CHCI Graduate Seminar Series
HCI graduate students sponsor and contribute to a bi-monthly seminar program "every other" Friday from 3:30 to 4:30 pm in the KnowledgeWorks II building, Room 1110. This is both a professional and a social event. Come and meet your fellow HCI students. The Graduate Seminar Series is on alternate Fridays to avoid conflict with faculty meetings. Graduate students can take advantage of this venue to practice a talk in advance of a conference or to present ongoing research, and receive feedback from the CHCI community. This is also a good opportunity for new students interested in doing research in HCI to get to learn more about HCI, and learn about the research being done by each research group in the center. Refreshments provided!
For more information, please see the graduate seminar schedule. There are also directions at this link for subscribing to the calendar.
When: every other Friday, 3:30 to 4:30pm.
Where: KWII, room 1110.
If you would like to present, please contact Mara Silva (mara@vt.edu, http://people.cs.vt.edu/mara/) or Fran Oliveira (oliveira@vt.edu).
Date: 2009-07-17
Presenter: Sameer Ahuja (thesis defense)
Topic: Slurp!
Abstract:
Local conversations online are an important means of building awareness and increasing participation amongst citizens. These conversations typically occur in local action groups and communities. These groups are centerpieces of local democratic activity and act as an intermediary level of organization between the individual and the government. Most local groups are restricted to using forums, listservs or collaborative blogs as the medium of conversation. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the problems with conventional local deliberation tools, and present the design of an open-source local conversation system we are developing at the Digital Government Research Lab that aims to utilize a set of social and organizational features for a more effective conversational environment.
Bio:
Sameer is a second year Masters student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. He is working in projects under Dr. Manuel A. Perez-Quinones, Dr. Andrea Kavanaugh, and Dr. Steve Edwards. He is fascinated with how the nature of communities affect the design of software built around them and vice versa; and intrigued about the existence of common growth patterns across social applications. These days, he is building two research prototypes: A conversation system for local communities, and a social assignment repository for CS instructors that is built over Facebooks social graph (CATspace). In 2008, Sameer interned at Strands Labs, Seattle; where he co-designed and developed a community display for third places (http://cocollage.com). He is scheduled to join the Social Networking team at Microsoft when he graduates this summer. He would happily discuss his life outside of the grad school, but he draws a disturbing blank whenever he tries to think about it.
Date: 2009-04-03
Presenter: Hussein M. Ahmed
Topic: How would you like to Interact?
Abstract:
The development of user interfaces for virtual environments mostly focuses on developing new input devices and innovative interaction techniques. However, we don’t allow users to freely choose what input device and what interaction technique to use. We propose an interaction interoperability framework based on a distributed, service oriented architecture. We profile the user based on the patterns of interaction. Applications are also profiled based on interaction tasks and based on these profiles an inference is made using three ontologies (input devices, interaction techniques and interaction tasks). The goal is to select among the available input devices the ones that best fit the user’s profile (including preferred interaction techniques) and the application tasks to maximize user satisfaction.
Bio:
Hussein Ahmed is a Ph.D. student under Dr. Denis Gracanin. His area of interest is the design of distributed systems that would scale well without affecting usability. His major contribution to HCI is in designing ontologies of Input devices, interaction techniques and interaction tasks. Hussein worked for several years in the industry of software development to be a lead developer and a project manager. His side activities this year include being Microsoft’s Student Partner at VT, serving as the Advertising chair of the CS Grad Council and as the Webmaster of UPE. Aside from development and research, Hussein enjoys photography to the extreme, studying at NYI and photographing for the Collegiate Times.
