Anjana Arunkumar

(she/her)

Postdoctoral Research Associate

  • Artificial intelligence 
  • Data visualization 
  • Human–computer interaction 
  • PhD in Computer Science, Arizona State University
  • BE Computer Science and Engineering, Anna University — India

Anjana Arunkumar is a postdoctoral researcher in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston and Oakland.  

Arunkumar is interested in the multicultural and linguistic factors — and the cognitive biases — that influence how people make decisions using data visualizations, and in using those insights to design more human-centered interactions with AI. Three interrelated questions guide her work: how cognitive processes unfold as people engage with visual data, how accessibility barriers shape understanding and trust in visualizations, and how visualization design can support better decision-making under uncertainty. Arunkumar’s ultimate goal is to build adaptive visualization systems that learn from their users, and to present information responsively, inclusively, and collaboratively. 

Before joining Khoury College in 2024, Arunkumar researched at Arizona State University, where she won the Dean’s Dissertation Award for her study of how adaptive AI tools can help people use visual information to reason, learn, and decide. She also studied similar topics as a research assistant at the Sonoran Visualization Laboratory. Arunkumar is a member of the DASI and DASMALAI groups at the Decision Sciences Institute, and her work has appeared in a wide variety of journals and conferences, including IEEE VIS, ACM SIGCHI, ACL, NeurIPS, IEEE TVCG, and ACM Transactions. 

Outside of work, Arunkumar is passionate about art, storytelling, and community-centered creativity. She loves sketching and digital illustration, playing the violin, urban photography, hiking, and cooking dishes from around the world.