A few years ago, when I decided to create my personal website, my primary goal was to showcase my portfolio. Over time, especially in the post-COVID era, the ways we interact with technology have transformed significantly. This website is now more than just a portfolio — it’s an invitation to connect. After all, the first step in any meaningful interaction is getting to know each other.

Looking back, my journey into technology was anything but straightforward. Studying computer science at university was a challenging chapter for me. I spent two years navigating through uncertainty, searching for what truly inspired me. It wasn’t until my second year that I discovered my passion for human-computer interaction (HCI) in a course on human-centric computing. One of our projects involved analysing and designing a personal website using Shneiderman’s rules — a process that opened my eyes to the power of thoughtful, user-centred design. Even now, with AI revolutionising the way we build and use technology, those principles remain surprisingly relevant.

Perhaps my interest in the intersection of technology and healthcare was destined. Coming from a medical family — my father a former pulmonologist and current general practitioner, my mother a nurse, and my grandmother a “barefoot doctor” in the last century — I grew up surrounded by conversations about medicine. Without realising it, I developed a natural inclination toward medical topics, which ultimately influenced my academic journey. Choosing a medical imaging project for my honours year was one of my first steps in combining computing with healthcare, and it was during that year I realised my future lay at the crossroads of these fields.

It led me to pursue a master’s degree in Medical Robotics and Imaging at Imperial. My time at Imperial was transformative. I had the privilege of working with cutting-edge technologies in medical robotics — devices that weren’t yet adopted in real-world practice. The lingering question for me was: Why aren’t these technologies being used?

That question shifted my perspective from focusing solely on the technical aspects of innovation to understanding the human and societal dimensions. It became clear to me that the gap between technology and its real-world application often lies in how well it aligns with human needs and societal contexts. It sparked my passion for HCI in healthcare — here, I could bridge this gap.

Today, I am pursuing my PhD in Edinburgh, exploring how people perceive and interact with emerging genetic technologies like polygenic risk scores (PRS). More details about my research are on my PhD page — just take a look at the menu on the left.