Brown Bag Lunch Schedule
The HCIL has an open, semi-organized weekly "brown bag lunch (BBL)" every Thursdays from 12:30-1:30pm in HCIL (2105 Hornbake, South Wing). The topics range from someone's work, current interests in the HCIL, software demos/reviews, study design, proposed research topics, introductions to new people, etc. The BBL is the one hour a week where we all come together--thus, it’s a unique time for HCIL members with unique opportunities to help build collaborations, increase awareness of each other’s activities, and generally just have a bit of fun together. There is no RSVP; simply show up!
If you would like to give or suggest a talk, presentation, workshop, etc., send an email to BBL student co-coordinators Deokgun Park (intuinno@umd.edu) or Rebecca Stone (rstone1@umd.edu). In the email, briefly describe the topic and preferred dates.
To be notified about upcoming events, please subscribe one of these mailing lists.
We thank YAHOO for its past sponsorship of the HCIL Brown Bag Lunches
.
Spring 2017 Schedule
| Date | Leader | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 02/02/2017 |
Kickoff to a new Semester! |
Come network, make introductions, and share what each of us is working on Please come to our first BBL of the spring 2017 semester to introduce yourself and share what you're working on in the coming semester. The first BBL will be for us to network with each other and kickoff a great new semester.
|
| 02/09/2017 |
Bilge Mutlu, |
Human-Centered Principles and Methods for Designing Robotic Technologies Abstract: The increasing emergence of robotic technologies that serve as automated tools, assistants, and collaborators promises tremendous benefits in everyday settings from the home to manufacturing facilities. While these technologies promise interactions that can be highly complex and beneficial, their successful integration into the human environment ultimately requires these interactions to also be natural and intuitive. To achieve complex but intuitive interactions, designers and developers must simultaneously understand and address human and computational challenges. In this talk, I will present my group’s work on building human-centered guidelines, methods, and tools to address these challenges in order to facilitate the design of robotic technologies that are more effective, intuitive, acceptable, and even enjoyable through successful integration into the human environment. The first part of the talk will review a series of projects that will demonstrate how the marrying of knowledge about people and computational methods through a systematic design process can enable effective user interactions with social, assistive, and telepresence robots. The second part of the talk will cover ongoing work that provides designers and developers with tools to apply these guidelines to the development of real-world robotic technologies and that utilizes partnerships with domain experts and end users to ensure the successful integration of these technologies into everyday settings. The talk will conclude with a discussion of high-level design guidelines that can be drawn from this body of work.
|
| 02/16/2017 |
Susan Winter, |
Designing for Diversity: HCI and the Support of Scientific Research Abstract: Understanding user needs and designing new technologies to meet those needs has long been a focus of HCI research. HCI has been embedded within a sociotechnical systems approach often considering user needs within a work context where an employing organization designs the work, chooses the technologies, and hires and trains the employees. This organizational “container” has been eroding, which raises interesting questions about the relationships among people, innovative technologies, work, and the role of HCI in this new hyper-diverse environment.
