Grazia Ragone
Grazia Ragone
Postdoctoral Researcher
IVU Laboratory
Dipartimento di Informatica
Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
Via Orabona, 4 - 70125 Bari - Italy
email: grazia.ragone@uniba.it

Grazia Ragone

Research Interests

Curriculum

Grazia Ragone is a research fellow at the Department of Computer Science of University of Bari. She is of the IVU (Interaction Visualization Usability and UX) Lab, contributing to research efforts in Usability Engineering and User Experience (UX). Their work focuses on integrating usability and UX practices into software development processes, benefiting both industry and public institutions. Additionally, Grazia Ragone is engaged in research on Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, striving to creating intelligent systems that harness advanced technologies—such as powerful algorithms, big data, and sophisticated sensors—while remaining user-friendly and beneficial to people. These systems aim to balance high levels of automation with strong human oversight. Grazia Ragone attained her PhD in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from the University of Sussex (United Kingdom), marking her academic journey with an in-depth exploration of the complexities of human interaction with technology. Her thesis focuses on the design of interactive systems, specifically developing new metrics for measuring social motor synchrony using motion capture and Pearson correlation. She adopted advanced metrics for comprehensive analysis and evaluation in HCI implementing metric frameworks to assess interaction of autistic children. The incorporation of the correlation allowed the assessment of synchronisation levels among various participants in the study, aiming to understand the effectiveness of the interactive system under consideration. The thesis was supervised by Dr. Kate Howland from the University of Sussex. Specializing in interactions with autistic children during her doctoral studies, she conducted a nuanced investigation into concepts such as Imitation and Social Motor Synchrony. Throughout her research, she advocated for an inclusive model, viewing autism not as a spectrum of deficits but as a difference in abilities, which has been central to her approach to understanding human-computer interactions. With a background in psychology, her research has consistently focused on the complexities of human behavior and cognition. This interdisciplinary approach, blending computer science with developmental psychology, has given her a unique perspective on the field of HCI. Currently, as a research fellow at the University of Bari, Italy, her work centers on pioneering metrics for evaluating human-AI symbiosis as part of the Future Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) project. This ambitious initiative aims to assess and enhance the collaborative potential between humans and AI. A key aspect of her research is the integration of human factors into technology design and development, with the ultimate goal of improving the human experience. Her academic journey reflects an ongoing commitment to understanding and optimizing the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. Through her interdisciplinary expertise and dedication to human-centered design, she strives to shape the future of HCI in a way that fosters inclusivity, accessibility, innovation, and meaningful human-technology interaction.

She served in the Program Committe of a number of International Conferences:

She has been involved in the scientific organization of conference like:

She is member of ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), ACM SIGCHI (ACM’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) and SIGCHI Italy (the Italian Chapter of ACM SIGCHI)

She presented to several international conferences:

She held several courses, workshop and seminars:

She received several significant awards:

Grazia Ragone has co-authored several publications, including journal articles, international conference papers, and book chapters.

Publications

Papers in International Journals

Chapters in International Books

Proceedings of International Conferences

PhD Thesis

Projects