Jess VB

--- Dr. Jessica Van Brummelen ---

jessica_vanbrummelen.jpg

HCI Research Scientist

Niantic, Inc.

London, United Kingdom

Hello! I’m Jess, a Human-Computer Interaction Research Scientist. I work at Niantic, Inc., where I research & develop augmented reality related applications to help people explore the world around them.

Before Niantic, I obtained my PhD in computer science at MIT while working in Dr. Hal Abelson’s App Inventor lab. There, I developed conversational agent technology to empower and teach young learners about AI.

Prior to MIT, I was a mechanical engineering student at UBC, where I researched autonomous vehicles and driver assistance systems in Dr. Homayoun Najjaran’s ACIS lab.

selected publications

  1. Don’t Look Now: Audio/Haptic Guidance for 3D Scanning of Landmarks
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Liv Piper Urwin ,  Oliver James Johnston , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2024
    PDF
  2. Learning affects trust: Design recommendations and concepts for teaching children—and nearly anyone—about conversational agents
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Mingyan Claire Tian ,  Maura Kelleher , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence , 2023
    PDF
  3. What Do Children and Parents Want and Perceive in Conversational Agents? Towards Transparent, Trustworthy, Democratized Agents
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Maura Kelleher ,  Mingyan Claire Tian , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference , 2023
    PDF
  4. Empowering K-12 Students to Understand and Design Conversational Agents: Concepts, Recommendations and Development Platforms
    Jessica Van Brummelen
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 2022
    PDF
  5. Teaching students about conversational AI using CONVO, a conversational programming agent
    Jessica Zhu ,  and  Jessica Van Brummelen
    In 2021 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) , 2021
    PDF
  6. “Alexa, Can I Program You?”: Student Perceptions of Conversational Artificial Intelligence Before and After Programming Alexa
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Viktoriya Tabunshchyk ,  and  Tommy Heng
    In Interaction Design and Children , 2021
    PDF
  7. Teaching tech to talk: K-12 conversational artificial intelligence literacy curriculum and development tools
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Tommy Heng ,  and  Viktoriya Tabunshchyk
    In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence , 2021
    PDF
  8. Engaging Teachers to Co-Design Integrated AI Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  and  Phoebe Lin
    In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2021
    PDF
  9. CONVO: What does conversational programming need?
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Kevin Weng ,  Phoebe Lin , and 1 more author
    In 2020 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) , 2020
    PDF
  10. Zhorai: Designing a conversational agent for children to explore machine learning concepts
    Phoebe Lin ,  Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Galit Lukin , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence , 2020
    PDF
  11. Tools to create and democratize conversational artificial intelligence
    Jessica Raquelle Van Brummelen
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 2019
    PDF
  12. The popstar, the poet, and the grinch: Relating artificial intelligence to the computational thinking framework with block-based coding
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Judy Hanwen Shen ,  and  Evan W Patton
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Thinking Education , 2019
    PDF
  13. Autonomous vehicle perception: The technology of today and tomorrow
    Jessica Van Brummelen ,  Marie O’Brien ,  Dominique Gruyer , and 1 more author
    Transportation research part C: emerging technologies, 2018
    PDF