Student Spotlight: Tobias Weinberg

Tobias Weinberg is a doctoral candidate in computer science from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and now studies the reframing of augmentative and alternative communication technology as a medium of expression under the guidance of assistant professor Thijs Roumen at Cornell Tech.

What is your area of research and why is it important?

Many people communicate using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technology like speech-generating apps that help people who cannot rely on spoken voice. Most AAC systems treat communication as a transaction: Get a message across, efficiently. But communication is so much more than that. My research reframes AAC technology as a medium of expression instead of a workaround for missing speech, developing AI-powered systems that move beyond transactional speech to support expressive participation in conversation. I design and study AAC technologies that adapt fluidly to users’ agency, identity, and privacy needs, enabling overlooked forms of expression.

Read the full student spotlight on the Graduate School website.