About me
Human-Computer Interaction
Human-AI Collaboration
Applied Machine Learning
Zinat Ara is a Ph.D. student in Information Sciences and Technology at George Mason University. Her research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Human-AI Collaboration, and Applied Machine Learning. Specifically, her work focuses on designing human–AI collaborative systems to support neurodivergent individuals in career development and workplace productivity. She has published at leading venues such as CHI and IUI, with work spanning collaborative job seeking for autistic individuals, AI-driven data annotation systems design, and machine learning applications in transportation.
Zinat received her bachelor's degree in computer science from University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. After that she worked in industry as a software quality assurance engineer, where she gained experience in software testing for web and mobile applications across domains including healthcare, marketing and agriculture. Through her interdisciplinary work, she aims to bridge gaps between technology design and real-world accessibility challenges.
Education
George Mason University
Ph.D. in Information Sciences & Technology
Fairfax, VA, USA · Aug 2020 – present
University of Dhaka
B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering
Dhaka, Bangladesh · Jan 2010 – May 2014
Research Projects
Current Projects
Body Doubling Support for ADHD Workers
Designing effective productivity supports using AI and VR for workers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to improve their workplace performance.
Communication Support for People with Autism
Designing an LLM-based assistive system to bridge the language gap between neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals in job search contexts.
Past Projects
Career-Seeking for People with Autism
Understanding challenges and designing human–AI collaborative systems to support autistic job seekers.
Data Annotation Domain
Designing AI-driven data annotation interfaces to support novice annotators for disaster management analytic systems.
Intelligent Transportation Domain
Spatial-temporal data processing and employing machine learning models for accurate predictions.
Key Publications
Zinat Ara, Amrita Ganguly, Donna Peppard, Dongjun Chung, Slobodan Vucetic, Vivian Genaro Motti, and Sungsoo Ray Hong
Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024)
Lost in Translation: Understanding Autistic–Neurotypical Communication Style Differences in Job Postings
Huining Feng, Zinat Ara, Andrew Hundt, John Joon Young Chung, Slobodan Vucetic, and Sungsoo Ray Hong
Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026)
Zinat Ara, Hossein Salemi, Sungsoo Ray Hong, Yasas Senarath, Steve Peterson, Amanda Lee Hughes, and Hemant Purohit
Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2024)
Zinat Ara and Mahdi Hashemi
2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data 2021)
Ride Hailing Service Demand Forecast by Integrating Convolutional and Recurrent Neural Networks
Zinat Ara and Mahdi Hashemi
Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2021)
Extracurricular
She loves traveling, taking photos, and trying out new recipes in the kitchen 😊