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Northwestern Delta Lab

transforming how we learn, play, work, and live

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Our vision is to transform the way we learn, play, work, and live to create the society in which we want to live. To achieve this vision we research and design systems in real world environments, and train the future generation of researchers and designers. The most important problems we need to tackle can’t be solved by any one alone.

 
Delta Lab is the first interdisciplinary research lab and design studio at Northwestern University. We study, design, and build systems in the domain of social and crowd computing, human computer interaction, learning sciences, civics, and innovation. The primary goal of the Delta Lab is to teach people how to be outstanding designers and researchers capable of building excellent theory and eloquent systems. To achieve this goal, Delta Lab faculty work closely with a tightly knit cohort of doctoral students who have access to Northwestern’s entire human computer interaction community, which is one of the largest in the country. Students take classes in Computer Science, Engineering, Design, Education and Social Policy, Communities, Management, and Journalism to build a unique perspective on technology and social behavior. Upon graduation, students push the boundaries of scholarship as professors at universities and researchers in industry labs and develop radically new technologies as designers and entrepreneurs in the tech industry.

Delta Lab is led by Dr. Eleanor O’RourkeDr. Liz GerberDr. Matt Easterday, and Dr. Haoqi Zhang.

 

Dr. Liz Gerber and Dr. Haoqi Zhang are recruiting Ph.D. students to start in Fall 2026 through the Technology and Social Behavior,  Computer Science + Learning Sciences, Computer Science, and Media, Technology, and Society programs.

Website under construction!