Education

Ph.D., Informatics, University of Illinois
B.A., Interactive Media Design, ICESI (Cali, Colombia)

Background

Before joining the University of South Carolina, Daniela Ramos worked as a user experience researcher Intern at Google and held teaching roles at the University of Illinois, where she served as the instructor of record for an introductory Python for data science course for several years. Her background blends industry practice (with roles as a UX designer, consultant and researcher) with academic inquiry, allowing her to connect practical technology applications with theoretical frameworks.

Research

Ramos' research investigates socio-technical system design, human-computer interaction, and how technology mediates trust in marginalized communities. She is interested in exploring the impact of social network platforms on community dynamics. Her recent work in El Distrito, Cali, Colombia, evaluated alternative platform prototypes to support local peacebuilding. Methodologically, she combines social network analysis, constructive design research and ethnographic methods to address complex societal problems.

Teaching

Ramos grounds her teaching in pragmatism and critical making, guiding students to connect abstract technology principles with tangible, real-world social impacts. She strives to foster an environment where students apply theoretical concepts to real-life situations while critically reflecting on how technology shapes society. She teaches core courses, where she emphasizes hands-on problem-solving and the ethical evaluation of socio-technical systems.

Recent Publications

Delgado Ramos, D. (2026, April). Designing for trust: Lessons from co-creating social platforms in low-trust urban contexts [Conference presentation]. 2026 Public Engagement Summit, Champaign, IL, United States.

Delgado Ramos, D. (2025, December 11–12). Technological mediation of trust in grassroots organizations: A case study of social networking platforms [Poster presentation]. 88th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T), Virtual.

Delgado Ramos, D. (2023). Technological mediation analysis on constructive design research: A case study of trust. In D. De Sainz Molestina, L. Galluzzo, F. Rizzo, & D. Spallazzo (Eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-changing design.

Rezapour, R., Delgado Ramos, D., Jeoung, S., & Diesner, J. (2023). Moving beyond stance detection in cross-cutting communication analysis. In Social, cultural, and behavioral modeling: SBP-BRiMS 2023 (Vol. 14161, pp. 317–327). Springer. 

Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., & Delgado Ramos, D. (2020). Community-based technology co-design: Insights on participation, and the value of the “co”. In Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) otherwise (Vol. 1, pp. 75–84). Association for Computing Machinery. 

Service

At the University of South Carolina, Ramos serves on the undergraduate committee for the School of Information Science. Beyond the university, her service commitments focus heavily on community engagement and digital literacy. In Cali, Colombia, she led digital literacy workshops and supported local social leaders in the development of community-focused social proposals.

Personal

Ramos recently relocated to Columbia from Urbana, Illinois, though she is originally from Cali, Colombia. Before entering her current research field, her foundational background was in interactive design, and she still maintain a special appreciation for animations and audiovisual production today.

Pronouns

She, her, hers, herself