interface