Building a Better World via the User-Centered Design of Technology

Location: Torreys Peak I - II

Invited Technical Speaker: Mary Czerwinski, Research Area Manager Visualization and Interaction Group, Microsoft Research

Today’s information workers are characterized by their ability to easily handle interruptions, multi-task, switch tasks quickly, and make sense of enormous amounts of information in high-pressure situations. Current and future technologies, including various wearables and sensing devices, ensure that robust communications and information transmissions can occur almost anywhere, any time. Our ability to log, collect, and visualize event data has become more sophisticated, allowing us to analyze trends and identify patterns across many areas of individual and group behaviors. How do we use these technological trends to ensure that we are designing tools that improve productivity, insight, and an overall sense of user control? In this talk, Mary discusses her research group’s approach to the user-centered design of advanced user interfaces, and she describes several of their research projects

“Help, My Supervisor Moved/Had a Baby/Went on Sabbatical!” Surviving Real Life during Grad School

Location: Quandary Peak III

Panelists: Kori Inkpen (Microsoft Research), Caitlin Kelleher (Washington University in St. Louis), Regan Mandryk (University of Saskatchewan), Tara Matthews (IBM Almaden Research Center), Irina Shklovski (University of California, Irvine)
When real life interferes with Grad school, if it doesn’t kill you, will it really make you stronger? The objective of this panel is to discuss obstacles many students encounter and discuss strategies for how to deal with these challenges. Four recent PhD grads will reflect on the ups and down they experienced during grad school and provide suggestions to others who may be experiencing similar challenges.

Building a Better World for Women in High Tech: Maximizing Talent, Minimizing Barriers

Location: Torreys Peak III

Presenter: Heather N. Foust-Cummings (Catalyst)
This presentation details the Catalyst report, Women in High Tech: Maximizing Talent, Minimizing Barriers, which focuses on talent management. Findings are based on employee surveys of more than 60,000 employees at high-tech companies and an online survey. Results indicate technical women at high tech companies were less satisfied than others with supervisory relationships, and fairness and voice. Additionally, the study details barriers to career advancement women in high tech face.

Building a Better World: Using Anthropology to Ensure Success in Your Project

Location: Crestone Peak I

Presenter: Leslie Sue Lieberman (University of Central Florida), Kathi R. Kitner (Intel), S. Revi Sterling (University of Colorado), John Bennett (University of Colorado at Boulder)
Many GHC attendees have been or will be working with diverse populations in the US and in international communities designing, implementing and deploying new technologies. The technology roadmap is changing and anthropology can provide many of the guideposts to culturally competent, appropriate, sustainable and equitable technology development and implementation. This panel addresses these issues and offers concrete examples of anthropological approaches that have been successful.

Experiences with OLPC Technology in Ghana, West Africa

Location: Torreys Peak IV

Presenter: Suzanne Buchele (Southwestern University)
The realities of implementing One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) technology in a developing country such as Ghana, West Africa are complex due to infrastructure, educational, and political issues, among others. First-hand experiences with an OLPC pilot project in Accra, Ghana, will be presented, as well as the larger issues of whether or not this type of program is possible and sustainable in the large scale.

European Women in Science and Engineering

Location: Quandary Peak I - II

Panelists: Julita Vassileva (University of Saskatchewan), Reyyan Ayfer (Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey), Aurora Vizcaino (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain), Wendy Hall (University of Southampton, UK), Nahid Shahmehri (Linkoepings University, Sweden)
The situation in Europe with regard to the representation of women is quite different than that in US and Canada. There are countries in Europe with a lot of women in CS, especially in faculty positions, like countries in former Eastern Europe, Portugal, Spain. However, the status and the pay of academic jobs in these countries are lower. Women take these jobs since they are more stable, less stressful and allow for taking care of the family, while the husband as a the main breadwinner hops from one high-paying job to another in Industry.
The big question the panel will address is what can we learn from the differences that exist in women’s participation in IT in different countries? Do women in developed Western countries have the freedom to self-select out of unattractive (hard, time-swallowing, not paid enough) jobs - a theory that was widely publicized recently, for example, in Susan Pinker’s recent book “The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap”. Or it is the education system and the unfriendly climate that weeds women away or blocks their career paths? Or do all of these factors work together, with different relative strength in different countries?

Implications of Frontier Nano Science and Technology for the Energy Sector

Location: Crestone Peak II – IV

Invited Technical Speaker: Ellen B. Stechel, Manager of the Fuels and Energy Transitions Department in the Energy Futures Group at Sandia National Laboratories
Fossil Fuels are relatively cheap, easily distributed, and readily used but are a finite energy resource, have serious ecological and geo-political implications. Before the century concludes, the world will need to find abundant, cost effective, safe, secure, and sustainable alternatives or suffer a much reduced standard of living. Existing and emerging technologies will not be sufficient to sustain the growing aspirations of an increasing worldwide population; but frontier science and technology, especially nanotechnology and state-of-the-art computational science, hold the promise and potential to navigate the multitude of challenges, which include energy security, national security, economic-well being, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This presentation will highlight some promising opportunities to rise above these challenges.