Melissa Bica

Melissa Bica is a computer science Ph.D. candidate in human-centered computing. She is working in the Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis (EPIC) project group that is advised by Leysia Palen. Her research interests are human-centered computing, crisis informatics, social computing, and computer-supported cooperative work. She received a NSF graduate research fellowship for image-based social media communication in disaster events. Her dissertation focuses on sense-making of visual hurricane-risk messaging shared on social media during the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season and on forecast graphics and their inherent uncertainty for impending hurricanes. Bica completed her undergraduate education at Santa Clara University, where she was involved in several projects applying technology to social justice issues; further inspiring her to pursue graduate school to study human-centered computing.