|
| 02/23/2017 |
Virginia Byrne and Joohee Choi, |
Research design review & CSCW Practice Talk Research Design Review Title: Characteristics of Collaboration in the Emerging Practice of Open Data Analysis |
| 03/02/2017 |
Diversity in Tech Discussion |
To continue our discussions surrounding diversity in tech please come to Thursday's BBL prepared to talk about two current diversity topics: 1. Diversity and the LGBTQ Community http://fortune.com/2015/03/12/lesbians-in-tech/ 2. Sexism in Tech https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber http://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/totally-unacceptable-environment-women-tech.html
|
| 03/09/2017 |
Tim Summers & Sanjna Srivatsa, |
Using Business Intelligence and Machine Learning in financial decision making in Cybersecurity sector Abstract: Cybersecurity is a complex and multifaceted challenge that is continuously growing in importance. It is a concern that not only affects banks and government agencies, as it constantly revealed through the media, but its implications expand beyond. It comes as no surprise that Wall Street would push efforts to cash in on the opportunity that is cybersecurity. In fact, cybercrime is fueling a worldwide cybersecurity market which is expected to grow from $75 billion presently to $170 billion by 2020. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent by consumers, businesses, governments, and the rest of the world to secure our ever-changing catalog of technology including, PCs, personal and corporate networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile devices. Despite a tumultuous stock market and poor venture capital returns, cybersecurity companies are raising large rounds of financing from investors. Due to the nascent nature of this field, the highly data-driven investment methodologies of old are not effective in guiding investment decisions. Investors complain that these methods are not agile and fall short when keeping up with current trends in the cybersecurity market. Our research utilizes principles of business intelligence and the latest research in hacker cognitive psychology to present a comprehensive, informative and easily digestible indicator for investors that is agile and self-optimizing. We present a model that considers blogosphere sentiment, relevant news, trend data, and real-time cyber-attack tools, techniques, and procedures to produce an investment indicator that will assist investors in their decision making. |
| 03/16/2017 |
Raja Kushalnagar, |
Multimedia for Deaf Eyes: How do we make multimedia accessible for deaf and hard of hearing people? Abstract: Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people have relied on assistive and accessible technologies/services to consume or produce aural information. Some hard of hearing people rely on an assistive technology approach to enhance aural information for easier perception and understanding. Other hard of hearing and most deaf people rely on an accessible technology approach to transform the aural information to visual or tactile information for easier perception and understanding.
|
| 03/23/2017 | No Brown Bag, Spring Break. | |
| 03/30/2017 |
Dion Goh, |
Gaming the System: How Useful are Game-based Approaches for Crowdsourcing Content? Abstract: Crowdsourcing has become a major way of getting work done through an online community. In addition to employing volunteers or paid human experts, computer games are a possible means to attract participants for crowdsourcing projects. Such games are seen as a promising approach to crowdsourcing because they capitalize on people's desire for entertainment. In other words, they make crowdsourcing fun and engaging, fostering participation in the process. This talk will introduce game-based approaches for crowdsourcing. The talk will illustrate these ideas in a specific context of crowdsourcing content, and in particular, mobile media. By blending games with crowdsourcing of mobile media, such applications provide entertainment and content is created as a result of gameplay. Nevertheless, there are challenges associated with game-based approaches for crowdsourcing since they have to meet the twin goals of entertaining users and producing quality output. Through various studies that will be presented, issues in creating these games as well as design lessons are discussed.
|
| 04/06/2017 |
Allison Druin
|
Information @ the Extremes: The National Park Service and a Digital Future Information access, use, preservation, and policy has taken on new meanings for me as I have worked in the federal government. My leave from UMD has spanned two presidential administrations and almost two years. Join me as I reflect on "information @ the extremes" and how we have brought participatory leadership to digital change at the National Park Service. The information I share with you represents my own opinions and ideas and does not reflect the positions of the National Park Service, nor the Department of the Interior, nor the federal government. I also ask that social media not be used to post a summary. Dr. Allison Druin is currently a Special Advisor for National Digital Strategy at the National Park Service. To serve in the federal government, Dr. Druin has taken a 2-year leave of absence being a Professor from the University of Maryland. Previous to her position with the National Park Service, she was Chief Futurist for the UMD Office of the Vice President of Research, and co-founded the Future of Information of Alliance. One position that has not changed for almost 20 years, is being a proud member of the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) where she founded "KidsTeam" to design new technologies for children with children as design partners. For over 12 years she worked with the National Park Service as an outside partner to help develop new digital experiences for learning about the historic, scientific, or cultural aspects of a park or NPS program.
|
| 04/13/2017 |
Daniel Votipka
|
Who is Mr. Robot?: A Study of the Humans Behind Software Vulnerability Discovery Abstract: Finding security vulnerabilities in software is a critical task for any organization which still requires human effort even though automation has made significant strides in recent years. The task of vulnerability discovery typically falls on traditional software testers within an organization and white-hat hackers either through bug bounty programs or contracting. This talk explores the experiences, skills, processes, motivations, and metal models of these two communities. We describe our ongoing, semi-structured interview study which focuses on how these groups find bugs, how they have developed the necessary skills, and the challenges they face and give some preliminary findings.
