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Experience

2016- Graduate Student Researcher GreenIT/Social Code Lab, Informatics Department, UCI
2013-2016 Undergraduate Researcher Prototyping and Design Lab (PAD), Information Systems Department, UMBC
Summer 2015 - Intern Johns Hopkins University - Applied Physics Lab, Laurel MD, Asymmetric Operations Unit
Summer 2013 Intern Merkle Inc., Columbia MD, Information Systems Department

Education

University of California, Irvine (UCI), Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, PhD in Informatics
2012-2016 - University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Department of Information Systems, B.S in Information Systems
Mar-Aug 2014 Sophia University 上智大学 Tokyo, Japan, Semester Long Study Abroad Experience

Awards

2016-2017 GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) Fellowship - Assist graduate students with excellent records who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue the highest degree available in their course study at the institution in a field designated as an area of national need. (Winter and Spring 2017)
2012-2016 Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholar Competitive, four-year academic scholarship dedicated to increasing the representation of women in the creation of technology in the engineering and information technology fields.
2016 Best Student Paper Award - ASSETS SIGACCESS Conference on Computers& Accessibility
2015 Vijay Jose Memorial Scholarship, UMBC Information Systems Department
2014, 16 Best Research Poster: Clinical Fabrication of 3D Printed Assistive Technology
2014 Annual IS Student Research Poster Contest – Undergraduate - Universal Gripper Using Granular Compression Technology
2016 Annual IS Student Research Poster Contest – Undergraduate - Clinical Fabrication of 3D Printed Assistive Technology
2012, 14, 15 The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference Scholarship

Publications

Uncovering Challenges and Opportunities for 3D Printing Assistive Technology with Physical Therapists. Samantha McDonald, Niara Comrie, Erin Buehler, Nicholas Carter, Braxton Dubin, Karen Gordes, Sandy McCombe-Waller, Amy Hurst. ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS '16) *Won Best Student Paper Award 3D Printing: A Future Collapse-Compliant Means of Production. Samantha McDonald. 2016. LIMITS 2016. ACM.
Inclusion and Education: 3d Printing For Integrated Classrooms. Erin Buehler, William Easley, Samantha McDonald, Niara Comrie, Amy Hurst. 2015. In Proceedings of the 17th international ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers& Accessibility (ASSETS '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Tactile aids for visually impaired graphical design education. Samantha McDonald, Joshua Dutterer, Ali Abdolrahmani, Shaun K. Kane, and Amy Hurst. 2014. In Proceedings of the 16th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers& accessibility (ASSETS '14). ACM, New York,NY,USA, 275- 276.
Investigating the Implications of 3D Printing in Special Education. Erin Buehler, William Easley, Samantha McDonald, Niara Comrie, Amy Hurst. ACM TACCESS.