Member Database

Byron Lowens

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Information

PhD, Human-Centered Computing Research Focus: Human-Computer Interaction, Usable Security and Privacy, Wearable IoT; Clemson University

MS, Computer Science, Virginia State University

BS, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Southern University and A&M College

I am a first-year postdoctoral research scientist in the School of Information. My research utilizes a combination of computer science, design, and psychology to evaluate the cooperative relationship between humans and computational technologies—not just how people use computational technologies, but how these technologies affect the society as a whole. The research I do affords me the opportunity to drive positive social change and improve the interaction between humans and technology.

More specifically, my research focuses on health informatics, wearable health technologies, human-computer interaction, usable security and privacy, and marginalized populations.  Through these streams of focus, my research explores what factors influence and also discourage adoption of consumer wearables among marginalized populations. Prior works demonstrate that personal health technologies can improve care and close the gap for health disparities. However, African American and Latinx populations are still experiencing the largest health disparities. I believe further understanding these factors can promote the adoption of consumer wearables for health monitoring to close the gap for health disparities among marginalized populations.

My research also looks to understand objective privacy risk and concerns posed by the collection of health information from consumer wearables and a new class of in-body medical devices among African American and Latinx populations. I believe the exploration of these factors will lead to the development of practical privacy enhancing tools and techniques to protect these populations against potential privacy threats and concerns posed by the adoption of consumer wearable technologies.


Projects:

Factors For Adoption and Privacy Perceptions of Consumer Wearables Among At-Risk Populations

University Affiliation(s)

UMSI

Research Area(s)

Health disparities | Human-Computer Interaction

Grants

  • Principal investigator of: Computing Innovation Fellows 2020 Project