Date: 2009-03-27
Presenter: Manas Tungare
Topic: Mental Workload in Multi-Device Personal Information Management
Abstract:
Many of us use more than one device—a desktop, a laptop, a PDA, or a cellphone—to manage our personal information, such as files, calendars, contacts, emails, bookmarks, etc. In my doctoral research, I examined the issues that arise for users in this domain. First, I conducted a survey study of 220 knowledge workers, and later, a controlled experiment. I measured users\' mental workload as a way to understand their perceptions and difficulties while performing PIM tasks, using subjective measures (workload assessment questionnaires) and physiological measures (eye tracking). Some systems provide support for transitioning users\' work between devices, or for using multiple devices together; I explored the impact of such support on mental workload as well as task performance. In this talk, I will report and discuss my findings: for the Files task, I noted an increase in workload at sub-task boundaries when participants were required to transition from a desktop to a laptop. They were able to enter events faster into paper calendars than using an electronic calendar program. For the Contacts task, task performance was equal in both cases, but mental workload was higher when they could not sync their information between a cell phone and a laptop. I will close with a discussion of the larger implications of these findings.
Bio:
Manas Tungare is a Ph.D. candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. He explores his research interests at the intersection of Personal Information Management and Multi-Device User Interfaces with his advisor, Dr. Manuel Pérez-Quiñones. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech (with a specialization in HCI), and a B.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India. He interned at Google in 2005, 2006 & 2007 with the Google Desktop Search and Google Book Search teams, fusing his interests in research, design and product development. In his free time (!), he enjoys photographing his travels and writing free software. Manas\'s resume, publications, and software are available at his website, http://manas.tungare.name/.
Date: 2008-10-31
Presenter: Douglas Schuler
Topic: Civic Intelligence: A Participatory Exploratory View
Abstract:
Civic intelligence is the ability of groups of people to be intelligent in ways that benefit everybody. Generally this means the ability for groups (and society as a whole) to understand and address the challenges they face effectively and equitably. Although we could argue about, for example, how adequate or inadequate it is at any time and place, or whether it makes sense to actually measure it, civic intelligence can be said to exist. Furthermore, naming the phenomenon allows us to focus on it and talk about it. Identifying the concept provides an opportunity for us to explore it collaboratively and directly. It also allows us to propose action agendas or policies or develop institutions or technology that support civic intelligence.
Bio:
Doug Schuler has a masters degree in Software Engineering from Seattle University and a masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He is a former chair of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), a founding member of the Seattle Community Network (SCN), and a faculty member (Evening and Weekend Studies) of The Evergreen State College where he teaches and learns about technology and social implications of the network society.
His new book Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (MIT Press, 2008) contains 136 patterns written by Doug and over 80 contributors. His recent books, co-edited with Peter Day, are Shaping the Network Society: The New Role of Civil Society in Cyberspace (MIT Press) and Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Action / Global Interaction (Routledge). He also co-edited Cyberculture: The Key Concepts (Routledge) with David Bell, Brian Loader, and Nicholas Pleace. His book New Community Networks: Wired for Change (Addison-Wesley) is freely available online in both English and Spanish.
Date: 2008-10-24
Presenter: Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones
Topic: Personal Information Ecosystems: Design Concerns for Net-Enabled Devices
Abstract:
Today, with the proliferation of affordable computing, people use multiple devices to fulfill their information needs. However, designers approach each device platform individually, without accounting for the other devices that users may also use. In many cases, the applications on all the user\\\\\\\'s devices are designed to be functional replicates of each other, often with an emphasis on keeping their form and function consistent with one another. We argue that this emphasis on recreating consistent clones on each platform should not be the dominant concern for designers. In this presentation, we present the idea of a personal information ecosystem, an analogy to biological ecosystems, which allows us to discuss the inter-relationships among users devices to fulfill their information needs. Using the examples of now ubiquitous web technologies on different platforms, we discuss how considering the user\\\\\\\'s ecosystem of devices as a whole as a design target lends to better user experience and encourages designers to tackle the more important concern of seamless task migration across devices.
Bio:
Manuel A. Perez-Quinones is Associate Dean in Residence and Director of the Office for Diversity Programs at the Graduate School, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Perez-Quinones holds a DSc. in Computer Science from The George Washington University. His research interests include human-computer interaction, personal information management, user interface software, digital government, and educational uses of computers. He is an NSF CAREER awardee, and for 2008-2010 has been included in the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor program. He is a member of the Coalition to Diversify Computing, where he co-directs the national program Collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduates in Computer Science and Engineering. He serves on the editorial board for the Journal on Educational Resources in Computing.
