Human-AI Schema Discovery and Application for Creative Problem Solving

Abstract: Humans often rely on underlying structural patterns-schemas-to create, whether by writing stories, designing software, or composing music. Schemas help organize ideas and guide exploration, but they are often difficult to discover and apply, especially in complex or unfamiliar domains. My Ph.D. research develops a framework for human-AI schema discovery and application to support creative problem solving. I design systems that support users in sensemaking over examples to abstract schemas, and in operationalizing schemas into human-AI co-creative workflows for application. This research offers insights into how schema-guided interaction can make implicit knowledge more accessible and actionable, advancing more transparent and collaborative human-AI systems.