I am a doctoral researcher at ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) under the School of Computing Technologies, RMIT.
My work investigates how generative AI tools — such as AI Overviews — are reshaping the way people search for and engage with information online. Using eye-tracking and user studies, I aim to inform the design of more transparent and human-centered AI systems that support informed decision-making at scale.
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Sara Allawati is a doctoral researcher at RMIT University, affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). Her research sits at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval, with a focus on understanding how generative AI is reshaping the way people search online. Using eye-tracking methodology, she investigates how tools like AI Overviews influence user attention, query formulation, and decision-making.
She holds a Master's in Information Technology from RMIT University and a Bachelor's in Biomedical Sciences from Deakin University. Her research has been published at SIGIR, WWW, and CIKM. Beyond her research, she is actively involved in the academic community through leadership roles, conference organisation, and volunteering at IR conferences.
Sara is supervised by Prof. Mark Sanderson1, Dr. Dana Mckay1, Dr. Johanne Trippas1, and Dr. Paul Thomas2. 1 RMIT University · 2 Microsoft Research