|
| 04/20/2017 |
Rebecca Stone
|
Keeping Culture SAFe - DrupalCon Practice Talk Bio: Currently works as a contractor for a global science and technology firm, where she specializes in Automated Behavioral Analysis, a unique and significant automated expansion of psychology's Applied Behavior Analysis. Rebecca co-chairs her company’s Women's Network Employee Resource Group at the enterprise level, where she is responsible for thirteen chapters both nationally and internationally and serving over 30,000 employees. Prior to this she served in the armed forces and worked in multiple technical and leadership positions around the world to include Europe, the Middle East, and the White House. She also serves on many state commissions and national boards. She is the only Commissioner in Maryland's history to hold dual commissions: American Indian Affairs and Veterans Affairs. Nationally she has served on multiple boards, including the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans, where she was the sub-committee chair on health under the former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bob McDonald. Her dedication and loyalty have earned Rebecca multiple accolades, including the President’s Volunteer Service Award - Gold; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; the Working Mother Magazine & National Association of Female Executives-Women of Excellence Rising Star Award; a CNN Hero nomination; and the 2016 Maryland Governor's Service Award. Rebecca holds a BS in Psychology (USM) and completed the summer intensive program on cultural neuroscience at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, she is currently pursuing an MS in Human Computer Interaction at UMD and is exploring research opportunities in UX surrounding cultures & sub-cultures and diversity differences in various technologies. Rebecca is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE), Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion.
Abstract: The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) has provided one of the most accepted and widely used methods with which to scale agility within an organization. It also inherently calls upon the delivery of value to the customer. While value is typically encapsulated within the value stream, through areas such as vision and UX, one word that cannot be found anywhere within the framework is "culture". This talk explores how consideration of culture and the target user(s) can dramatically shift the direction of a project, value stream or business. It also covers how this influences the vision and UX design within a portfolio. It will cover the cost of refactoring legacy code that did not consider target demographics when initially conceived, as well as some of the UX Research methods, such as ethnography, that can be used to build cultural consideration within your business model. It will help people focus on a larger picture than just a team, project, program or portfolio approach to the end user... that end users themselves function as a system of systems that needs to be considered. The talk is primarily aimed at intermediate practitioners: ScrumMasters/Developers/UX Content Strategists/Product Owners/CEOs/Biz Dev/UX Researchers/UX Designers/SAFe Practitioners This session will be of interest to those with intermediate experience who work in UX, Agile, Business or Portfolio Vision/Management and who have an interest in how culture can be considered in SAFe and other Scaled Agile approaches. |
| 04/27/2017 |
Anthony Pellicone, |
CHI Practice Talk
Anthony Pellicone The Game of Performing Play: Understanding Streaming as Cultural Production Abstract : Live streaming has become pervasive in digital game culture. Previous work has focused largely on technological considerations in streaming platforms. However, little is known about how streamers enter the practice, gain skills, and operate as content producers. We present a qualitative study of an online forum dedicated to streaming. By observing the conversations between veterans and newcomers to the practice, we develop an understanding of how streamers must tie together technological, social, and gameplay-based skills to craft an appealing performance of play. We find that a key skill in streaming is the development of a unique attitude and persona as a gamer, which permeates into every element of a streamer’s performance. As individual identity becomes important in streaming practice, design considerations for platform features such as community moderation and stream metrics may help improve equitable participation in this increasingly important aspect of game culture. Bio: Anthony is in his fifth year of the Information Studies PhD program at the University of Maryland, and he will be defending his dissertation in May. Generally, he is interested in the ways that people learn, socialize, and play in online spaces dedicated to games. His previous work has centered on digital gameplay as an experience that is connected across multiple platforms and communities, and the culture of play in these environments. Currently he is researching both informal science learning in Alternate Reality Games, as well as live-streaming video games as an act of performance and cultural production.
Where is the Digital Divide? A Survey of Security, Privacy, and Socioeconomics Abstract: The behavior of the least-secure user can influence security and privacy outcomes for everyone else. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that influence the security and privacy of a broad variety of people. Prior work has suggested that users with differing socioeconomic status (SES) may behave differently; however, no research has examined how SES, advice sources, and resources relate to the security and privacy incidents users report. To address this question, we analyze a 3,000 respondent, census-representative telephone survey. We find that, contrary to prior assumptions, people with lower educational attainment report equal or fewer incidents as more educated people, and that users’ experiences are significantly correlated with their advice sources, regardless of SES or resources. Bio: Elissa Redmiles is a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland in Computer Science. Her research focuses on understanding and measuring users' security behavior and developing security education interventions for at-risk users. She is the recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a Facebook Fellowship. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Elissa held Marketing Management and Software Engineering roles at IBM and was a Data Science for Social Good Fellow at the University of Chicago.
Gains from Participatory Design Team Membership as Perceived by Child Alumni and their Parents Abstract: The direct gains children perceive from their membership on Participatory Design (PD) teams are seldom the focus of research studies. Yet, how HCI practitioners choose to include children in PD methods may influence the value participants see in their participation, and thereafter the outcomes of PD processes. To understand what gains former child members of a PD team perceive from their participation we conducted a two-part study. In Study 1 we surveyed and interviewed child alumni of a PD team to determine gains that are perceived first-hand. In Study 2 we obtained a secondary perspective by surveying and interviewing parents of alumni. We report on the perceived gains to former participants that were identified and described in these two studies—including collaboration, communication, design process knowledge, and confidence. We reflect on our findings through discussions of the continued applicability of gains, new opportunities, and implications for PD practitioners and methods. Bio: Brenna is a PhD candidate in Information Studies at the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Brenna’s thesis investigates participant perspectives on their membership in an intergenerational Participatory Design team, with a focus on how participants view the ethics of their participation and perceive gains from participation. Brenna is also the Research Coordinator for Kidsteam: A co-design team that works with children to design technologies that support children’s learning and play. Through this work she has been a part of the design of many amazing children’s technologies with researchers throughout the university as well as numerous industry (e.g., Pearson International, Nickelodeon) and government (e.g., U.S. National Park Service, the Office of Science, Technology and Policy at the White House) organizations. Brenna has a M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in Telecommunication- Digital Media, Art, and Technology from Michigan State University.
|
| 05/04/2017 |
Fan Du, |
CHI Practice Talk
Fan Du PeerFinder: Finding Similar People to Guide Life Choices Abstract: People often seek examples of similar individuals to guide
their own life choices. For example, students making academic
plans refer to friends; patients refer to acquaintances with
similar conditions, physicians mention past cases seen in their
practice. How would they want to search for similar people in
databases? We discuss the challenge of finding similar people
to guide life choices and report on a need analysis based on
13 interviews. Our PeerFinder prototype enables users to find
records that are similar to a seed record, using both record
attributes and temporal events found in the records. A user
study with 18 participants and four experts shows that users
are more engaged and more confident about the value of the
results to provide useful evidence to guide life choices when
provided with more control over the search process and more
context for the results, even at the cost of added complexity. Majeed Kazemitabaar MakerWear: A Tangible Approach to Interactive Wearable Creation for Children Abstract: Wearable construction toolkits have shown promise in broadening participation in computing and empowering users to create personally meaningful computational designs. However, these kits present a high barrier of entry for some users, particularly young children (K-6). In this paper, we introduce MakerWear, a new wearable construction kit for children that uses a tangible, modular approach to wearable creation. We describe our participatory design process, the iterative development of MakerWear, and results from single- and multi-session workshops with 32 children (ages 5-12; M=8.3 years). Our findings reveal how children engage in wearable design, what they make (and want to make), and what challenges they face. As a secondary analysis, we also explore age-related differences. Bio: Majeed is Masters Student in the Computer Science department, working with Jon Froehlich in the HackerSpace. He co-designs, builds and evaluates technologies for children.
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Past Brown Bags
View the Past Brown Bag Lunch Schedules to learn more about prior talks.