Shira Michel (she/her)

I am a Computer Science PhD candidate at Northeastern University in Khoury College of Computer Sciences, where I am advised by Dr. Mahsan Nourani. My research interests are broadly in Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) and Ethical AI. Specifically, I take a community-centered approach to understanding how generative AI is designed, adopted, and interacted with, while empowering marginalized groups who have been excluded from or harmed by these systems.

I graduated from Arcadia University in 2023 with a B.S. in Data Science and a minor in Computer Science. During my undergraduate studies, I worked on statistical modeling with Dr. Weihong Ni and completed a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) with Dr. Bjorn Sandstede at Brown University.

I am always happy to connect with students, especially those similar to me from SLACs (small liberal arts college) or FGLI (first generation, low income) backgrounds, who are interested in research. Check out Code to PhD for mentorship support around CS-related PhD programs, where I and others mentor underrepresented individuals through the application process and beyond.

news

May 06, 2026	I’m excited to be serving as a Student Volunteer again at ACM FAccT and I received a travel grant award 🎉!
Apr 07, 2026	I shared my experience as a doctoral student and HCAI researcher on a STEM panel for undergraduate students, hosted by my alma mater, Arcadia University. Thank you to the Department of Math and Computer Science for the invite! It was wonderful to be back on campus and reconnect with some of my former professors 🏰
Apr 07, 2026	Our ACM CHI paper was showcased in this year’s Khoury College CHI round-up! Check it out here along with the other amazing work from Khoury College!
Mar 24, 2026	I was selected as one of 28 graduate students to participate in ACM FAccT’s Doctoral Colloquium (DC) 🎉! I’m most excited to gain insight from experienced researchers and peers on dissertation research and potential career paths. See you in Montreal 🇨🇦
Mar 02, 2026	Our ACM FAccT paper was cited in WIRED and Avijit was quoted! Check out the full article here
Feb 19, 2026	I was also accepted to ACM CHI’s Student Mentoring Program’s Activity #2: Building a Research Cohort 🎉! Networking can be hard, especially at large conferences like CHI, so I’m glad to be part of a session that is dedicated to meeting peers with shared affinities
Feb 16, 2026	I became an emergency ninja reviewer for ACM CHI’s posters papers 🥷
Jan 17, 2026	My first-author paper Amplifying Rural Educators’ Perspectives: A Qualitative Study on the Impacts of Generative AI in Rural US High Schools was accepted to ACM CHI 🎉! Thank you to our co-authors at Katabasis and Arizona State University for your work on this research! This will be my first time attending CHI and I’m excited to visiting Barcelona 🇪🇸
Jan 16, 2026	I was accepted to attend the CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop as a CRA Scholarship Invitee 🎉! I’m looking forward to traveling to Seattle, WA, meeting other graduate students, and gaining mentorship from senior researchers!
Dec 12, 2025	Attended Maine EdTech Women’s Network Meetup
Nov 20, 2025	Traveled to Boston to support Mahsan’s talk Beware of Bias: Exploring User Biases and Mitigation Approaches in Human-AI Collaboration, hosted by the Institue for Experiental AI at Northeastern University. She also provided a glimpse of our in-progress work on cognitive biases in the age of generative AI
Oct 30, 2025	Attended Foundations for the Digital Commons: Aligning Technology, Law, and Innovation for the Common Good
Aug 08, 2025	Become a mentor for the Code to PhD Application Mentorship Program. If you are a prospective student applying to CS-related PhD programs, feel free to fill out a mentee interest form!
Jul 23, 2025	Officially became a PhD candidate 🎉! Shifting my focus to work on my dissertation 🎓✍️
May 12, 2025	Accepted as a Student Volunteer at ACM FAccT 🎉!
May 03, 2025	Moved to Portland, Maine to complete the rest of my doctoral studies at the Roux Institue ⛰️🌲🦞🫐!
Apr 11, 2025	My first first-author paper “It’s not a representation of me”: Examining Accent Bias and Digital Exclusion in Synthetic AI Voice Services was accepted at ACM FAccT 2025 🎉! Excited to present and visit Athens, Greece 🇬🇷!
Mar 06, 2025	Guest speaker at Brown’s CNTR Tech & Society Seminar. I presented our recent research on how synethic AI speech technologies produce accent-based biases.
Feb 01, 2025	I received the SIGAPP Student Travel Award for my travels to present at ACM/SIGAPP SAC 🎉!
Dec 13, 2024	Presented my in-progress research on rural educators’ perspectives on GenAI at CS Maine
Nov 22, 2024	My in-progress research on rural educators’ perspectives on GenAI was accepted as a SRC poster at ACM/SIGAPP SAC 🎉! See you in Italy 🇮🇹
Nov 22, 2024	Guest speaker at the RIET Lab. I presented our in-progress research on biases in AI speech technologies
Aug 13, 2024	Participated in the Boston VIS Summer School
Jul 31, 2024	Attended Maine CS Education Summit at University of Maine
Jun 06, 2024	Attended Accelerate: Data for Social Impact Conference at Harvard University

