Diego Garaialde
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral research fellow in Human-Computer Interaction at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin. My research interests include understanding of how people use technology, including areas such as nudges, combating misinformation and deceptive design practices, using AI tools for extended cognition, and designing technology that supports human decision-making ability and motivation.
Research Experience
Marie Curie Global Fellowship - Postdoctoral Researcher at UCD (CS): July 2024 - Present
- Awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Global Fellowship award for a two year project investigating the use of assistive decision-making technology in the context of healthcare shiftworkers and disrupted circadian rhythms. Fellowship awarded by FutureNeuro, Insight, and RCSI, in collaboration with University College London and Maynooth University.
- One year placement in University College London to collaborate with leading HCI researchers on cutting edge projects related to mHealth applications, misinformation, and deceptive design practices. Visit included a presentation at the highly prestigious UCLiC Seminar Series, with the online recording of seminar reaching 200 views in first 2 months.
- Devised and deployed a new methodology for assessing subjective mental effort and motivation to perform difficult cognitive tasks, collated in relation to circadian rhythms and sleep schedules. Data will provide insights into best times to make complex decisions and will allow assistive technology to aid healthcare workers, particularly those conducting shiftwork, to understand how to optimise their schedules for effective cognitive performance.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCD (CS): July 2022 - July 2024
- Executed a large-scale scoping review of key dual-process cognitive theories in the field of HCI, with manual data extraction from over a 1,000 papers, organising and collating large databases, and synthesising into coherent and clear description of findings, highlighting ability to manage both research and teaching duties in parallel.
- Coordinated Web App Development (COMP30680) module for 95 students, with responsibilities encompassing assessment design, module delivery, examination and assessment, quality assurance, and administration, demonstrating my ability to deliver high quality teaching at postgraduate level.
Freelance Consulting at Quiroz Design: September 2022 - November 2023
- Led research arm of multidisciplinary team to provide analysis reports relevant to industry partners without background knowledge in statistics or experiment design, demonstrating my ability to work as part of a team and my excellent interpersonal communication skills.
- Processed and analysed key behavioural and survey data of over 50,000 customers from a multinational restaurant chain, providing critical insights into important metrics, highlighting the impact of implementing new technology, and providing guidelines to improve efficiency of data collection, showing my expertise in managing a portfolio of research.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCD (ICS): January 2021 - June 2022
- Conducted research on issues experienced with online teaching software during the COVID19 pandemic from the perspective of tutors and students, including interactive prototypes that test novel technological solutions.
- Lead the UX branch of research project involving UCD, Trinity College, the Adapt Centre, Microsoft Ireland and Microsoft Research Cambridge.
- Developed extensive experience in designing and conducting both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (behavioural experiments) research.
Research Assistant at UCD (ICS): October 2015 - November 2020
- Spearheaded the lab's move to conducting research online through the development of a new experiment platform, study design protocol, and method for data analysis. Significantly increased the output for key research, which previously could only be performed in person, in the areas of lexical alignment, habit-building interfaces, and partner modelling.
- Implemented novel power analysis tool to improve experiment design across the lab, allowing for a standardised and repeatable way to select sample sizes.
Education
2020 - PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from UCD
- Thesis: How early rewards influence choice: targeting model-free processing through reward timing.
- Supervisor: Professor Benjamin Cowan
2016 - MSc in Cognitive Science from School of Computer Science, UCD
2014 - BSc in Psychology from Dublin City University
Mentoring & Supervision
- Supported PhD students in state-of-the-art statistical analysis, design of robut experiments, and writing high-impact academic papers.
- Supervised over 10 HCI MSc students over past 4 years in experiment design methodologies, thesis write-up and time management.
- Managed and supervised research assistant for ADAPT Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Annual Survey, overseeing deployment, data analysis, and reporting.
Teaching Experience
Deeply committed to high-quality teaching at graduate and undergraduate levels, with experience teaching across a range of courses.
Module Co-ordinator & Lecturer
- Web App Development (COMP30680)
- Computer-Mediated Communication (IS20120)
Occasional Lecturer, Demonstrator/Tutor
- Human-Computer Interaction (COMP47680)
- Quantitative Data Analysis (IS40730)
- Digital Judgement (IS10050)
- Data Visualisation (IS)
Publications
Published
Doyle, P. R., Gessinger, I., Edwards, J., Clark, L., Dumbleton, O., Garaialde, D., ... Cowan, B. R. (2025). The Partner Modelling Questionnaire: A validated self-report measure of perceptions toward machines as dialogue partners. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interactions. New York, USA: ACM. 10.1145/3729170
Mildner, T., Clark, L., Doyle, P., Edwards, J., Garaialde, D., ... Cooney, O. (2024). Listening to the Voices: Describing Ethical Caveats of Conversational User Interfaces According to Experts and Frequent Users. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '24. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.
Peña, P. R., Doyle, P., Edwards, J., Garaialde, D., Rough, D., Bleakley, A., ... & Cowan, B. R. (2023). Audience design and egocentrism in reference production during human-computer dialogue. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 176, 103058.
