Melissa Densmore

Melissa Densmore is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She directs the HCI Lab and coordinates the South African international branch of the Hasso-Plattner Institute Research School. Densmore’s research explores digital content creation and collaboration for bandwidth-constrained communities in the context of community wireless networks and for maternal and child health and well-being, with a particular interest in understanding how to conduct ICT4D research in an appropriate and ethical community-centred manner. Prior to joining UCT, Densmore completed a postdoc at Microsoft Research India and worked in Silicon Valley as a software developer for various start-ups. Melissa completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in Information Management and Systems, has an MSc in Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems from University College London, and holds a BA in Computer Science from Cornell University.