Quentin (Gad) Jones' Home Page

Educational Philosophy

"The future is already here; it's just unevenly distributed". (William Gibson, 1999)

Taking William Gibson's quote to heart, I see the role of educators in my field as one of exposing students to emerging technology early on, providing them with a user experience perspective and directly engaging them in the research and design process.

I believe that the next generation of cyber-infrastructures is emerging from the convergence of ubiquitous computing technologies (smart phones, WiFi, RFID tags, sensor networks, navigation systems embedded in cars, etc.) and social software systems (flickr photo sharing, instant messaging, Wikipedia, etc.). Such infrastructure promises to improve coordination, collaboration, and social connectivity by leveraging information about people, social relationships, and locations imbued with social meaning. Smart phones, for example, can execute mobile social computing applications such as real-time group coordination, location-aware alerts, and context-aware social matching. However, ubiquitous social computing applications bring potential risks as well as benefits. Technology can be overwhelming and counterproductive when people must constantly master a multitude of heterogeneous gadgets, each running different software. And people can be concerned and rights actually violated, if social issues such as trust and privacy protection are not carefully and artfully designed for. Ubiquitous social computing literacy is therefore a critical educational priority. For technology students (CS/IS/IT/HCI) a fundamental part of that literacy is knowledge of various user centered design processes. As a result, all the courses I have developed and teach reflect this fundamental perspective about what it means for technology students to be literate.

Courses

Pervasive Computing: An HCI Perspective (IS686)

What the Course is All About

Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous (another name for the movement is ubiquitous computing), connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly, wireless - technologies and the Internet. Pervasive computing devices are not personal computers as we tend to think of them, but very tiny - even invisible - devices, either mobile or embedded in almost any type of object imaginable, including cars, tools, appliances, clothing and various consumer goods - all communicating through increasingly interconnected networks.

Among the emerging technologies expected to prevail in the pervasive computing environment of the future are wearable computers, smart homes and smart buildings. Pervasive computing researchers aim to understand how to create systems that are pervasively and unobtrusively embedded in the environment, completely connected, intuitive, effortlessly portable, and constantly available, that are of social value.

Course Aims

This course aims to introduce students to the world of ubiquitous/pervasive computing and in particular how pervasive technologies can potentially impact on communities. Fun questions examined include: What will it mean to wear computers? How should such systems be built? Do you really want the coffee vending machine to call you on your mobile phone? How will having a lecture room that knows who you are enable a better class? The future is here; this course will present it, discuss it, and help you prepare for it.

Topics Examined

Conceptual Areas

Technology

Ethical and Social Considerations

Special Effects

A number of videos from conferences dealing with human computer interaction and ubiquitous computing will be shown during the course. See what can be done with digitized chopsticks and smart tape measures, and more.

Course Requirements

This course is open to all CCS Masters and PhD students.

Course Work

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) & Social Computing (IS-786-Special Topic)

What the Course is All About

CSCW CIS 786 is an introduction to a new and rapidly developing area of information systems, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The late 1980's spread of personal computing and network access led to a startling revelations in companies. "People don't work alone, they work together." This revelation led to a rapid effort to produce software for sharing work on computers that were designed for single users. Two conclusions were obvious from this effort: (1) We had no idea how people shared work; and (2) The software problems were much harder than we thought. To deal with problem 1, the CSCW field had to incorporate such disparate disciplines as communications, anthropology, sociology and organizational behavior. To handle problem 2, an entire new infrastructure of network architecture needed to be developed.

Because the CSCW field embraces so many disciplines, it has become structured around the type of software built to support collaboration. This course will reflect this structure. The areas of software that businesses use to support employees working together include but are not limited to:

Each of these areas will be covered in three ways. First, we will discuss the technology and how it supports collaborative work. We will then discuss the human ramifications of the technology, e.g., what impact the technology has had on work. Finally, we will learn methods for capturing, and analyzing collaboration in order to adapt the CSCW technology to a specific work environment or work task. In many cases we will also use the technology in question. The course will spend more than a week on workflow computing because performing a workflow analysis and design is essential to understanding collaborative systems in today's workplace.

Course Objectives

When you have finished taking this course, you should expect to have gained:

Course Reading Material

The papers are organized by the topics that will be covered in the course. The papers will be made available through distribution in class or by access to the course web page.

Ubiquitous Computing Design Studio (CS/IS/IT/HCI 448)

Course Aims

The aim of the course is to:

Topics Examined

Conceptual Areas

Technology

Ethical and Social Considerations

Course Requirements

This course is open to all Undergraduate CCS students.