Leah Findlater facts for kids

Leah K. Findlater is a super smart computer scientist from both Canada and America. She studies how people use computers and other tech. This field is called human-computer interaction.

She also works with mobile computing (like phones and tablets). Plus, she helps make technology easier for everyone to use. This is known as computer accessibility. Currently, she is a professor at the University of Washington.

Her Education

Leah Findlater loved learning about computers. She studied computer science at the University of Regina. She graduated with high honors in 2001.

Then, she went to the University of British Columbia (UBC) for more studies. There, she joined a special project. It was about helping people with aphasia. Aphasia is a condition that affects how people speak and understand language.

She earned her master's degree from UBC in 2004. Later, she completed her Ph.D. in 2009. Her research focused on making computer programs easier to use. She wanted to help people find and use all the cool features.

Her Career and Research

After finishing her studies, Leah Findlater did more research. She worked at the University of Washington for a while. Then, she joined the faculty at the University of Maryland. She also worked with their Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

In 2017, she returned to the University of Washington. She became a professor there.

Leah Findlater does amazing research to help people. For example, she worked on a special voice program. This program helps people who are blind use the internet. It lets them navigate websites just by using their voice.

She also helped create an augmented reality system. Augmented reality adds computer images to the real world. Her system helps people who are hard of hearing. It shows real-time captions of what people are saying. This means they can see the words as they are spoken.