Hello and welcome!

My name is Diego Guzman and I am a first-year Computer Science and Informatics Ph.D. student at Emory University. Before joining Emory, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Informatics with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction with a minor in Information and Computer Sciences from UC Irvine. Here I had the opportunity to work at the Social & Technological Action Research (STAR) Lab with Dr. Jesus Armando Beltran Verdugo, Dr. Franceli Cibrian, and Dr. Gillian Hayes.

Broadly speaking, I am interested in using Human-Computer Interaction, Data Science, and Machine Learning to enhance human agency for individuals with chronic health conditions and physical impairments.

Peer-reviewed Publications

• Exploring Manifold-Based Clustering Techniques for Enhanced Inductive Thematic Analysis
  J. A. Beltran, H. Mofid, H. Parikh, J. Gondaliya, D. Guzman, J. Shah, L. Escobedo & F. Cibrian
  International Conference on Software Engineering of Emerging Technology · 2025

Awards and Fellowships

1. NIH NIGMS IMSD Fellowship
   August 2025 – Present
2. CRA-WP Graduate Cohort Workshop Scholarship
   March 2026
3. Gordon Hein Scholarship $10,000 · declined
   August 2025
4. UC Leadership Excellence Through Advanced Degrees (LEADS) Fellowship $8,000
   June 2023 – May 2025
5. UC Irvine ICS Diversity Conference Scholarship
   August 2023
6. UC Irvine Chancellor's Excellence Scholarship
   September 2021 – June 2023

Teaching

• Course Grader · Information Visualization UC Irvine Quarters Taught: Spring 2025
• Undergraduate Learning Assistant · Programming with Software Libraries UC Irvine Quarters Taught: Winter 2023, Spring 2024, and Spring 2025
• Undergraduate Learning Assistant · Programming with Software Libraries (Accelerated) UC Irvine Quarters Taught: Fall 2023

Service

• INSPIRE-ing ID: Applying to Graduate School Graduate Student Panelist · July 2026
• AccessComputing: Experiences of Graduate Students with Disabilities in their Programs and Research Graduate Student Panelist · April 2026