Creative Technology / Research · 2026

Water On My Block

A community-shaped flood-reporting app connecting local knowledge with climate AI.

Water on My Block is a participatory research project examining how hyper-local climate AI models can be shaped through neighborhood knowledge, community partnerships, and collective data gathering. Developed over three years in collaboration with national laboratory scientists, local organizations, and community members, the project used participatory research methods to involve stakeholders in the design process of a flood-reporting app to support both local advocacy and climate model development.

My role included contributing to the research process and Community Cafes, while leading the app’s UX/UI design through rapid prototyping in Figma. The project reflects an interest in designing AI systems that are not only technically effective, but socially grounded, accessible, and shaped by the communities they serve.

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UX Research Participatory Research Community Workshops Figma Prototyping Interface Design Human-AI Systems Research Synthesis Collaborative Tools

Date2026

MediumParticipatory Climate AI, Community Research, Interface Design

ContextAmyoli Internet Research Lab, The University of Chicago

RecognitionCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026

Publication / teamWagman, K. B., Uday Naik, K., Vanderbilt, M., Ko, N., Rugemalila, J., Chang, T., & Chetty, M. (2026). Water On My Block: Reflections on Building a Participatory Artificial Intelligence System for Precision Weather with Scientists and an Urban Community. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26), Article 1648, 30 pages. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790503

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2026 / Water On My Block