Esther Showalter

About
I’m in the second year of my Ph.D. studies in the Mobility Management and Networking (MOMENT) Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara, advised by Dr. Elizabeth Belding.  
Research
Questions that drove me into grad school include: What’s the hold up with rural internet access? Why isn’t broadband truly worldwide yet? Specifically: How can I characterize and improve Internet access links to derive a more flexible, ubiquitously-deployable model of worldwide information distribution? How can I create more widely affordable last- and middle-mile access links? How can pure data analysis help uncover culturally appropriate Internet access preferences of the thousands of marginalized people groups in America and around the world?
Awards - 2018
NSF GRFP Fellow, 3 year award
Publications - 2019
E. Showalter, N. Moghaddas, M. Vigil-Hayes, E. Zegura and E. Belding. "Indigenous Internet: Nuances of Native American Internet Use", ICTD, Ahmedabad, India, January 2019. 
Publications - 2016
2016: (independent research, not affiliated with UCSB or JHU) E. Showalter. “Mobile Device Keyboard Customization for a Newly Constructed Orthography of a Rural West African Language”. ICTD, Ann Arbor, USA, June 2016.