<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="3.10.0">Jekyll</generator><link href="https://ashleybhart.com/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="https://ashleybhart.com/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2025-09-03T18:19:06+00:00</updated><id>https://ashleybhart.com/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Ashley Hart</title><subtitle>Chronologing my research journey.</subtitle><author><name>Ashley Hart</name><email>ashley.hart@ufl.edu</email></author><entry><title type="html">Welcome</title><link href="https://ashleybhart.com/welcome/2022/08/19/welcome.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Welcome" /><published>2022-08-19T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2022-08-19T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://ashleybhart.com/welcome/2022/08/19/welcome</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ashleybhart.com/welcome/2022/08/19/welcome.html"><![CDATA[<p>My name is Ashley and I am a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Florida. I research artificial intelligence (AI) under the advisement of Dr. Juan Gilbert in the Human Experience Research Lab. My research interests include explainability, adversarial AI, and the impact that applications of AI have on end-users.</p>

<p>I previously attended the University of Central Florida and I enjoyed my time there. I pursued my B.S. in Computer Science, and I was blessed to meet many inspiring people who became mentors, and dear friends. Yet, when I started the program, I realized that I was one of few Black women in the entire degree program. This was no fault of the university; however, it did lead me to wrestle with feelings of inadequacy for a long time. I felt out of place for the majority of my undergraduate career. To counter this, I built up my confidence by engaging with my coursework, taking advantage of mentorship, participating in internships, deliberate practice, self-care, and attending tech-related events such as hackathons.</p>

<p>As a new graduate student, I am in a special position to develop and lend my perspective on active conversations in the technology industry. I am looking forward to learning from professionals in industry and academia and contributing to the body of knowledge.</p>

<p>This blog will document my journey through graduate school and the events that come after. I hope that it will inspire others to pursue their goals. I intend to write about a variety of topics pertaining to research, other academic content, book reviews, or anything else that I find inspiring.</p>

<p>For professional inquiries, please visit my About page for my background, resume, and living CV. You may also visit my Research page for an archive of my work. You can visit my <a href="https://github.com/ashley-hart">GitHub</a> to see my projects. I also post occasional updates to my <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-b-hart/">LinkedIn</a> page.</p>

<p>I hope you enjoy your time here. Thank you for visiting my website.</p>

<!-- ### Background

My interest in compting started when I was 7 and Mario Galaxy was released for the Nintendo Wii. This game was groundbreaking when it came out. Mario had the abiltiy to jump around planetoids and experience strange gravity mechanics that opened up a vast amount of gameplay. I quickly swapped from playing a game for enjoyment into thinking about how the developers implemented such mechanics. It was then I decided, that video games were amazing, and I decided at that time that I would be a game developer.

This dream was furthered after Minecraft was released. My sisters and I each bought a copy of the game and I would watch YouTube tutorias and fiddle around with the house's router until I could get a server up an running. I fel tproud of myself, knowing that I was able to figure out someting that at the time seemed impossible as my sisters and I would play Minecraft for hours and hours over the years. On top of that I was impressed by the fact that the earliest versions of the game was made by one person. This revelation and expereince  brought my dream of being a game developer more into a reality.

It was not until high school that I took a programmng course. I started with Java and did my best to prepare for the high school programming competitions at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF). My performancce during these events was not stellar, but a fire was lit that I could not ignore. Problemsolving proved to be an incredibly satisfying process. I pivoted away from strictly being a game developer and decided to tackle computer science as that route would open up more doors for me to settle into a niche.

This move proved to be the right one for me. I attended UCF for my bachelors degree in computer science and one of my first memories from walking into the lecture hall was that I was one of a few women in the room, and from what I could see, only of of a few black women. THis caught me off guard and I had to struggle with impostorsyndorm for the first three years of my college career. Despite this and the challenges that came with life and challenging course work, I took steps to see what more I could do with my degree. I knew I would not be satisfiesd simply building and shipping software. I wanted to open doors where I could sit on the cutting edge of the feild and run at the forefront of change. What better way to do that than to take on research.

I reached out to one of my earliest mentors Dr. Sean Szumlanski and he gave me practical advice that I followed to meet amazing people such ad Dr. LeAnn Roberts, Dr. NAtalia Toro, Michael Alrando Jefferies and many others who supported and uplifted me as I grew into a confident computer scientist. I also had the pleasure of meeting some amazing peers who have helped me become better at what I do. Iron sharpens iorn and surrounding myself with people who I look up to truly made a difference.

My family is full of my greatest supporters and I am grateful for each one of them. They have helped me get through the hard times of life where I wanted to throw in the towel. I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. Words truly cannot do my feelings justice. -->

<!-- ### A Fresh Start

I thank God daily for the opprotunty to do what I do. Today, I am preparing to start a PhD in Computer Science at the Univeristy of Florida, I will be studying under the advisement of Dr. Juan Gilbert with a focus on Artificial Intelligence. I am the first in my family to make a move like this and I feel so increibly blessed. This blog will serve as a chronicle of my research journey. I hope the ideas shared here will help others. Readers are welcome to inquire about my work, I would be happy to elaborate. 

Thank you for checking out my website. -->]]></content><author><name>Ashley Hart</name><email>ashley.hart@ufl.edu</email></author><category term="welcome" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[My name is Ashley and I am a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Florida. I research artificial intelligence (AI) under the advisement of Dr. Juan Gilbert in the Human Experience Research Lab. My research interests include explainability, adversarial AI, and the impact that applications of AI have on end-users.]]></summary></entry></feed>