design lab UCSD maya azarova

Design Lab Anthropology Graduate Student Wins Prestigious CRES Award

Design Lab Anthropology Graduate Student Wins Prestigious CRES Award

Design Lab Anthropology Graduate Student Wins Prestigious CRES Award

Peering into our culture can reveal new insights about how multidisciplinary teams solve socio-technical problems. Maya Azarova, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology, mentored by Professor Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, recently received the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Scholarship (CRES) to investigate the backstage of innovation. The goal is to explore how teams comprising of individuals from various disciplines create new technologies.

Azarova was initially drawn to the scholarship as it recognizes academic research across a multitude of fields including arts, social sciences, engineering and medicine. Participation in the Jacob School of Engineering’s 2nd Annual Design Competition inspired her to speak with other students from diverse fields such as computer science and visual arts. What began as several distinct conversations organically developed into a research group dedicated to different methods of communication and design in healthcare. Azarova truly believes that effective problem-solving stems from knowledge-sharing that transcends academic boundaries.


Maya Azarova, UC San Diego Anthropology and Design Lab Graduate Student

The funding will specifically be used to fuel her dissertation research, which consists of two parts. Under the guidance of Professor Aronoff-Spencer, Azarova is currently leading an ethnographic effort tasked with examining team communication and knowledge production in the team creating innovative devices for infant biometrics. Delving into the complex interactions among physicians and engineers, Azarova hopes to document an understanding of the co-creation process through the lens of social cultural anthropology.

Her second focus is on big data applications in digital collaboration platforms to analyze the relationship between the online messaging space and long-term communication patterns in multidisciplinary teams. Exploring an untapped topic area through emerging communication tools such as Slack offers an opportunity to observe how real life interactions mirror those found in conversation narratives. Azarova intends to work closely with researchers at The Design Lab to exchange expertise in the field in addition to utilizing resources at the UC San Diego Library’s Data & GIS Lab.

Azarova expresses tremendous gratitude towards The Design Lab, specifically Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, Design Lab Director Don Norman, and Cognitive Science Professor David Kirsh, for their support and guidance.

It is visionary that my main mentor was someone from outside my own department, beyond the normative environment to break those boundaries, says Azarova.

Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, Azarova hopes that a symbiotic relationship between social cultural anthropology and innovative fields will uncover a plethora of other impactful applications.

Peering into our culture can reveal new insights about how multidisciplinary teams solve socio-technical problems. Maya Azarova, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology, mentored by Professor Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, recently received the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Scholarship (CRES) to investigate the backstage of innovation. The goal is to explore how teams comprising of individuals from various disciplines create new technologies.

Azarova was initially drawn to the scholarship as it recognizes academic research across a multitude of fields including arts, social sciences, engineering and medicine. Participation in the Jacob School of Engineering’s 2nd Annual Design Competition inspired her to speak with other students from diverse fields such as computer science and visual arts. What began as several distinct conversations organically developed into a research group dedicated to different methods of communication and design in healthcare. Azarova truly believes that effective problem-solving stems from knowledge-sharing that transcends academic boundaries.


Maya Azarova, UC San Diego Anthropology and Design Lab Graduate Student

The funding will specifically be used to fuel her dissertation research, which consists of two parts. Under the guidance of Professor Aronoff-Spencer, Azarova is currently leading an ethnographic effort tasked with examining team communication and knowledge production in the team creating innovative devices for infant biometrics. Delving into the complex interactions among physicians and engineers, Azarova hopes to document an understanding of the co-creation process through the lens of social cultural anthropology.

Her second focus is on big data applications in digital collaboration platforms to analyze the relationship between the online messaging space and long-term communication patterns in multidisciplinary teams. Exploring an untapped topic area through emerging communication tools such as Slack offers an opportunity to observe how real life interactions mirror those found in conversation narratives. Azarova intends to work closely with researchers at The Design Lab to exchange expertise in the field in addition to utilizing resources at the UC San Diego Library’s Data & GIS Lab.

Azarova expresses tremendous gratitude towards The Design Lab, specifically Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, Design Lab Director Don Norman, and Cognitive Science Professor David Kirsh, for their support and guidance.

It is visionary that my main mentor was someone from outside my own department, beyond the normative environment to break those boundaries, says Azarova.

Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, Azarova hopes that a symbiotic relationship between social cultural anthropology and innovative fields will uncover a plethora of other impactful applications.

Peering into our culture can reveal new insights about how multidisciplinary teams solve socio-technical problems. Maya Azarova, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology, mentored by Professor Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, recently received the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Scholarship (CRES) to investigate the backstage of innovation. The goal is to explore how teams comprising of individuals from various disciplines create new technologies.

Azarova was initially drawn to the scholarship as it recognizes academic research across a multitude of fields including arts, social sciences, engineering and medicine. Participation in the Jacob School of Engineering’s 2nd Annual Design Competition inspired her to speak with other students from diverse fields such as computer science and visual arts. What began as several distinct conversations organically developed into a research group dedicated to different methods of communication and design in healthcare. Azarova truly believes that effective problem-solving stems from knowledge-sharing that transcends academic boundaries.


Maya Azarova, UC San Diego Anthropology and Design Lab Graduate Student

The funding will specifically be used to fuel her dissertation research, which consists of two parts. Under the guidance of Professor Aronoff-Spencer, Azarova is currently leading an ethnographic effort tasked with examining team communication and knowledge production in the team creating innovative devices for infant biometrics. Delving into the complex interactions among physicians and engineers, Azarova hopes to document an understanding of the co-creation process through the lens of social cultural anthropology.

Her second focus is on big data applications in digital collaboration platforms to analyze the relationship between the online messaging space and long-term communication patterns in multidisciplinary teams. Exploring an untapped topic area through emerging communication tools such as Slack offers an opportunity to observe how real life interactions mirror those found in conversation narratives. Azarova intends to work closely with researchers at The Design Lab to exchange expertise in the field in addition to utilizing resources at the UC San Diego Library’s Data & GIS Lab.

Azarova expresses tremendous gratitude towards The Design Lab, specifically Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, Design Lab Director Don Norman, and Cognitive Science Professor David Kirsh, for their support and guidance.

It is visionary that my main mentor was someone from outside my own department, beyond the normative environment to break those boundaries, says Azarova.

Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, Azarova hopes that a symbiotic relationship between social cultural anthropology and innovative fields will uncover a plethora of other impactful applications.

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UC San Diego Health Launches New Center To Spur Patient-Centered Technologies

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On behalf of UCSD Design Lab and the Center for Health Design, we’re excited to support the launch of this collaborative innovation ecosystem designing healthcare with our community. From tele-monitoring patients with diabetes to using artificial intelligence to prevent sepsis, the newly launched Center for Health Innovation at UC San Diego Health will seek to develop, test and commercialize technologies that make a real, measurable difference in the lives and wellbeing of patients.

The new Center for Health Innovation will be located on the La Jolla campus of UC San Diego. Collaborators will include the UC San Diego Design Lab, Qualcomm Institute and Jacobs School of Engineering. It is modeled after the University Health Network’s (UHN) Techna Institute, jointly located within the organization’s hospital sites and at the University of Toronto, and has designed numerous products now used in hospitals and clinics.

“Doctors, nurses and medical teams know best where there are existing technology gaps in patient care,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief information officer, UC San Diego Health. “With our proximity to the health and biotech sector as well as the cross-border region, the number of collaborative opportunities are immense.”

To learn more about the Center for Health Innovation, visit healthinnovation.ucsd.edu

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