Peña, P. R., Doyle, P. R., Garaialde, D., Wu, Y., McDonnell, R., & Cowan, B. R. (2023). Human Speakers Help Machine Listeners To Account For Visual Asymmetries in Dialogue. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (pp. 1-13). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3597124
Reverdy, J., Russell, S. O. C., Duquenne, L., Garaialde, D., Cowan, B. R., & Harte, N. (2022, June). RoomReader: A Multimodal Corpus of Online Multiparty Conversational Interactions. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (pp. 2517-2527).
Garaialde, D., Cox, A., & Cowan B. R. (2021). Designing Gamified Rewards to Encourage Repeated App Selection: Effect of Reward Placement. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 102661. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102661
Gould, S. J., Chuang, L. L., Iacovides, I., Garaialde, D., Cecchinato, M. E., Cowan, B. R., & Cox, A. L. (2021, May). A Special Interest Group on Designed and Engineered Friction in Interaction. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-4).
Garaialde, D., Bowers, C. P., Pinder, C., Shah, P., Parashar, S., Clark, L., Cowan, B. R. (2020). Quantifying the Impact of Making and Breaking Interface Habits. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. DOI:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102461
[Honourable Mention] Clark, L., Doyle, P., Garaialde, D., Gilmartin, E., Schlögl, S., Edlund, J., ... R Cowan, B. (2019). The state of speech in HCI: trends, themes and challenges. Interacting with Computers, 31(4), 349-371. doi:10.1093/iwc/iwz016
Cowan, B. R., Doyle, P., Edwards, J., Garaialde, D., Hayes-Brady, A., Branigan, H. P., ... Clark, L. (2019). What's in an accent? The impact of accented synthetic speech on lexical choice in human-machine dialogue. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces - CUI '19 (pp. 1-8). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. doi:10.1145/3342775.3342786
[Honourable Mention] Clark, L., Munteanu, C., Wade, V., Cowan, B. R., Pantidi, N., ... Garaialde, D., Murad, C. (2019). What makes a good conversation? challenges in designing truly conversational agents. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors In Computing Systems - CHI '19, 112. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.
Under Review
Shen, R., Garaialde, D., Doherty, K. (Under Review). Cross Platform Gaming: More Than the Sum of Its Parts? ACM CHI Games 2024.
Garaialde, D., Edwards, J., Coyle, D. (Under Review). Use of Dual-Process Theories in HCI: A Scoping Review. Computing Surveys
Garaialde, D., Cooney, O., Reverdy, J., O'Connor Russel, S., Harte, N., Rintel, S., & Cowan, B. R. (Under Review). Understanding the Experience of Tutorials Through Videoconferencing: A Tutor and Student Perspective. Computers in Education.
Funding (€242,500 total)
NeuroInsight Marie-Curie Global Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researcher: July 2024
- Awarded €140,000 for 2 year project in collaboration with Univeristy College London, and Maynooth University.
Behaviour Change and Future of Work Symposium: October 2022
- Awarded UCD Seed funding for event of €2,000, along with sponsorship funding for food and refreshments (BCPP Research Group)
NUI Travelling Studentship Grant for PhD Education: November 2017
- Awarded €72,000 full stipend and fees grant for 3 years.
UCD iSchool PhD Scholarship
- Awarded €28,500 in fees with contract for 8 hours work a week for stipend (over 4 years). Was superseded by grant above.
Roles & Responsibilities
Committee Member & Representative
- Recruitment and Retention Team for the Insight Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee 2024 - Present
- Survey Lead at ADAPT Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee 2022 - 2024
- Class Representative for MSc Cognitive Science, 2016 and Class Representative for BSc Psychology, 2011 - 2014
Conference & Journal Participation
- Editor for Internation Journal for Human Computer Studies (IJHCS), 2025
- Associate Chair for CHI 2022 & 2023
- Reviewing for CHI, IJHCS, CUI, and Computer (IEEE) since 2018
Event Organisation
- HCI @ UCD Seminars Organiser, 2022-2023
- SIG on Designed and Engineered Friction in Interaction, CHI 2021
- DCU Psychology Society, 2011 - 2014 (Founding Member) and Co-organiser of the 36th Annual Congress of Psychology Students, DCU 2014
Invited Talks & Public Engagement
Additional Skills
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Proven ability to work across disciplines, exhibited through various research projects and consultancy roles, integrating design, user-experience methods, computer science and programming skills, along with mixed-methods research approaches.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: Head of Recruitment and Retention Team in the Insight EDI committee, and previously head of Survey Analysis and Distribution for ADAPT GEDI Committee. Maintain a data-first, practical approach to EDI in a bid to provide a measurable and meaningful impact to students and staff alike.
Industry Engagement: Frequently collaborated with industry partners like Microsoft Ireland and a San Francisco-based EdTech startup Cerego, illustrating a bridge between academic research and practical industry solutions.
Mixed-Methods Research Proficiency: Extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods, encompassing interviews, behavioural experiments, and data analysis, contributing to a well-rounded research skill set.
Professional Community Engagement: Active involvement in professional communities, as evidenced by roles as IH+JHCS Editor, Associate Chair for CHI 2022 & 2023, ADAPT Citizen Assembly, and HCI @ UCD Seminars Organiser, showcasing engagement in research professional communities both inside and outside the university.
Programming Proficiency: Highly proficient in coding languages including Python, PHP, JavaScript, and R. Also proficient in HTML, CSS, and MySQL.