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drlauralevy.bsky.social
Laura Levy, PhDemocracy 👾🔬✨
@drlauralevy.bsky.social
450 followers 1.1K following 180 posts
🔬 Games User Researcher, Amazon Games
🎓 PhD human factors psych
🐝 Previous Georgia Tech Research Scientist
👾 #GUR #HCI
🤷🏻‍♀️ John McCain put my first game on his "naughty list"
💬 my own thoughts/opinions

🇺🇸🇨🇱🇸🇪
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drlauralevy.bsky.social
Two days shy of my Amaversary, I join my dev brethren in the end of this Amazon Games chapter.

What an honor to work with friends that are also colleagues I admire, make some games, & do research that mattered.

15+ yrs in games/tech & ready for the Next Thing! 🧵

www.linkedin.com/in/drlaurale...
Screenshot from Slack with a profile picture of a brunette and blue-eyed character in a red robe from the game, Journey. The text at the top says "Happy 2 years! Joined on October 30, 2023". Additionally text reads "2023-2025".
October 28, 2025 at 8:56 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
I got you baby, I didn't see shit 🫣
screenshot of a warning from the AI Claude platform that reads, <system warning>the user is nearing the half-way point of the conversation based on the chat session budget. Claude must now substantially reduce the length of responses in order to Keep Claude's responses from being cut off later in the conversation. (This warning is invisible to the user.)</system warning>
October 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
It’s so cool how fast this technology has improved and continues to improve our lives every day 🥰 @kcrw.com
A screen shot with dark blue borders and a faint ghostly blue in the middle. The top text shows the voice prompt to Siri, "Siri who is this". Siri's reply is, "This is KCRW. This track is called 'Music'."
May 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Pasteur's Quadrant drives US research

Traditional academia = Bohr
Industry = Edison
National labs/applied academia = Pasteur

Real societal impact is Pasteur's quad

Basic research (how disease works) inspired by need (prevent death) = innovation (vaccine)

We're losing a better future for all
A figure. The horizontal axis states "Relevance for immediate applications". The vertical axis states, "Relevance for generatlized knowledge". The top left quadrant is Bohr's pure basic research, the top right quadrant is Pasteur's use-inspired basic research, the bottom left is simply called Tinkering, and the bottom right is Edison's pure applied research.
April 29, 2025 at 6:35 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Like any good former museum professional, everything is tacked down with earthquake putty.

Except this bookend...which is now freshly tacked down with earthquake putty. 😌
The top fo the image indicates a 5.0 magnitude earthquake in San Diego County on April 14, 2025 at 10:08am. A three image graphic shows a stick figure following the instructions to Drop! Cover! Hold on! The second image beneath shows a row of books in a bookshelf, which have mostly been tipped over to the right. A bookend with a brass sailboat has been pushed to the far edge of the shelf under the weight of the shifting books.
April 14, 2025 at 7:51 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
My go-to April Fool's office prank makes me feel so ancient but here it is for any of you living in last century

1. Put a paperclip on the photocopy machine glass
2. Make lots of copies
3. Copies now have 1 paperclip printed on them
4. Feed those puppies back in to the fresh paper slot
5. Run
A hand holds a mostly blank sheet of paper. The only thing printed on the paper is the photocopied image of the paperclip.
April 1, 2025 at 5:54 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
the very first game I ever worked on was called Food for Thought and for 15 years I have been sneaking "food for thought" into nearly every work product I've ever produced as an Easter egg to no one but myself

just some food for thought for y'all
Screenshot of the title slide of a game called Food for Thought. A green turtle wearing a white chef's hat whisks batter in a blue bowl. A black and white fluffy guinea pig holding onto a ketchup bottle flies through the air as ketchup sprays beneath. It is important to note that the guinea pig is also wearing a chef's hat. Also her name is Chloe.
March 25, 2025 at 9:19 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Hey, y'all!

I'm a human factors psych specializing in the messiest experimental research human-computer interactions has to offer!

From aerospace to zoology, my work spans industries in academia-industry research translation with a focus on applied games research.

Now at Amazon Games as a #GUR 👾
Meme from the talk show, Maury. Maury sits in a tan chair, glasses on, and holding a piece of paper that he appears to be reading from. Big white text at the top of the meme reads, "The participants said they enjoyed the game experience". Bottom white meme text reads, "the data determined that was a lie".
March 24, 2025 at 11:10 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
4 yrs ago. A talk I'd never be allowed to give today. Forbidden words removed from my hype post.

"Excited to speak at the CS4GA Summit about ______ in esports and how to build more ______ K-12 esports/gaming programs for ______ and ______ ______ in Georgia schools!

See ya in the ______ track!"
Screenshot of a presentation title slide, titled "Women in Esports" given by "Laura Levy, Research Director Gaming & Esports Applied Research, Georgia Institute of Technology". A pair of hands holds a purple gaming controller.
March 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Shout out to my fellow Laura Levy authors that had their work used without permission to train Meta's AI!

Keep up the good work : checks notes : medical stuff and glacier stuff researching Laura Levys!

Have fun fighting the ACM, Meta! :D

Search yourself here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Screenshot of the The Atlantic's search tool to see if an author's work was in the Library Genesis data set used to train Meta's AI model. This image shows two papers by me, Laura Levy. Screenshot of the The Atlantic's search tool to see if an author's work was in the Library Genesis data set used to train Meta's AI model. This image shows other Laura Levy work.
March 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
I'm an ethologist, by training, so you know I got BEHAVIORAL CODES!

