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 research examines how generative AI tools like AI Overviews reshape online search. Through eye-tracking and user studies, I work toward human-centered AI design that supports informed decision-making.
Latest News
Current Projects
Leadership & Community
Sara Allawati is a PhD candidate 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 Dr. Dana Mckay1, Prof. Mark Sanderson1, Dr. Paul Thomas2, and Dr. Johanne Trippas1. 1 RMIT University · 2 Microsoft Research