From Offline to Online: A Unique Path to Computer Science
OAKLAND, Calif. — For Zadie Moon, the digital world was a late discovery. Growing up in a large family with limited resources, she didn’t use a computer or any digital device until she was 16. Fast forward seven years, and Moon is now pursuing her master’s degree in computer science at Northeastern University in Oakland, while also working as a product manager at a company dedicated to enhancing digital accessibility.
Moon’s journey highlights an evolving focus for her career. She earned a bachelor’s degree in public health in 2022, and is now enrolled in Northeastern’s Align program, designed for students without a prior computing background. The Align program includes foundational coursework and full-time work experience, preparing graduates for careers in STEM. For Moon, it was a way to combine her interests in technology and public health.
“In every hackathon I’ve done, I’ve been the idea creator and the delegator and the person that has the overall vision for the design,” she says. “And when people are confused and they’re kind of frustrated and they don’t know how to talk it out, I’m able to get down on their level and understand how to communicate.”
Moon is on track to complete the Align program this year and is working with Akram Bayat, an assistant professor at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, on research into leveraging AI to train therapists who work with patients dealing with chronic diseases.
Addressing the Gap in Healthcare Technology
Bayat explains that there is a shortage of therapists available to work with patients undergoing treatment for chronic conditions like diabetes. Patients with chronic illnesses often need emotional support to cope with the impact of their condition on daily life; this can frequently lead to feelings of anxiety and depression.
One goal of the project is to create an app that will help therapists understand how best to support these patients. “We can digitize this training process so we can help more therapists to be trained in this process and help more communities,” Bayat says.
The project will also evaluate existing training tools, including virtual patient personas. Bayat notes these AI-generated patients, which therapists interact with before meeting real patients, may not accurately represent real people. Collaborating with Moon, and Boston-based student researcher Vatsal Mehta, Bayat hopes to develop a robust method for evaluating these AI personas for bias or inaccuracy and create scenarios to simulate the therapy process. This project builds on research Bayat and Moon completed last semester.
They reviewed existing literature to understand how to mitigate bias in machine learning models used to diagnose and manage chronic diseases. According to Bayat, when models are trained using datasets that do not accurately represent overall demographic characteristics, they may perpetuate bias and lead to inaccurate diagnoses. Their research investigated open-source frameworks like IBM’s AI Fairness 360 and Microsoft’s Fairlearn to evaluate the fairness of the AI systems being built.
As Bayat’s research apprentice, Moon is helping to explore how large language models can be used to train therapists, and how to evaluate these tools for both accuracy and bias. “By addressing bias in machine learning algorithms for chronic disease detection, our research contributes to the larger conversation on ensuring AI serves all populations fairly, particularly those most at risk of being left behind,” Bayat says.
Moon’s decision to study computer science was driven by a desire to address these kinds of issues. After graduating with her bachelor’s in public health, Moon worked as a user experience researcher for One Degree, a web-based nonprofit in San Francisco that connects low-income individuals to needed services. That experience solidified her desire to merge her two interests. “I wanted to explore computer science because I realized there was a gap in understanding, from the engineering perspective, of how to provide information in a simple and accessible format,” she says.
She points out that most computer science programs don’t address this gap. For non-digital natives who are trying to make appointments, examine their medical records, or research a health issue, and who may feel overwhelmed by web-based health portals, the stakes are high. “The majority of engineering education does not involve a foundational understanding of feeling overwhelmed by information,” she says, “and then how that actually diverts people from receiving information or continuing to be curious.”
In addition to her studies and research, Moon also started a Google Developer Group on the Oakland campus where students can host events and attend events at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View to meet industry professionals. Last semester, over 100 students participated. “This experience hopefully helps students step outside the box and identify potential opportunities that pique their interest that they wouldn’t otherwise know about,” she says.
