Past Winner
2022 NSERC Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships

Dr. Sonia Chiasson leads Carleton University’s Human-Oriented Research in Usable Security (CHORUS) lab, where her team conducts research at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), cybersecurity and privacy. As the first woman tenure-track faculty member hired in Computer Science at Carleton, she has a personal interest in mentoring, public outreach and promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in her research environment – and her research. Chiasson’s research is focused on promoting diversity within cybersecurity. She is currently developing the APRISE (Accessible PRivacy & SEcurity) Framework, a set of design guidelines and best practices that embrace diversity among users. Most security and privacy tools are designed for the “average” user, with assumptions made about “typical” abilities and intentions.

Chiasson’s framework accommodates a range of physical and cognitive impairments, experiences and contexts, for example by using haptic, tangible output devices to discreetly convey privacy and security information in non-visual ways, such as with vibration, temperature changes, pressure and texture changes that are difficult for adversaries to observe. Chiasson’s APRISE framework will become a critical tool for designers of new security and privacy mechanisms and improve accessibility and online security for a wider range of users.

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