Building Worker Resilience in Place-Based Communities amid Rapid Technological Change

Abstract: While the “future of work” promises innovation and opportunity, it often manifests as uncertainty and instability—exposing a stark divide between optimistic predictions and lived realities. This talk examines how place-based peer networks can foster worker resilience amid these shifts. Drawing on community-based, participatory design methods, I present three sociotechnical systems—Peerdea, Tech Help Desk, and BizChat—that leverage localized peer networks to address common challenges in digitally mediated work, including isolation and limited skill-building opportunities. These systems demonstrate how community-based approaches can overcome the limitations of current approaches to building sociotechnical systems that prioritize scale over relationship building. Finally, I highlight the importance of constructive community-academic partnerships in computing which kickstart and sustain community initiatives.

Bio: Dr. Yasmine Kotturi is an Assistant Professor of Human-Centered Computing and affiliate faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research focuses on digitally-mediated employment and entrepreneurship, examining how workers leverage peer networks to navigate precarity and advance their careers. Dr. Kotturi has been recognized as an CRA Trustworthy AI Fellow (2025-6), USM Generative AI Pedagogy Fellow (2025-6), FASPE Fellow (Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics 2025) EECS Rising Star (2022), and Siebel Scholar (2022). She has collaborated with nonprofits, as well as leading companies including Instagram and Etsy. Dr. Kotturi earned her Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and has held positions at Microsoft Research Asia, MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab, and UC San Diego’s Design Lab.

Learn more about Dr. Kotturi’s work on her website ykotturi.github.io and in her recent CRA Trustworthy AI spotlight.

https://cra.org/crn/2025/10/cra-trustworthy-ai-research-fellow-spotlight-yasmine-kotturi/

This seminar is both online and in-person: Zoom Link