Dr. Leslie Blaha imagines a future where Smart Adaptive Interfaces will transform the way we use cognitive models to enhance human decision making. These are systems that integrate cognitive models with machine intelligence to support decision making because they are intelligent about their users. Her research is pioneering methods for estimating cognitive model parameters and making inferences about operator state and cognitive mechanisms in real-time, while a person is performing a task of interest. She has demonstrated this in the first real-time cognitive model-based fatigue assessment technique, and is currently working on real-time workload efficiency assessment. Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaborations to develop new techniques for interactive machine learning and human-machine teams for visual analytics that integrate cognitive models. This has resulted in new theory for assessing cognitive bias in the visual analytic process through interface interactions. She has advanced our understanding of human information processing in many ways, such as developing new non-parametric statistical tools for understanding the way in which processing capacity can change. Dr. Blaha has demonstrated these techniques in important applied situations, such as in perceptual learning and 3D perception. She has demonstrated cutting-edge uses of statistical learning techniques to identify individual differences and group trends in human information processing. She has explored topological data analytic approaches as novel methods for understanding perceptual representation spaces, and used Gaussian processes to establish a functional version of Fitts’ law. Collectively, these advance the techniques for modeling human performance in human-computer interaction tasks and challenges. In 2016, Dr. Blaha assumed a Chief Scientist role for the Analysis in Motion Initiative at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Through this Initiative, she is pioneering human-machine team solutions for interactive streaming analytics, combining new techniques for streaming data analysis and real- time cognitive modeling for decision making.
Dr. Blaha completed her doctoral degree in cognitive science and cognitive psychology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Following her degree, she assumed an engineering research psychologist position in the Human Effectiveness Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory. There she worked on the strategic expansion of cognitive modeling throughout the Directorate, and began developing applications of human information processing modeling to information visualization and visual analytics challenges. Her work has resulted in important impacts on basic science, especially through collaboration with university faculty, and applied science through collaboration with warfighters in operational settings. Dr. Blaha has been a force for positive change in many ways beyond this. She served as a mentor to more than a dozen interns through various programs, including women and minority in science programs, twice winning the Directorate’s Mentor of the Year Award. She is a founding member of the society for Women of Mathematical Psychology, and co-organizes the annual WoMP professional development symposium. Working with the leadership of the Women in Cognitive Science, she is helping strengthen the network and provide mentorship for females in cognitive psychology. She has served on review panels for the NSF, including the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and AFOSR. She actively engages in STEM outreach, including judging local science fairs, working the Math is Cool! middle school math competitions, and developing STEM curricula.
