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
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
PublicationsJournal Articles
Brian Subirana, Nava Haghighi, Richard Cantwell, and Sanjay Sarma. 2018. “Conversational Bricks and The Future of Architecture.” International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 238-245
Refereed Conference Publications
Nava Haghighi, Sunny Yu, James Landay, and Daniela Rosner. 2025. “Ontologies in Design: How imagining a Tree Reveals Possibilites and Assumptions in Large Language Models.” CHI ’25.
Jianna So, Samantha Estrada, Matthew Jörke, Eva Bianchi, Maria Wang, Nava Haghighi, Kristen L. Fessele, James A. Landay, and Andrea Cuadra. 2024. “‘They Make Us Old Before We’re Old’: Designing Ethical Health Technology with and for Older Adults.” CSCW ’24. Best paper honorable mention.
Joseph Seering, Manas Khadka, Nava Haghighi, Tanya Yang, Zachary Xi, and Michael Bernstein. 2024. “Chillbot:
Content Moderation in the Backchannel.” CSCW ’24. Best paper honorable mention.
Nava Haghighi*, Matthew Joerke*, Yousif Mohsen, Andrea Cuadra, James Landay. 2023. “A Workshop-Based Method for Navigating Value Tensions in Collectively Speculated Worlds.” DIS ‘23.
Short Conference Paper
Nava Haghighi, Arvind Satyanarayan. 2020. “Self-Interfaces: Utilizing Real-Time Biofeedback in the Wild to Elicit Subconscious Behavior Change.” TEI ‘20.
MentorshipMentorship has been central to my academic journey. Having transferred to Cal Poly from community college in the third year of Architecture school, being accepted to a mentorship program hosted by a fifth year studio (big thanks to Professor Doug Jackson!) contributed tremendously to how I navigated the program, and also helped me find community!
Since then, I have helped start or broaden several mentorship programs at Cal Poly, MIT, and Stanford. I have served as a mentor and guest critique for various organizations such as Innovators for Purpose and mentoring many brilliant individuals.
Throughout the PhD, I have had the privilege of advising many graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have continued to prestigious master’s programs or industry positions.
TeachingI love to teach and have been lucky to teach alongside some incredible faculty at Stanford, MIT, and Cal Poly.
Here are a list of courses I have been involved with:
Stanford Courses:
HCI Foundations and Frontiers (CS347)
Taught by Professor Maneesh Agrawala
Teaching Assistant and Section Lead
Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (CS147)
Taught by Professor James Landay
Head Teaching Assistant and Section Lead
Computer Science Research (CS197)
Taught by Alex Tamkin
Graduate Teaching Assistant and HCI Section Lead
MIT Courses:
Interactive Data Visualization (6.894)
Taught by Professor Arvind Satyanarayan
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Human Systems Engineering (16.400/16.453)
Taught by Dr. Divya Chandra
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Toy Product Design (2.00b)
Taught by Professor David Wallace
Design Mentor
Product Engineering Processes (2.009)
Taught by Professor David Wallace
Design Mentor
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Courses:
Architecture History Sequence (ARCH 217, 218, 219)
Taught by Professors Chris Yip and Don H. Choi
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant