About
Hi! I’m Kajal, an incoming Computer Science PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recently, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Computer Science with minors in Statistics and Psychology as a Stamps Scholar. My research examines how perceptual and affective processes influence decision-making and interpretation, with specific emphasis on learning environments. Through computational modeling and behavioral analysis, I study both the conscious reasoning and automatic processes that shape how people engage with learning and intelligent systems. Whether examining how course structures affect student anxiety and engagement, or how multimodal models encode human perceptual biases, I seek to understand and improve the systems that mediate human experience. I am interested in building computational models that capture individual differences in perception and social understanding, and in designing adaptive systems that are sensitive to the ways people differ in how they communicate, respond, and collaborate.
I have been fortunate to be advised by many amazing mentors throughout my undergrad, including Dr. Geoffrey Herman, Dr. Mariana Silva, Dr. Ismini Lourentzou, and Dr. Fethiye Irmak Doğan.
Research Interests
- Computer Vision
- Computing Education
- Affective Computing
- Human-Computer Interaction
Publications
Published
Forthcoming
Under Review
News
- May 2026 Began interning at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)
- May 2026 Graduated with my Bachelor's in Computer Science and minors in Statistics and Psychology from UIUC
- Feb 2026 Traveled to Atlanta to attend Georgia Tech's 2026 Stamps Summit
- Feb 2026 Paper accepted to ASEE 2026: 'Understanding the Impact of Test Anxiety on Study Behavior'
- Feb 2026 Paper and poster accepted to ASEE 2026: 'Measuring the Effects of Structured Roles in Digital Collaborative Learning'
- May 2025 Began working with Dr. Mariana Silva on research on student test anxiety and collaborative learning
Contact
I'm always open to discussing research collaborations, opportunities, and ideas. Feel free to reach out!