Willie Payne

I am an Assistant Professor of User Experience / Design at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS).

I study how technology can facilitate creative expression and open pathways for people to express themselves on their own terms. I build accessible musical instruments and creative coding environments. I use a participatory approach to research in which I work closely with end-users throughout a design process and situate interventions in authentic learning and art making environments.

I have published work at highly selective HCI conferences. I recently won Best Technical Paper at Web4All '22 and Best Paper Honorable Mention at CHI '21. I regularly co-author with undergraduate students. My mentorship efforts received recognition at NYU, and my students won 3rd place at the NYU Engineering Research Expo.

I hold a PhD in Music Technology at NYU. From 2020–2023, I was the research assistant for Dancing Across Boundaries (DAB!) and the Accessible Music Technology Fellow at FMDG Music School. I was advised by Amy Hurst, and mentored by Yoav Bergner, Kayla DesPortes, and R. Luke DuBois.

I also hold a BS/MS in Computer Science and a BM in Music Composition from CU Boulder. I attended CU on a Boettcher Scholarship (full-ride to any Colorado university) and was the Outstanding Graduate of Engineering. At CU I performed in new-music ensembles like the Boulder Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk), studied with Shaun Kane, Clayton Lewis, and Michael Theodore, and lived in the Engineering Honors Program.