A young woman with shoulder-length gray hair, smiling, holding a green drink in a plastic cup, standing on a sidewalk amidst autumn trees with colorful leaves, carrying a tote bag with a blue floral design, wearing a black jacket and jeans.

Hello again!
Thanks for trying to get to know me better.

My name is Meziah Ruby, but please call me Meziah (mee-sha). I’m a proud Filipino American: born in Manila and naturalized as a US citizen. I feel immense gratitude to my parents and grandparents for going through the grueling process of naturalization, which I reap the benefits of everyday.

Before starting my PhD program, I lived in the Bay Area and worked as a Senior UX Engineer at Cisco. My job combined front-end development and UI/UX design to develop UI components that enabled web accessibility for users and platform scalability for Cisco developers. I had an incredible 8-year run in various software development roles, and I look forward to using those experiences to enrich my next chapter in academia as a future professor!

I’m joined in Seattle by my husband and our 8-year old Pomeranian rescue, Poppy.

In my spare time, I make YouTube videos and wonky pottery.

I have a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Communications from UC Davis,

(September 2013 to June 2017)

Between classes and homework, I practiced design thinking with Design for America and co-created HackDavis (UC Davis’ first hackathon and one of the first in the nation to be dedicated to social good).

During undergrad, I also studied Japanese and human-centered design thinking. I practice both as much as I possibly can.

and an MS in Integrated Design, Business, and Technology from USC.

(August 2021 to August 2023)

I loved cross-disciplinary thinking and collaboration so much that I pursued a graduate program to pave the way for more of these in my future.

Working full-time and attending school part-time was exhausting, but it was well worth it. I was able to flex my entrepreneurial spirit and product design skills through industry projects while working with some of the most talented people I know. (Shoutout to the BOLDR project team: Edward Fu, Justin Ivey, and Minh Ton!)

I’ve started my PhD!

To this end, I’m supported by the NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (CSGrad4US), through which I had the fortune to be advised by Dr. Colin M. Gray (Indiana University Bloomington).

I’m also currently part of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at Santa Clara University, directed by Dr. Kai Lukoff. Together with the FocusMode project team, we study user experiences in adaptive interfaces to support digital wellbeing. I contribute via literature reviews, study design, and feedback on UI/UX.

If you’re curious about the UX Engineering role or the NSF CSGrad4US application/program, feel free to reach out!

meziahcristobal { @ } gmail { . } com