Events - Colloquia & Seminars

CCIS Colloquium Spring 2006

Human Centered Computing for a Technologically Mediated World

Speaker: Andrea Grimes

Date: Thursday, March 23, 2006

Talk: 3:00 pm, 110 WVH

Abstract

In the United States, we have experienced a few major paradigm shifts with respect to models of human-computer interaction. Beginning with the mainframe model (one computer, many people) we shifted to the personal computer model (one computer, one person) and we are now in the third wave of computing in which a number of individuals own many computing devices. This paradigm shift marks a major change in the way we live our lives: our worlds are becoming embedded with technological activity. As we move towards a world of ubiquitous computing, the field of Human Centered Computing has emerged to question how we approach system requirements gathering, design, and evaluation. More than ubiquitous computing environments, though, Human Centered Computing addresses the issue of understanding how people behave in an effort to design technology that they will actually want to use. In this talk I will discuss the emerging field of Human Centered Computing, particularly how it uses the behavioral and social sciences to ground the design of new technology.

I will also discuss two projects I have worked on this year: designing a system to help people visually reflect on their health, and exploring the relationship between culture, nutrition and technology. These case studies will serve as examples of how a human-centered approach to system design can help propel the innovation of individually, socially and culturally relevant technologies.

Biography

Andrea Grimes graduated from Northeastern's College of Computer & Information Science in 2005 with a BS in CS and is now a graduate student in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology pursuing her PhD in Human-Centered Computing. Andrea won the CRA top female student award for 2005, and is the recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.