Author Archives: Maria Gorlatova

About Maria Gorlatova

Dr. Maria Gorlatova is the Sternberg Family Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. Her research centers on pervasive computing technologies, with a focus on spatial computing and next-generation augmented reality. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and her M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees (Summa Cum Laude) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada. She spent two years at Princeton University’s Electrical Engineering Department as an Associate Research Scholar and Associate Director of the Princeton University EDGE Lab. Dr. Gorlatova was named one of the N2Women Rising Stars and has received multiple awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), the DARPA Director’s Fellowship, the IEEE ISMAR 2025 Best Paper Award, the IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communications, and research awards from Meta, Cisco, and IBM. She served as the TPC Co-chair of ACM/IEEE IPSN 2023, the General Co-Chair of the 2025 NSF Workshop on Networking and Systems Challenges in Immersive Computing, and the TPC Co-chair of ACM/IEEE SenSys 2025.

Pain Of Not Doing A Planned Race, or Woes of a DNS

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

The wisdom of racing is that finishing dead last (DFL) is better than not finishing (DNF), and not finishing is better than not starting (DNS). DFL < DNF < DNS. Well, T-shirt wisdom aside, sometimes you gotta take the annoying … Continue reading →

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Work-Wearables: Next Step in Major Wearable Technology Deployments?

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

New Zealand Herald has an interesting opinion piece on the promise of wearable tech in work-wearables. The author makes several good points about why work wearables look like a promising area: work wearables have more reasons to be wearable, their … Continue reading →

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IoT Spectrum Devices: Unusual Design Choices in Amazon Dash Button

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

Amazon recently announced that it will be partnering with over 50 additional brands in deploying its Dash buttons, small electronic buttons that can be sprinkled around the house and clicked to order the product a button represents. There are now … Continue reading →

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Why I Volunteer On The Grace Hopper Conference Scholarship Committee

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

I am finding it exceptionally rewarding to be serving on the Grace Hopper Conference Scholarship Committee, that is, reviewing Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference travel grant applications. I’ve served on this committee in 2015 and 2016, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Career and Leadership, Communication skills, Conferences, Highlights, Ph.D., Tips and tricks, Uncategorized, Women in technology | Comments Off on Why I Volunteer On The Grace Hopper Conference Scholarship Committee

I Wish I Could Dance: Science Magazine Dance Your PhD Contest

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

Science Magazine announced its 9th annual Dance Your PhD Contest — a competition for best explaining your PhD research in an interpretive dance.

Posted in Academia, Communication skills, Creativity, Graduate school, Humor, Perspectives, Ph.D. | Comments Off on I Wish I Could Dance: Science Magazine Dance Your PhD Contest

Offbeat Tidbits In Scientific Publications

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

My treasure of a dentist, the most caring of all dentists I ever had, said the darnest thing to me the other day: “You do research, really? Good for you. I could never do it myself, it’s so boring.” She … Continue reading →

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RIP Andy Grove

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

I was saddened by the death of Andy Grove, the former Intel CEO who drove the growth of Silicon Valley. Andy Grove’s “High Output Management” has been my go-to book on running teams and improving business processes. I have seen few books … Continue reading →

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Improvisation Theater Training for Creativity and Communication Skills

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

An activity that enhances both creativity and communication skills — wouldn’t that be a fun activity to try? Uri Alon, a scientist at Weizmann Institute of Science, promotes creativity of improvisation theater training as similar to creativity of truly innovative … Continue reading →

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What Is Harder: An Ironman Or A PhD?

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

I recently ran across a curious question on Quora: what is harder, completing a PhD or completing a marathon (a 26.2 mile run)? Having done both [ PhD, races ] , hands-down, the answer is the PhD – there is … Continue reading →

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Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016: Does It Affect My Purchasing Decisions?

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Maria Gorlatova

Coming to the Consumer Electronics Show is like stepping into a geeky adults’ version of a candy shop, except that some of the candy you see won’t be on sale for several months (if it reaches the market at all), … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Consumer technology, How the world is changing, Industry, Industry trends, Internet of Things, Technology, Wearable computing | Comments Off on Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016: Does It Affect My Purchasing Decisions?