Prior to joining UT Austin, Pavel was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and a Research Scientist at Apple. She obtained her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Her research in Human-Computer Interaction focuses on designing, building and evaluating new interactive systems driven by Artificial Intelligence. Her primary research goal is to make technology-mediated communication more efficient and accessible, especially for people with disabilities. She publishes her work at venues such as CHI, UIST and NAACL.

She writes: "As a systems researcher in Human-Computer Interaction, I embed machine learning technologies (e.g., Natural Language Processing) into new human interactions that I then deploy to test. Using my systems, remote content creators more effectively collaborate, video authors efficiently create accessible descriptions for blind users, and instructors help students to learn and retain key points. To inform future systems that capture what is important to domain experts and people with disabilities, I also conduct and collaborate on in-depth qualitative (e.g., AAC communication, memes) and quantitative studies (e.g., 360° Video, VR Saliency). My long term research goal is to make communication more effective and accessible."