Dr. Rosa Arriaga is trained as a developmental psychologist. She emphasizes using psychological concepts, theories, and methods to address fundamental topics in human-computer interaction (HCI). She works in the area of chronic care management and wellness. Her work focuses on developing mHealth applications that encourage patient engagement, support continuity of care, and promote self-advocacy. She and her students have addressed some research topics: game apps to improve asthma management in children, interactive e-books for developmental milestone tracking by caregivers, and ubicomp technology for veterans and others with PTSD.

She is a senior research scientist in Interactive Computing and IC associate director for the MS-HCI Program. She is the instructor for several undergraduate and graduate courses in Cognitive Science and HCI. Her Georgia Tech Coursera UX Design course has reached over 45K learners.