Melanie Bancilhon

PhD Candidate, Washington University in St. Louis

mbancilhon@wustl.edu


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I am a fifth year CSE PhD Candidate at Washington University in St. Louis working with Dr. Alvitta Ottley in the Visual Interface and Behavior Exploration Lab (VIBE). My research interests are at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Data Visualization and Explainable AI. My recent work has focused on investigating how visualizations can impact reasoning and decision-making under uncertainty and developing interactive interfaces that facilitate human-AI teaming. In my work, I leverage interdisciplinary approaches to evaluate decision-making across populations with varying cognitive traits.

Prior to WashU, I completed my B.A. in Computer Science at Smith College with Architecture & Design as a second major. During my undergraduate career, I spent my junior year abroad in Paris at Université Paris Diderot and École Nationale d'Architecture Paris Val-de-Seine (ENSAPVS).


Latest Research

Why Combining Text and Visualization Could Improve Bayesian Reasoning: A Cognitive Load Perspective
Melanie Bancilhon, AJ Wright, Sunwoo Ha, Jordan Crouser, Alvitta Ottley
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2023

Streetonomics: Quantifying culture using street names
Melanie Bancilhon, Marios Constantinides, EP Bogucka, Luca Maria Aiello, Daniele Quercia
PLoS ONE 16(6): e0252869, 2021
 PDF

VizXP: A Visualization Framework for Conveying Explanations to Users in Model Reconciliation Problems (in print)
Ashwin Kumar, Stylianos Loukas Vasileiou, Melanie Bancilhon, William Yeoh, Alvitta Ottley
ICAPS Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, 2021

Let’s Gamble: How a Poor Visualization Can Elicit Risk Behavior
Melanie Bancilhon, Zhengliang Liu, Alvitta Ottley
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2020
 PDF Video

Uncovering User Interest during Data Exploration via Unsupervised Clustering (under review)
Sunwoo Ha, Robert Costales, Melanie Bancilhon, Surina Puri, Alvitta Ottley
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2020
 PDF
Cartographic Design of Cultural Maps (in print)
Edyta Paulina Bogucka, Marios Constantinides, Luca Maria Aiello, Daniele Quercia, Wonyoung So, Melanie Bancilhon
IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Applications, 2020
 PDF          Video

Selected Press


BBC.com
'Streetonomics': What our addresses say about us

"Since the beginning of time, rulers have used spatial engineering as a form of social engineering," write Melanie Bancilhon of Washington University in St Louis and colleagues at Nokia Bell Labs


Click to Download CV
Recipient of Inclusivity and Diversity Scholarship to attend IEEE VIS 2022

NSF Smart Health & AI Student Awardee 2020

Sigma Xi Awardee 2019

Grace Hopper Scholar 2018
Conference Organizing

Student Committee Member, IEEE Visualization for Communication (VisComm), 2022

Student Committee Member, IEEE Visualization for Communication (VisComm), 2021


Conference Reviewing

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2023

ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW), 2023

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2023

IEEE Visualization for Communication (VisComm), 2022

IEEE Visualization Conference, 2022

IEEE Visualization for Communication (VisComm), 2020

European Creative Industry Summit (ECIS), 2020


Guest Lectures

Visualization Design Studio @ Columbia School of Nursing, 2022

Visualization for Decision-Making @ WPI, 2021


Mentorship & University Service

Student Mentor for the WashU First Gen Program, 2021 - 2023

Graduate Student Senator, 2020 - 2023

WashU representative and mentor at the Tapia Conference, 2022

DataKind Reviewer for the data.org Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge, 2020


Etc.