Erica Kleinman is a co-director of the Ghost Lab at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern, she earned her PhD in Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where she was advised by Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr. Before pursuing a PhD, Erica earned two Masters degrees, one in Computer Science from Northeastern University and one in Digital Media from Drexel University. She earned her Bachelors degree in Film Studies from Skidmore College. Erica’s research sits at the intersection of UX of AI, Learning, and Games, where she focuses on identifying ways to improve the UX of AI for learning and performance in complex gaming environments while also understanding and addressing the ethical limitations of these systems in a user-centric manner. She has collaborated with several companies and has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications. She was awarded the 2022 – 2023 – UCSC Jack Baskin and Peggy Downes Fellowship and the 2016 Drexel Graduate College Research Excellence Award for the Arts and Humanities. She has served as an assistant to the subcommittee chairs for the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, track chair for IEEE CoG and FDG, and as a reviewer for various other conferences and journals.
Research/Publications Highlights
Kleinman, E., Jahani, R., McGivney, E., Kosa, M., Cooper, S., & Harteveld, C. (2025, April). From Locked Rooms to Open Minds: Escape Room Best Practices to Enhance Reflection in Extended Reality Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-16).
Lee, H., Kleinman, E., Kim, N., Park, S., Harteveld, C., & Lee, B. (2025, April). Crafting Champions: An Observation Study of Esports Coaching Processes. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-20).
Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Powell, G. B., Reeves, B., Prather, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). “Backseat Gaming” A Study of Co-Regulated Learning within a Collegiate Male Esports Community. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
Kleinman, E., Xu, J., Pfau, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024). ” Trust the Process”: An Exploratory Study of Process Visualizations for Self-Reflection in League of Legends. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CHI PLAY), 1-28.
Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Yao, Y., Gayle, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). ” A Time and Phase for Everything”-Towards A Self Regulated Learning Perspective on Computational Support for Esports. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CHI PLAY), 1-27.
Kleinman, E., Gayle, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). “Because i’m bad at the game!” A microanalytic study of self regulated learning in league of legends. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 780234.
Departments
Art + Design
Education
- PhD in Computational Media, UC Santa Cruz
- Masters in Computer Science, Northeastern
- Masters in Digital Media, Drexel
- Bachelors in Film Studies, Skidmore
Awards
- 2022-23 Jack Baskin and Peggy Downes Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCSC
- 2016 Drexel Graduate College Research Excellence Award
Research Focus
- Games
- Esports,
- Learning
- Self-Regulated Learning
- UX of AI
Courses Taught
- Foundations of Game Design
- Rapid Idea Prototyping
- Mixed Research Methods