Lea Albaugh

Lea Albaugh is a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), focusing on research in digital fabrication and material creativity. Her work integrates hardware and software engineering, design inquiry, and craft practices to develop adaptable soft textile mechanisms, creative interfaces for complex machine knitting, and playful interactions with manufacturing equipment. Her research spans machine knitting, textile technologies, and soft robotics, with outcomes recognized by awards from ACM SIGCHI, Designing Interactive Systems, and Carnegie Mellon University’s teaching commendations. Lea is currently a member of both the Morphing Matter Lab and DevLab.

• 2023–Present·Morphing Matter Lab·Researcher
  • Researching digital fabrication technologies, developing soft textile mechanisms, and related interactive interfaces.

• 2019–Present·Carnegie Mellon University·Ph.D.
  • Specializing in human-computer interaction, with a focus on digital fabrication, machine knitting, and textile technologies.