selected publications

ACM CHI
Amplifying Rural Educators’ Perspectives: A Qualitative Study on the Impacts of Generative AI in Rural US High Schools

Shira Michel, Benjamin Taylor, Sabrina Parra Dı́az, and 3 more authors

In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026

Abs Bib PDF Slides

Recent breakthroughs in Generative AI (GenAI) are reshaping educational landscapes, presenting challenges and opportunities. While all contexts present unique challenges, rural schools are historically under-resourced, facing persistent technology-related barriers. To understand and reduce these barriers, we studied 31 rural high school educators across three U.S. states to examine their use of GenAI and understand how GenAI introduces new challenges, opportunities, and may exacerbate existing educational barriers. Results show while rural educators use GenAI to streamline teaching tasks, existing resource disparities restrict meaningful integration. Through rural educators’ voices, we reveal issues like infrastructure barriers, resistance to adoption, and lack of AI literacy training create significant obstacles. Nonetheless, educators envision GenAI can support themselves and their students, but findings emphasize the need for rural-specific design approaches. As a community, embracing inclusive GenAI design and re-examining assumptions about technology adoption in under-served educational contexts is essential to reducing barriers rather than widening them.
@inproceedings{michel2026amplifying, title = {Amplifying Rural Educators’ Perspectives: A Qualitative Study on the Impacts of Generative AI in Rural US High Schools}, author = {Michel, Shira and Taylor, Benjamin and Parra D{\'\i}az, Sabrina and Wiggins, Joseph B and Finn, Ed and Nourani, Mahsan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages = {1--20}, year = {2026}, }
ACM FAccT
"It’s not a representation of me": Examining Accent Bias and Digital Exclusion in Synthetic AI Voice Services

Shira Michel, Sufi Kaur, Sarah Elizabeth Gillespie, and 3 more authors

In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 2025

Abs Bib PDF Video Slides

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) speech generation and voice cloning technologies have produced naturalistic speech and accurate voice replication, yet their influence on sociotechnical systems across diverse accents and linguistic traits is not fully understood. This study evaluates two synthetic AI voice services (Speechify and ElevenLabs) through a mixed methods approach using surveys and interviews to assess technical performance and uncover how users’ lived experiences influence their perceptions of accent variations in these speech technologies. Our findings reveal technical performance disparities across five regional, English-language accents and demonstrate how current speech generation technologies may inadvertently reinforce linguistic privilege and accent-based discrimination, potentially creating new forms of digital exclusion. Overall, our study highlights the need for inclusive design and regulation by providing actionable insights for developers, policymakers, and organizations to ensure equitable and socially responsible AI speech technologies.
@inproceedings{michel2025s, title = {"It’s not a representation of me": Examining Accent Bias and Digital Exclusion in Synthetic AI Voice Services}, author = {Michel, Shira and Kaur, Sufi and Gillespie, Sarah Elizabeth and Gleason, Jeffrey and Wilson, Christo and Ghosh, Avijit}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency}, pages = {228--245}, year = {2025}, }