Rachel Flood Heaton

Rachel Flood Heaton is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois in the School of Art and Design and an affiliate of the Siebel Center for Design. Her research focuses on modeling human vision using deep neural networks (DNNs), exploring the intersection of cognitive psychology, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence. She investigates how DNNs align with human visual processes and advocates for rigorous testing frameworks to evaluate these models.

Her recent work includes the MindSet benchmark for comparing DNNs to human vision, critiques of current deep learning methodologies, and studies on visual search mechanisms. Articles highlight her expertise in visual perception, neural network design, and cognitive simulation.