Date: 2008-10-16
Presenter: John Gero
Topic: Computational Models of Creative Design
Abstract:
For many computers and creativity are incompatible. This talk presents the results of research on computational models of creative designing processes. It commences with a model of elementary computational creativity and then describes and presents results from: 1) design creativity by combination using genetically-based interpolation, 2) design creativity by genetic engineering, and 3) design creativity by combination using genetic engineering.
The talk then introduces the notion of situatedness as an approach to drive first-person based computational creativity before describing and presenting results from: 1) situated design by analogy, and 2) design using social creativity. The talk concludes with a model of creativity.
Bio:
John Gero is a Research Professor at the Krasnow Institute of Advanced Study and at the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering, George Mason University and a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Formerly he was Professor of Design Science and Co-Director of the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney. He is the author or editor of 46 books and over 550 papers in the fields of design science, design computing, artificial intelligence, computer-aided design, design cognition, design creativity and cognitive science. He has been a Visiting Professor of Architecture, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science or Cognitive Science at MIT, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia and CMU in the USA, at Strathclyde and Loughborough in the UK, at INSA-Lyon and Provence in France and at EPFL-Lausanne in Switzerland. His website is http://mason.gmu.edu/~jgero/
Date: 2008-10-10
Presenter: Pardha S. Pyla
Topic: Connecting the usability engineering and software engineering life cycles through a communication-fostering framework
Abstract:
Interactive software systems have both functional and user interface components. Because the user interface and the functional core are closely coupled, with one significantly constraining the design of the other, there should be close connections between the corresponding development processes. Unfortunately, the disciplines of usability engineering (responsible for the user interface) and software engineering (responsible for the functional core) are practiced independently with little or no communication between them. This lack of communication often results in reduced situational awareness, higher risks in managing design changes, and costly rework at the end of the overall development cycle. In response, a three-part framework was developed to foster and structure communication among developer roles within the software engineering and usability engineering life cycles. Using a systems-level evaluation with real clients in a simulated software development setting, the usefulness of the framework was demonstrated. In addition, the evaluation identified that certain aspects (negative and positive) of social dynamics of collaborative work can eclipse the effects of structured communication or its absence.
Bio:
Pardha Pyla is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Dr. Pyla is one of the pioneering researchers in the area of connecting software engineering and usability engineering life cycles. His research interests include human-computer interaction and personal information management. Dr. Pyla has a B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Nagarjuna University (India), M.S. degrees in both Computer Engineering and Computer Science from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. While at Virginia Tech, he received numerous distinctions including the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award from the College of Engineering, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Department of Computer Science, and the Citizen Scholar Award from the Graduate School.
Date: 2007-11-30
Presenter: Mehmet Celal Dasiyici
Topic: Multi-Scale Mouse: Optimizing Mouse Interaction for Large Personal Workspaces
Abstract:
As increasingly large displays are integrated into personalworkspaces, mouse-based interaction could become problematic for long distance cursor movement. Previous studies indicated that Users must repeatedly "clutch" the mouse. We test a multi-scale approach to mouse interaction, realized in the form of a Dynamic Speed and Size cursor that grows larger and faster when needed. Using Fitts' Law methods, we experimentally compare different implementations to optimize its design, and also compare them to additional techniques that integrate absolute pointing by head tracking. Results indicate the scalability of the mouse to very large displays, surpassing absolute pointing techniques for large movements while maintaining fast performance of the typical mouse configuration on small screens for small movements. The best designs maintained amount of clutching to less than one per task. Results also showed that dynamic size statistically improves pointing performance and jumps between speeds in different thresholds should not be more than 2x.
Bio:
Mehmet Dasiyici is a second year Ph.D. student, currently preparing his M.S. thesis under the supervision of Chris North. He is currently working on improving ways to interact with large, high resolution displays. He has conducted two experiments to investigate how to interact with large, high resolution displays and found out that mouse can still be a viable option to interact with even a 96 million pixel display.
Date: 2007-11-02
Presenter: Laurian Vega
Topic: Can people evolve local processes?
Abstract:
Knowledge workers in business settings determine what they do and how to do it. We call this kind of work local processes, which are owned by the people who are responsible. Ownership means formulating, carrying out, and maintaining the local processes. People manage their local processes by creating their own representations (such as, checklists, diagrams, charts), on which they heavily rely. Our goal is to design \\\"activity-based\\\" tools to support the ownership of local processes. In this paper we focus on how people can evolve local processes by continuously updating them to keep up with changing business conditions. We first formulate a model describing how people can evolve process representations by modifying representations in response to discrepancies encountered in using them. Then we present a lab study that demonstrates evolving processes in line with the model. The study also yields detailed data on how people evolve processes. From this we suggest design implications for a support tool; and we present an example prototype tool, Quickstep, and its critical features.
Bio:
Laurian Vega is a PhD student under Dr. Scott McCrickard. She returned this summer from her internship at IBM Almaden working under Tom Moran. When not in California, Laurian can be found working on trying to design for trust in computer interfaces and websites. In her spare time Laurian is president of the Computer Science Graduate Council, Vice President of the Association of Women in Computing, TAing, being the webmaster for ADVANCE, and in general, rocking at Guitar Hero.
Date: 2005-03-14
Presenter: Dr. Francis Quek
Topic: Embodiment Awareness, Mathematics Discourse, and the Blind
Abstract:
This talk will be about the work that will be done as part of a recently awarded NSF project. It deals with assisting the blind in following discourses, especially in mathematics.
Bio:
Dr.Quek is the director of the Center for HCI.
Date: 2005-03-04
Presenter: Chadwick A. Wingrave
Topic: ICHASM: Bridging Description and Implementation of 3D Interfaces
Abstract:
Specifying and implementing 3D interfaces is difficult and improvements have to go beyond just better diagrams or libraries with new features. We have to be willing to change our notions of programming. The CHASM (Connected Hierarchical Architecture of State Machines) project has studied the programming and design artifacts of several projects to identify the breadth of functionality required for interactive systems. It has also created a new system that addresses many of the failings with current practice, using a custom hierarchical state machine to add new assurances to the programmer for reusability and managing code complexity. It also keeps the simplicity of imperative programming and the strength of object-oriented design. The CHASM architecture has been implemented and is currently used in a research project with results reported on its design.
Bio:
Chadwick Wingrave is a member of the 3D Interaction Group. His advisor is Dr. Doug A. Bowman.
Date: 2005-02-18
Presenter: Regis Kopper
Topic: Interaction techniques for multiscale virtual environments
Abstract:
Virtual environments interaction research has attracted a lot of attention during the past few years and the technology improvement has given means for the humans to interact more naturally with the 3D world. However, most of the research on this field was held considering single scale virtual worlds. This means that the users can perform interaction tasks in VE where they can easily find their way throughout the entire environment. More recently some effort was put on large scale VE interaction research, specially on navigation tasks for easily wayfinding and traveling through large scale virtual worlds. These works, however, do not acknowledge multiscale environments in which each level of scale has its own semantic significance and the relationships between the different scales are also important for the application. Such virtual environments can be exemplified as the human anatomy for learning. Anatomy students are interested in knowing the relationship between each organ of the body in a top scale, but also need to understand each organ\'s internal structure and so forth down to the atomic level. Thus, the aim of the research project presented here is to develop and evaluate a set of interaction techniques suitable for multiscale virtual environments that fit those needs. Several considerations have to be made, such as spacial orientation and how to change between different scales keeping user\'s comprehension, how to make clear to the user where he can go down on scale, how to change navigation mode from normal to interscalar and how the change of scale affects user\'s position and orientation.