Dr. Samantha Shorey (Ph.D., University of Washington) is a design researcher who studies automated technologies — such as AI and robots — in the workplace. In her research, she seeks to highlight the labor and innovation of people who are often overlooked in media narratives about new technologies. Shorey is currently a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute where she is advancing policies to support the workforces that make, implement and maintain AI technologies. In 2026, she will be a panel member of the AI100: Stanford’s 100 year study of AI. She uses qualitative methods of ethnography and critical making to learn about various technology design processes, ranging from maintaining industrial AI-powered machines to prototyping with 3D printing. Dr. Shorey's teaching is dedicated to helping students understand how workplace cultures impact the development and diffusion of new technology.
Dr. Shorey most recently led an NSF-funded project examining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are being adopted and adapted by essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her work has been published in communication journals such as New Media and Society and Social Media + Society, as well as proceedings for the Association of Computing Management's leading conferences on Human-Computer Interaction ('CHI and CSCW). Before coming to Pitt, she was a fellow at the Smithsonian Museum’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, where she investigated the women who handmade computer hardware for the Apollo moon missions. She was a research associate in the Tactile and Tactical Design Lab in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. She has also worked with collaborative research teams at the University of Oxford, MIT, and as a pre-doctoral intern at Airbnb.