Dorsa Charkhian

Research

Research & publications

How people interpret AI through their own language, culture and lived experience.

Direction

My research sits in Human-AI Interaction and design research. I study how cultural and linguistic context shapes whether people understand and trust AI, and how that context can be designed into AI systems rather than treated as an afterthought.

My current direction asks how the contextual knowledge of immigrant and multilingual families can shape the AI systems they use for care, especially when parents make sense of their children’s health alongside data from home devices such as thermometers and wearables. I approach this through interviews, co-design and speculative design, and want to develop it further through personal sensing and interactive machine learning.

Two directions I want to grow in a PhD are transition design, treating care as a system that changes over time (see my retrospective on the childcare project and the future visioning in AI-Brooch), and community-based research, working with multilingual and immigrant communities on how they use data and AI in their everyday lives.

Conference papers

Human-AI interaction & design

  • EDULEARN26From solo designer to co-creator: Reconstructing design thinking frameworks for human-AI collaborative ideationSaebi, P., Charkhian, D., & Holohan, K. (2026). EDULEARN26 Proceedings.
  • EDULEARN26Redefining design expertise: Competency markers and authentic creativity in the age of generative AISaebi, P., Charkhian, D., & Holohan, K. (2026). EDULEARN26 Proceedings.
  • INTED2026Human–AI co-design in visual communication: Ethical decision-making in AI-assisted ideationSaebi, P., & Charkhian, D. (2026). INTED2026 Proceedings.
  • EDULEARN25Making university portals more inclusive: A design-focused approach to AI integrationCharkhian, D., & Moghaddami, B. (2025). EDULEARN25 Proceedings, 242–247.
  • EDULEARN25AI chatbots and speculative futures: A comparative study of online-asynchronous and in-person digital media educationBahrami, S., & Charkhian, D. (2025). EDULEARN25 Proceedings.
  • INTED2025How can AI evaluate and improve inclusivity in university portals, with a focus on cultural, linguistic, and accessible requirements?Charkhian, D., & Moghaddami, B. (2025). INTED2025 Proceedings.

Thesis & other

  • ThesisExploring the potential of AI for improving inclusivity in university portalsCharkhian, D. (2025). Master’s thesis, Drexel University. DOI
  • ChapterFeminism, media and technology: Navigating the digital landscapeCharkhian, D. (2025). MAD (Media, Arts and Design) Anthology III, Drexel University.
  • AcknowledgedPlumes and Pixels: Bridging digital and traditional art in SciArt educationPolyak, E., Martin, K., Balkhyoor, R., Ahmadi, A., Woodland, D., & Mahadev, V. (2024). SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Educator’s Forum, 1–8. Acknowledged contributor: user-flow research for this faculty-led project.

Google Scholar · ResearchGate · ORCID

Peer review

  • 2026–Distinguished Reviewer Board, ACM Transactions on Computer–Human Interaction (TOCHI)
  • 2026ACM CHI 2026, Posters Track
  • 2026International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, Taylor & Francis
  • 2026AI and Ethics, Springer
  • 2025AI & Society, Springer
  • 2025–26International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, Springer
  • 2026Chair Reviewer, UXPA International Conference
  • 2025External reviewer, M.S. UX & Interaction Design thesis presentations, Thomas Jefferson University

Other collaborations

AI & decision-making, co-author

  • JournalAdvancing electric vehicle ecosystems: A survey of generative artificial intelligence and distributed machine learning applicationsMohammadabadi, S. M. S., Moghaddam, A. K., Entezami, M., Seyedrezaei, M., Charkhian, D., Moghaddami, B., & Sassani, M. (2026). Global Energy Interconnection.
  • JournalExamining the importance of AI-based criteria in the development of the digital economy: A multi-criteria decision-making approachEntezami, M., Basirat, S., Moghaddami, B., Bazmandeh, D., & Charkhian, D. (2025). Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Analytics, 3(1), 72–95.
  • JournalAssessing innovation strategies in the digital economy through artificial intelligence-based criteria using CoCoSo methodTaghizadeh, A., Karaminezhad, K., Fakhri, N., Moghaddami, B., & Charkhian, D. (2025). Journal of Intelligent Decision Making and Granular Computing, 1(1), 237–255.