I'm Kaia Newman, a third year Ph.D. student in Software Engineering in the Software & Societal Systems department at Carnegie Mellon University. I'm advised by Andrew Begel and Claire Le Goues, and thus am a part of the VariAbility lab and squaresLab.

My research is primarily on the human factors of software engineering, including accessibility for neurodivergent developers, program comprehension (e.g., during repair or testing), and developer wellbeing and efficacy.

I completed my Bachelor's in Computer Science at the University of Michigan. In my free time, I enjoy written communication, RPGs (e.g., games by ATLUS, Ghost of Yotei), doing crosswords, running, playing Magic: The Gathering, and reading science fiction or fantasy novels. I use any pronouns.

• May 12th, 2025: I did a summer internship at Adobe Research in San Francisco under Joy Kim!


• April 4th, 2024: I received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Thank you to everyone who supported me along the way. You can view my statements here: (Personal Statement, Research Proposal).


• March 5th, 2024: I gave a guest lecture and discussion on qualitative methods and my experiences in academia at Bowdoin College in CSCI 3500!


• February 27th, 2024: Our paper, "Causal Relationships and Programming Outcomes: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Experiment," received an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award! This paper was an involved, risky, collaborative project, so it is wonderful to see it recognized.


• January 29th, 2024: I received travel funding for the Student Mentorship Workshop (SMeW) at ICSE 2024!

• Conference: Kaia Newman, Sarah Snay, Madeline Endres, Manasvi Parikh, Andrew Begel. Disclosure of Neurodivergence in Software Workplaces: a Mixed Methods Study of Forum and Survey Perspectives. International Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), 2025.


• Conference: Kaia Newman, Sarah Snay, Madeline Endres, Manasvi Parikh, Andrew Begel. “Get Me In The Groove”: A Mixed Methods Study on Supporting ADHD Professional Programmers. International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2025.


• Conference: Hammad Ahmad, Madeline Endres, Kaia Newman, Priscila Santiesteban, Emma Shedden, Westley Weimer. Causal Relationships and Programming Outcomes: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Experiment. International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2024. (distinguished paper award)


• Conference: Kaia Newman, Madeline Endres, Westley Weimer, Brittany Johnson. From Organizations to Individuals: Psychoactive Substance Use By Professional Programmers. International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2023.

Curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought it back.