The first semester after joining the HCC PhD program was dedicated to adapting to the new education system and enrolling in courses that enhanced my understanding of research. During this period, I took HCC629, which significantly improved my grasp of practical UX. I learned about applying design principles, such as Fitts' Law and Gestalt principles, and engaged in hands-on projects using tools like Figma to address real-world problems. Another course, HCC805 on qualitative methods, deepened my knowledge of qualitative research. For my class project, I conducted interviews to explore perceptions of the game League of Legends, from which I extracted several interesting themes.

My research during the first semester primarily focused on a literature review to identify a path for my dissertation and pinpoint gaps in my area of interest. With Dr. Kleinsmith's assistance, I decided to explore self-expression and its facilitation through digital technologies for personal growth in the initial phase of my study.

At the transition from the first to the second semester, we employed the Personal Growth Initiative along with demographic questions and inquiries about individuals' preferences for self-expression and their feelings of creativity and comfort during such activities. This was followed by a statistical analysis of the results.

During the first and second semesters, as well as the subsequent summer, I had the privilege of serving as the lab manager for the USL lab. This role offered me an invaluable opportunity to become acquainted with a variety of equipment, including eye tracking devices, Leap Motion, and motion capture systems, among others. Furthermore, with the guidance of Dr. Hamidi, who is the current director of the USL lab, we conducted tours for undergraduate, high school, and middle school students. These tours aimed to highlight the lab's activities and educate the students on the various research topics that could be explored with the lab's equipment.

In the second semester, I took a deep learning course with Dr. Foulds, where I gained insights into deep learning models and the ethical challenges they present. This knowledge was crucial for understanding how to develop an AI model and outlining the necessary steps for my project.

My third semester was focused on preparing for the comprehensive exam and writing the paper for the first project about the survey study. I also enrolled in HCC760, which was invaluable for the comprehensive exam and for writing the related work for my project. Additionally, IS 777 broadened my knowledge of statistics and Python programming, skills I plan to utilize for the quantitative aspects of my project.

I initiated a study with a qualitative approach to examine people's preferences for self-expression during this time.

Strengths and weaknesses:

One of my strengths is my creativity, gained by my art background and a huge interest in expanding my understanding of statistics and quantitative analysis for my research. However, my writing and theoretical skills pose a challenge, especially when it comes to translating my projects into written papers.

Self-assessment