News + updates


10-1-2025
I will be moderating a panel with the incredible Lucy Suchman and Terry Winograd at Stanford HAI on October 10th. 
Link coming soon


09-17-2025
Excited to be speaking today on a panel around "AI Image Generation: Shaping Perception and Visual Influence" co-hosted by Harvard and Stanford IT Communities along with Dr. Douglas Guilbeault and Madeleine Woods. 
Link


09-05-2025
It was my pleasure to organize a gathering at 4S in Seattle around “Hope, Ontological Breakdown, and a World of Many Worlds,” with my wonderful co-organizers Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat, Jingyi Li, Alex Taylor, and Daniela Rosner.
Link


08-26-2025
I will be giving a talk at the IT University Human-Computer Interaction and Design.


08-13-2025
I will be giving a talk at Copenhagen University Human-Centred Computing (HCC).


08-18-2025
I will be attending Aarhus 2025.
Link


08-04-2025
I will be speaking as part of the NLP colloquium at The University of Bonn.
Link


07-09-2025
I will be spending time with the brilliant scholars at the Pioneer Center for AI (P1) in Copenhagen through the end of August. If you are in the area, I would love to connect with you!
Link


06-24-2025
I will be giving a talk at UCL Interaction Center seminar.
Link
06-15-2025
I will be attending HCIC 2025.
Link


05-12-2025
Last week, I presented our paper on “Ontologies in Design: How Imagining a Tree Reveals Possibilities and Assumptions in Large Language Models” at CHI 2025 in Yokohama.
Link 











Nava Haghighi



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Purple Zone
Ontologies in Design
Stranj(ers)
Disobedient Agents
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© Nava Haghighi.  All rights reserved.


About meI’m an artist, designer, and computer science researcher, and currently a final year doctoral candidate in computer science at Stanford University, with a focus on human-centered AI. My work examines the ways in which sociotechnical artifacts shape ontologies—the boundaries of what we allow ourselves to imagine—and how we might move toward centering ontological multiplicity. 

As a critical technical designer, I develop theories and methods for surfacing presumed ontological assumptions in current AI systems, and design and build systems toward expanding those assumptions. 
An example is the idea of the human as a biological individual, often reinforced through much of our technologies. I’m interested in how through deploying artifacts—experimental or not—we can reinforce or disorient normative ways of seeing and being in the world, for example, how we connect to our own bodies and environments, or what we deem to be the boundary between ourselves and our environment. 

I’ve has worked as a PhD researcher at Apple with the Human-centered Machine Learning and Body-sensing Intelligence groups, as a research resident at SPACE10, and as a designer with companies such as Lexus, Tesla, and other internationally recognized architecture and design firms. 
In 2017, I co-founded Atolla, an AI skincare company that was successfullt acquired in 2021. 

I hold a dual master of science in computer science and integrated design and management from MIT, and a bachelor of architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.


born in tehran, iran
currently call california home


doctoral candidate, stanford department of computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI)

dual master of science in, integrated design & management + computer science at MIT

bachelor of architecture, cal poly san luis obispo