Lara J. Martin

Dr. Lara J. Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She leads the LARA Lab and is affiliated with UMBC's Center for AI and the Interactive Robotics and Language Lab (IRAL). Her work focuses on human-centered AI, particularly in automated story generation, AI for tabletop role-playing games (e.g., D&D), augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and speech technologies. She holds a PhD in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech and previously served as a Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

Education:

• PhD in Human-Centered Computing, Georgia Tech (2021)
• MS in Language Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University (2015)
• BS in Computer Science & Linguistics, Rutgers University (2013)

Research Interests:

Her research spans computational creativity, neurosymbolic AI, and ethical AI deployment. She develops systems like CALYPSO (LLM-assisted D&D tools) and BERALL (interactive fiction generators). Recent work emphasizes AAC for autistic adults and emotion modeling in LLMs. She has published at AAAI, ACL, and IJCAI, and her work has been featured in Wired and Science Focus.

Awards & Grants:

• 2020 Computing Innovation Fellowship
• NSF COEIT Interdisciplinary Proposal Award (2024)
• Foley Scholar Award (2019)

Labs & Teams:

Directs the LARA Lab, focusing on AI storytelling and assistive tech. Collaborates with IRAL on robotics and language integration.