About Me

Maya De Los Santos is a first-generation Afro-Latina dedicated to collaborating with marginalized communities to co-design socio-technical tools that empower them to have agency over their personal data and promote their well-being. Her completion of an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree within Northeastern University’s Honors Program has equipped her with the technical skills to develop these tools, while her love for research has deepened her understanding of the impacts of privacy violations on vulnerable individuals. In 2021, Maya was selected for an NSF grant to participate in Carnegie Mellon University’s REUSE research program, where she published a first-author paper on TikTok users’ awareness of the platform’s privacy policy. Following this experience, she worked in Dr. Saiph Savage’s Civic AI lab as an AJC Merit Research Scholar, publishing five papers about her designs for human-centered AI systems that ensure fair work opportunities and privacy protection for crowdworkers worldwide.

At Brown, Maya looks forward to pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, designing meaningful interventions that empower marginalized communities to prioritize their privacy. Particularly, she is interested in how interactive storytelling and gaming can be effective avenues for connecting with people about their privacy and well-being.