David T. Lee, Ph.D. headshot

David T. Lee, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Computational Media

University of California, Santa Cruz

David T. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz, where he directs the Tech4Good Lab. He received his PhD from Stanford University, where he was a part of the Social Algorithms Lab and Crowdsourced Democracy Team, and a visitor in the Stanford HCI Group. He received his BS from the California Institute of Technology where he was a part of the Molecular Programming Project. His research centers around integrating design, algorithms, and incentives to develop novel ways for integrating experiential, passion-driven learning with supporting governments and nonprofits in organizing community members towards addressing complex, societal issues.

His work has received paper awards at AAAI HCOMP and ACM CHI, been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and deployed with the Finland Ministry of the Environment. He is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, an Accel Innovation Scholar, and a two-time recipient of a Magic Grant from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. He has been invited to a White House discussion on education and jobs, and to speak at a TEDxSantaCruz talk. David loves working with students and is humbled to have been awarded the Baskin School of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award.