Dakota Sullivan

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and I am currently on the academic job market.

My research focuses on privacy-sensitive robot design: designs that shape how robots collect, process, and expose user data. I use methods including physical prototyping, LLM benchmarking, and formal task planning to address each phase of this data pipeline. Through this work, I aim to protect user privacy, improve people’s awareness of privacy risks, and give users greater control over their own data.

During my Ph.D., I have worked with the People and Robots Laboratory under Dr. Bilge Mutlu as well as NASA Ames Research Center under Dr. Jessica Marquez and the Naval Research Laboratory under Dr. Laura Hiatt.

Prior to my Ph.D. program, I worked as a social work case manager at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. I completed my B.A. in Computational Mathematics and Social Welfare and Justice at Marquette University in 2016, my Master of Social Work at UW–Madison in 2018, and my M.S. in Computer Science at UW–Madison in 2022.