about me

hi! my name is derya

pronounced in english: dairy-ya
pronouns in english: she/her/hers

₊⊹ currently searching for assistant professor positions (Vis/HCI) in the EU ⊹₊

thinking about…

• missing data
• participatory methods
• hanging out with my cat Fig

present

✏ KTH Royal Institute of Technology

✉ akbaba at kth dot se

📖 i like books

💾 a list of lists about data vis

let’s work together!

research is fun when it is done together ✶⋆.˚
I am open to: collaborating, chit-chatting, and supervising topics on:
 ⊹ ࣪˖ participatory VIS & HC(A)I
⋆˚࿔ data physicalization
  ✮⋆˙input visualizations
₊⊹ visualization theory
 ⋆𖦹⭒ feminist vis
and other topics at the intersection of tech x society more broadly

past

⋆｡ PhD, Computing (Media & Information Technology) @ Linköping Univeristy, VID lab, WASP Funded, 2025

☼ Masters, Computing @ U. of Utah, VDL lab, 2022

☃ BSc, Industrial & Labor Relations @ Cornell, 2013

recent work

Designing Vibes in a Science Museum: from @Science to @🤗
Derya Akbaba, Daniela Paz Moyano Dávila, Måns Gezelius, Yin He, Miriah Meyer
Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '26) (to appear), 2026
preprint

Thinking Inside the Box: Considerations for Putting Data Physicalization Workshops in a Box
Derya Akbaba, Camilla Svensson, Claudia Torelli, Martin Callmeryd, Miriah Meyer
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2026
preprint

Reflections on Traceability for Visualization Research
Jen Rogers, Derya Akbaba, James Scott-Brown, Alexander Lex, Miriah Meyer
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2026
preprint

news

Apr 2026 :: Spain

Attending CHI with two workshop papers, The Value of Visualization and Craft, Reflection + Complexity

Feb 2026 :: France

Will give a talk at SIGCHI Paris Chapter and run a workshop "Making the Visible Invisible" at IASEAI

Nov 2025 :: the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden

Lots of fun news to share for this autumn! I'll be sharing data vis methods at Mapping as a Social Science Method at Maatricht University. Then off to IEEE VIS conf -- come to the Input Vis Workshop and listen to our Best Paper Honorable Mention talk! Finally, I am starting a new role at KTH Royal Institute as a member of the Co-liberative Computing research group.