I lead and trained a team of 20 researchers across 12 time zones to produce in situ observational behavioral data that informed the publication thanks to this scrappy simplified (if you can believe it) 3 digit coding structure ✨
A text document describing behaviors IEEE VR conference attendees may perform. Each behavior is assigned a three digit code. A text document describing behaviors IEEE VR conference attendees may perform. Each behavior is assigned a three digit code.
March 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
I'd like to point out that the Women in MR social was the ONLY social where people created special outfits (often colorful cocktail-esque attire) for the event, placed wine and snacks around the room, and overall had a really fabulous time.
Screenshot from Mozilla Hubs. Avatars stand around a table full of charcuterie. An avatar in the foreground sports a lime green and silver dress. Screenshot from Mozilla Hubs. An avatar in the foreground is donned with colors of the rainbow. Snacks clutter the background.
March 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
The IRL IEEE VR social was supposed to take place in this Georgia Aquarium ballroom that overlooks the beluga tank, which we could not do due to lock down. We were all very bummed about that.

But not to fear! The Women in MR meetup had attendees filling the space with our own marine encounters.
Picture of a ballroom at the Georgia Aquarium. The ceiling is curved like undulating waves. Blue and purple lights illuminate the room with patterns of white. A dance floor gleams at one corner. Tables and chairs are scattered throughout the room. At two ends of the room are big panes of glass that look into the main aquarium spaces, including the beluga and whale shark tanks. A screenshot within Mozilla Hubs. A blue avatar stands next to a 3D model of a beluga.
March 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
While Mozilla Hubs supports browser-only navigation of the massive virtual conference spaces, many attendees participated in *actual* VR using headsets.

When VR-users took breaks away from their desks, their avatars took on exasperated poses. Attendees often moved to a corner to show they were afk.
Mozilla Hubs avatar shows its eyes pointing down and heads in the air An avatar named "Blair" has their face pressed into a room corner
March 20, 2025 at 5:24 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Look how cute my Hubs research outfit was 🥰
Screenshot of a cartoonish looking avatar with brown hair and big blue hairs. Notably no arms. Her white T-shirt reads RESEARCHER with the IEEE VR 2020 logo with ATL printed, as the conference was planned in person in Atlanta, Georgia.
March 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
tl;dr I used to travel the world handling the collection of Titanic artifacts

This shirt is a crew gift but, to this day, I don’t know if “CREW” means the *actual* crew of the Titanic or us, the exhibition crew, but either way it’s a hilariously inappropriate thing to put on a shirt & I adore it ☠️
A grey knit shirt with large, red embroidered letters that read, “TITANIC CREW”
March 15, 2025 at 12:20 AM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
"did they do a factor analysis", I wonder during my lit review

CTRL+F

yes, they did

and now this is glitched and stuck in my browser 🫠
Screenshots of a browser window showing the "search in page" bar that reads only "factor anal"
February 21, 2025 at 12:00 AM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Today's SoCal mood is driving with the windows down past an In-N-Out and now everything in the car smells like a Flying Dutchman mustard fried wrapped in whole grilled onion add chopped grilled onion add pickle add chopped chilis and damn that's my In-N-Out order so makes a lot of sense actually
A picture from In-N-Out of a Flying Dutchman mustard fried wrapped in whole grilled onion add chopped grilled onion add pickle add chopped chilis. Also there are fries.
February 16, 2025 at 6:45 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Screenshot from Sailor Moon. Usagi is on the floor propped up by her elbows and looking concerned at Luna, her black cat, perched on her belly. Luna is holding one paw up to Usagi's face and the caption beneath reads, "You cannot escape from reality"
February 6, 2025 at 7:20 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
I'm filming all of my belongings cause SoCal🔥and I'd like to share with you this 35 year old cheat code note my mom left in the Catrap GameBoy case that I am only discovering right meow

kids don't know this gamer life

feel free to use her save codes, if needed
A picture of a GameBoy game called Catrap and its plastic case sit on an orange and white zig-zag patterned rug. Behind the game cartridge is a small lined piece of paper where save codes are written in neat handwriting. The top two codes are scratched out.
January 21, 2025 at 11:44 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Can you believe it, it’s Friday once again!

Blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way. Everyone, have a great day!
A photo of La Jolla with the blue ocean on the right meeting the sandy shore. Surfers with boards walk by with palm trees on the horizon, blue skies, and fluffy white clouds.
January 17, 2025 at 7:40 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
no weather report today
Two photos of an older David Lynch are stacked vertically. In the top photo, David Lynch looks directly into the camera a bit haggard. The text beneath reads, "Good morning, everyone. It's..." The photo beneath has David looking over his shoulder, squinting as if looking out a bright window. The text beneath reads, "Oh, who fucking cares anymore?"
January 16, 2025 at 7:10 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
we lost a real one
A black and white photo of an older David Lynch in a suit looking a bit weary. A quote reads, "What a heavy load Einstein must've had. Fucking morons, everywhere." - David K. Lynch
January 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
"Keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole"

❤️
A black and white photo of David Lynch who is a wearing a sharp suit. His face is turned over his right shoulder with perfectly coiffed hair and a skeptical look. A quote above reads, "Inside we're ageless, and when we talk to ourselves - it's the same person we were talking to, the same age, when we were little. It's the body that is changing around that ageless center." - David Lynch
January 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
drlauralevy.bsky.social
Today's Santa Ana winds as relative humidity data 🌬️🌵
A line graph plotting relative humidity over time. The chart starts at 2am on Tuesday, January 7th and shows a decline of humidity starting around 6am to the time of posting at 2pm. The highest humidity reading in this graph is about 80%. The lowest reading, at time of posting, is just above 30%.
January 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM