Lab Director

HeeSun Choi, PhD

Dr. Choi is an assistant professor in the Human Factors Program in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Texas Tech University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Human Factors and Applied Cognition at North Carolina State University. Prior to joining Texas Tech, she worked in the Division of Safety Research and the Center for Robotics Research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Her research primarily focuses on safety related to attentional impairments and cognitive declines, with particular interests in the older adults and industry worker populations. 

Google Scholar | ResearchGate |LinkedIn

Graduate Students

Daniel Leibman

Daniel Leibman is a fifth-year PhD student in the Applied Cognition and Safety lab. Formally from New Mexico, he graduated from New Mexico State University with a BA in Psychology and worked in both the PACMANe lab with Dr. Igor Dolgov, and the Visual Sciences and Memory lab with Dr. Michael Hout before attending Texas Tech University. His research interests include Wearable robotics and their cognitive effects, Human-Autonomy teams, Human Computer Interaction with non-traditional interfaces, and generally is focused around how we can utilize automation to augment human workers or make their work safer and more productive.

Yves Valentin

Yves is a fourth-year PhD student in the Human Factors Experimental Psychology program. He was born and raised in Miami, Florida, and received a B.S. in psychology at UCF and worked in the ACAT lab under the guidance of Dr. Valerie Sims. His research interest focuses on Human-Robot interaction, wearable robots, industrial workforce safety, and aging. Yves is working towards his Experimental Psychology at Texas Tech and hopes to make an impact in the world in the future.

CV |LinkedIn

Thi Le

Thi is a second-year PhD student in Experimental Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors. She recently graduated from the University of Idaho with an MS, also in Human Factors. For her BS, she received her degree from the University of Oklahoma, majoring in Psychology. She aims to apply research to solve real-world problems, especially those related to human performance, decision-making, and safety issues.

Sahar Khanpour

Sahar is a second-year master's student, seeking MA in human factors psychology. Sahar received their Bachelors of Science in Family Social Science, Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and minor in Child Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Sahar is interested in research regarding Human-Robot interaction, wearable robots, brain-computer interface (BCI), as well as virtual and augmented reality. 

Killian Parker

Killian is a student in the Accelerated Master’s program in human factors psychology. He joined the Applied Cognition and Safety Lab in summer 2024. He is expected to receive his Bachelor’s of Science in Psychological Sciences in 2025 and a year later earn his Master’s of Arts in Experimental Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors. He is interested in a wide variety of research; however, his main focus is virtual, augmented, and extended reality. In addition, he is interested in aging research including exoskeletons and augmented and extended reality. 

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Post-Baccalaureate Researcher

Kendal Hampton-Hogue lab member since 2023 Spring

Undergraduate Students

Christian Hernandez since 2023 fall

Hannah Winter since 2024 fall

Hannah is a third year undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics major minoring in psychology and engineering. She is interested in using mathematics to describe how humans interact with technology, music, and other stimuli.

Staff

Mark T. Dannemiller
Fall 2023 - current

Programmer
Undergraduate Student | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
CAD Specialist, Autrey Engineering, LLC
Owner/Manager, Darkon Design LLC

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Alumni

Graduate Students

Daxton Mitchell, M.A.

Daxton is an Associate UX Researcher at PlayStation. He was a graduate student member of the lab from 2019 - 2022 and received his MA in the Human Factors Experimental Psychology program in 2022.

Kat Moffis, M.A.

Kat is an Associate Research at Daito Design. She was a graduate student member of the lab from 2020 - 2024 and earned her MA in the Human Factors Experimental Psychology program.

Undergraduate Students

John Hannah (August 2023 - May 2024)
Connor Martinez (August 2023 - May 2024)
Farjaad Azam (August 2021 - May 2023)
Alejandra Fernandez-Reyes (August 2022 - May 2023)
Joseph Martinez (January 2021 - May 2022)
Jessa Bulman (February 2022 - May 2022)
Neiddy Rodriguez (August 2021 - May 2022)
Gabriel Warren (Summer 2021)
Julieanne Cherukara (August 2020 - April 2021)
Giang Nguyen (August 2020 - December 2020)
Hannah Agner (January 2020 - August 2020)
Andrew Chu (January 2020 - May 2020)

Prior Lab Engineers / Technical Staff

Gabriel Simiyu (Aug 2022 - Dec 2023)
Brian Crane (Intern; Spring - Summer, 2023)
Barbara Sopngwi (Aug 2021 - Jan 2022)
Bharath Poreddy (Apr - May 2021)