Presentation by MSRA HCI team
Venue: conference Hall, North Building
Date: Jun 9, 2011
Time: 1:30pm – 5:00pm
1:30-4:00pm Presentations: HCI: Intersection of Psychology & Information Technology
4:00-5:00pm Free Q&A

 

Introduction about MSRA HCI team

Talk 1: World Lab: Inventing the Future Today
Dr. James A. Landay

ABSTRACT
There are many urgent problems facing the planet: a degrading environment, a healthcare crisis, and educational systems that are inadequately training creative, innovative thinkers to solve the problems of today and tomorrow. A balanced approach is required to solve these problems: a balance between design and technology, a balance between human-centered and technology-centered approaches, and a balance between different world cultures and ways of thinking. What if we could reduce a family’s energy and water use by 50%? What if we could extend an average citizen’s lifetime by 5 years? What if we can educate any child, anywhere in the world, to perform at the level of the best students in the world today? An institute that solves these grand challenges must include a new model of interdisciplinary research that takes a long view and encourages risk taking and creativity, while not being distracted by the incremental approaches that are encouraged by today’s funding and publication models. I propose the creation of such an institute to be jointly housed between a Chinese university and a U.S. university. Faculty members and students in the institute will spend a significant amount of time (at least one year) at the partner site. This cross flow of personnel will be the basis for a tight collaboration that is enhanced by laboratory spaces linked by wall-sized virtual windows into the partner institution’s lab space. Together, a truly interdisciplinary, trans-Pacific institute can both attack the most important problems the world faces today as well as help produce the research leaders of tomorrow.

Bio
James Landay is the Short-Dooley Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, specializing in human-computer interaction. From 2003 through 2006 he was also the Laboratory Director of Intel Labs Seattle, a university affiliated research lab exploring ubiquitous computing. His current research interests include Automated Usability Evaluation, Demonstrational Interfaces, Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing, User Interface Design Tools, and Web Design. He is spending his 2009-2011 sabbatical at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, where he is also a Visiting Professor in the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University.
Landay received his B.S. in EECS from UC Berkeley in 1990 and M.S. and Ph.D. in CS from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D. dissertation was the first to demonstrate the use of sketching in user interface design tools. He was also the chief scientist and co-founder of NetRaker. In 1997 he joined the faculty in EECS at UC Berkeley, leaving as an Associate Professor in 2003.

Talk 2: Language, Learning & Interaction
Dr. Darren Edge

ABSTRACT
Whether for social, economic or intellectual reasons, learning a second language is a significant lifetime goal for millions of people worldwide. In this talk I will present my recent research on language learning, describing how a focus on this meaningful human activity can help to inspire more natural forms of learning and interaction in general. I will illustrate this point with several language learning technologies developed in the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Microsoft Research Asia, including the contextual flashcards of our MicroMandarin system (just presented at CHI 2011) and the adaptive spaced-repetition algorithm behind the flashcards of Bing Dictionary Desktop (available at http://dict.bing.msn.cn – it’s free, try it!).

Bio
Darren Edge: I am a researcher in the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), based in Beijing, China. Prior to joining MSRA in 2008, I spent seven years at the University of Cambridge, first obtaining my undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Management Studies, before completing my PhD dissertation in the Rainbow Group at the Computer Laboratory, under the supervision of Alan Blackwell. My research interests lie in helping to realize a future where computation is embedded in the broader fabric of everyday life. By bringing computation out of “computers” and into the world, I aim to give people the freedom to augment themselves and their environment with new kinds of physical, digital, and social interaction capabilities.

Talk 3: Creating Technologies and Technologies for Creating
Dr. Xiang Cao

ABSTRACT
As kids, we imagined fantastic things and they came true with the stories we told. Now as researchers, we imagine fantastic things and they come true with the technologies we make. Behind both is the same creative mind that is within everybody. In this talk I will touch upon both sides with examples of our research: how we created technologies to allow familiar devices (e.g., pens, mice, projectors) to support novel interaction experiences not possible before, and how we employed interaction technologies to help children express their own creativity in storytelling activities.

Bio
Xiang Cao is a researcher in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Group at Microsoft Research Asia. His work spans a variety of areas in HCI, such as novel interaction technologies beyond desktop computing, computer-supported creative and cooperative activities, user performance modeling, and applications of computer vision techniques in HCI. He first joined Microsoft in the Computer-Mediated Living Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK), where he was also a research fellow of the Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge. In the past he also worked at other research labs such as in IBM, Intel, and Siemens. He received his PhD and Master’s degrees from the Department of Computer Science at University of Toronto, and Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University.

Talk 4: How and To Whom People Share: The Role of Culture in Self-Disclosure in Online Communities
Dr. Chen Zhao

ABSTRACT
The global expansion of the use of online communities, including social networking sites, necessitates a better understanding of how people self-disclose online, particularly in different cultures. In a scenario-based survey of 1,064 participants from the United States and China, we aimed to understand how self-disclosure is affected by communication mode, relationship and national culture. Our findings demonstrate the extent to which people disclose primarily depends on the relationship, e.g. to whom they are disclosing. Our findings also show that national culture interacts with communication mode and relationship to affect the extent of self-disclosure. Our results shed new light on how social communication systems might be designed for users in different cultures and for intercultural collaboration.

Bio
Chen Zhao is a Lead Researcher at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) Human Computer Interaction group. Her main research interest is cross culture design and enterprise social computing. Chen was the manager of User Experience team in IBM China Research Lab before she joined MSRA in May 2008. Chen started and built the first UX team and usability lab in IBM China. Chen has been an avid participant in the ACM SIGCHI community. She is a founder of ACM SIGCHI China Chapter and serves the vice chair. She also has the roles of Workshop Co-chair for CSCW 2011, Associate Chairs for CHI 2011 and CSCW 2010, Poster Chair for ICIC (International Conference of Intercultural Collaboration, known as IWIC before 2010). Chen received her PhD degree on Engineering Psychology from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academic Sciences and a B.S. in Psychology from Peking University.