About
I am a researcher in the Future of Work community at Microsoft Research Cambridge interested in developing novel technologies to enable people’s health and well-being in the broadest sense. Put simply, I want to build technologies that matter to people.
My research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence. Working in a cross-disciplinary collaboration, my current focus is on AI applications for those with visual disabilities. I am exploring the interaction paradigms between people and agents that can be brought to bear to extend human capability through subtle dialogues with agents that see. Ongoing projects include:
Project Tokyo: visual agent technologies for people who are blind or low vision
Torino: a physical programming language inclusive of children with visual disabilities
I hold a PhD in Computer Science from University of Cambridge and an undergraduate degree in Ethnomusicology from Barnard College, Columbia University. I have also spent time playing bagpipes in rural Hungary.
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Microsoft’s Cecily Morrison awarded MBE for services to inclusive design
Cecily Morrison, a principal researcher at Microsoft’s Research Lab in Cambridge, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The 39-year-old, who is currently working on a project that uses technology to help people with low vision understand who’s around them, has been recognised for her work in inclusive design.

Empowering people with AI with Dr. Cecily Morrison
Episode 60, January 23, 2019 - Dr. Morrison gives us an overview of what she calls the “pillars” of inclusive design, shares how her research is positively impacting people with health issues and disabilities, and tells us how having a child born with blindness put her in touch with a community of people she would otherwise never have met, and on the path to developing Project Torino, an inclusive physical programming language for children with visual impairments.