Social computing research to solve social problems: An overview of projects in the Intercultural Communication Lab at Cornell

Speaker: Prof. Susan Fussell, Department of Communication & Department of Information Science, Cornell University, USA

Time: July 30 (Thu) 13:30-15:00
Location: Delta 台達館 102教室


Abstract:
Social computing technologies such as social network sites, video conferencing, twitter and blogs provide new ways for people to communicate and share information across space and time. In three ongoing research projects, my collaborators and I have been exploring how social computing tools can be used to address social problems: reducing misunderstandings in intercultural and multilingual communication, improving collaborative intelligence analysis, and reducing energy usage. For each project, I will first describe behavioral science research we have conducted to understand people’s behavior in that domain and the limitations of their current tools. Then, I will describe new tools we have developed on the basis of our research and our evaluations of these tools. These projects illustrate the benefits of interdisciplinary work that uses both behavioral science and computer science techniques.

Bio:
Susan R. Fussell is a Professor in the Department of Communication and the Department of Information Science at Cornell University. She received her BS degree in psychology and sociology from Tufts University in 1981, and her Ph.D. in social and cognitive psychology from Columbia University in 1990. Dr. Fussell's primary interests lie in the areas of computer-supported cooperative work and computer-mediated communication. Her current projects focus on intercultural and multilingual communication, collaborative intelligence analysis, public deliberation, and tools to motivate people to reduce their energy usage. Dr. Fussell has published numerous papers in the areas of computer-mediated communication, computer-supposed cooperative work, human computer interaction and related disciplines. She also served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, overseeing the review of hundreds of proposals in the general area of social computing. More information can be found on her website http://sfussell.hci.cornell.edu.