Alvitta Ottley

Dr. Alvitta Ottley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to visualization systems, machine learning, and cognitive science to enhance decision-making in healthcare, intelligence analysis, and scientific discovery. She leads the AIR-D Summer Science Camp, a program aimed at underrepresented high school students in STEM.

Education: PhD and MS in Computer Science from Tufts University (2016, 2013).

Research Interests: Developing adaptive visualization systems that account for users' cognitive traits and goals. Her work integrates AI-driven insights with human factors to create context-aware interfaces. Recent studies explore trust dynamics in visualizations, cross-cultural visualization literacy, and the impact of chart types on legal decision-making.

Awards: NSF CRII Award (2018), NSF Career Award, EuroVis Early Career Award (2022), and multiple best paper recognitions at top visualization conferences.

Grants & Advising: Active in mentoring students and securing grants such as the NSF CAREER Award for context-aware systems. Her work on medical decision-making visualization received NSF support in 2018.

Labs & Teams: Affiliated with the Division of Computational & Data Sciences and the Center for Trustworthy AI in CPS, focusing on ethical AI integration in visual analytics.