Umme Ammara, a first-year student in the master’s program in human-computer interaction (MS-HCI) at Georgia Tech, showcased her projects sponsored by Accenture, Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the Gates Foundation, she helped develop and deploy an AI-powered maternal health application which is being used by hospitals in Pakistan where doctors in the gynecology ward talk to an application and it automatically converts this verbal information into the patients digital medical record helping to better monitor and track a woman’s medical care.

Her project was among the many displayed at this year’s 2025 Interactivity@GT event held in the Technology Square Research Building and was jointly sponsored by the MS-HCI program and the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT). This year’s event combined a distinguished Atlanta business panel presentation with the annual MS-HCI student research showcase. Some computer science doctoral student research and faculty research was also presented in a separate ballroom. Following the panel, an hour-long  one-minute madness session gave Georgia Tech’s MS-HCI students the spotlight to present their research and interests to the audience.

The event hosted an “Innovation in Atlanta” business panel presentation featuring John Yates, partner at Gunderson Dettmer; Donnie Beamer, senior technology advisor for the City of Atlanta; Brooke Perez, regional economic development manager for Georgia Power; and Debra Lam, the founding director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation. Yates served as moderator and has been directly or indirectly involved in assisting hundreds of tech companies and entrepreneurs.

“This year's interactivity event brought together an amazing group of students demonstrating an exciting range of the best people-centered technologies on campus,” said Michael Best, executive director of IPaT.  “In addition, the Atlanta innovation panel was spectacular and delivered insightful commentary about the optimistic growth and state of entrepreneurship in our city during these uncertain times.”

Jin Kim, a first-year MS-HCI student, presented three projects including a project with the U.S. Coast Guard where she helped develop decision making guidelines related to health care sourcing and supporting resource readiness.

“We get excited about interactivity every year because it’s a great opportunity for our wonderful students to get exposed to the greater Atlanta community,” said Richard Henneman, director of the MS-HCI program at Georgia Tech. “Our students are looking for full time jobs and internships, and this is a great opportunity to talk about their substantial project work with attendees.”

Additional MS-HCI student projects presented included Emily Layton’s sponsored project with Sam’s Club to improve member and associate interactions with their tire and battery centers which resulted in the design of a mobile app. Saba Alemayehu helped redesign a shipping dashboard for United Parcel Service (UPS) allowing small business owners to prioritize features based on their business needs. Ariana Olalde Keller worked on designing new features for an order fulfillment app while interning at The Home Depot to help associates pick and prepare customer orders for in-store pickup or delivery. The new features are currently in development by the Home Depot’s technical team.

“This event is the culmination of what the students work for throughout their time in the [MS-HCI] program. And it's a chance for them to practice their communication skills and network with professionals,” said Carrie Bruce, assistant director of the MS-HCI program.

“Collaborative, industry projects are a keystone of our program specifically because it adds to the experiential component of the education in our program and enables industry to stay connected to us. Throughout the years, we've been tasked with ensuring that we are preparing our students to be ready to help solve real world industry challenges that either are a current problem or design a possible long-term solution.”