Lydia Chilton

Lydia B. Chilton is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University.12 She specializes in human-computer interaction with a focus on computational design, exploring how AI and computation can enhance creative problem-solving and design processes.45

Academic Background

• PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington (2009-2016)3
• Master's in Engineering from MIT (2009)37
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from MIT (2002-2009)37
• Postdoctoral research at Stanford University (2016-2017)34

Research Interests

Chilton's work centers on:

• Computational design and creative problem-solving4
• Human-AI collaboration in creative tasks5
• Crowdsourcing complex tasks2
• Developing AI tools to enhance productivity5

Notable Projects

• Creating visual metaphors for creative advertisements4
• Using computational tools for humor writing and news satire4
• Improving risk communication during hurricanes2
• Helping scientists explain their work on Twitter2

Professional Experience

• Assistant Professor at Columbia University (July 2017 - Present)3
• Intern at Google (September 2013 - December 2013)3
• Intern at Microsoft (October 2010 - October 2011)3

Chilton is recognized as an early pioneer in decomposing complex tasks for collaborative solving by crowds and computers.2 Her research aims to understand the design process at a computational level, exploring how individual skills can be combined to solve problems systematically.6