Deal All,
The next Critical Computing Seminar is on March 21. Please find details
below.
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
==
Dr. Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
The University of Toronto
Ph: +1 647 220 3482 (mobile)
Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Room 5262
Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada
Website <https://www.ishtiaque.net/%20> || Google Calendar
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft@gmail.com…>
|| ORCID ID <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2452-0687> || Semantic Web
<https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Syed-Ishtiaque-Ahmed/145867840>
==
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Priyank Chandra <priyank.chandra(a)utoronto.ca>
Date: Mon, Mar 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Subject: Critical Computing Seminar (March 21): "Reconfiguring for Impact:
Reflections on Community-based Design" by Aakash Gautam
To: faculty-all(a)ischool.utoronto.ca <faculty-all(a)ischool.utoronto.ca>,
technoscienceunit-internal(a)googlegroups.com <
technoscienceunit-internal(a)googlegroups.com>
Cc: Shion Guha <shion.guha(a)utoronto.ca>, Ishtiaque Ahmed <
ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>, Robert Soden <robert.soden(a)utoronto.ca>, Ashique
Thuppilikkat <ashique.thuppilikkat(a)mail.utoronto.ca>, Siddhant Shinde <
sid.shinde(a)mail.utoronto.ca>
Dear All,
We are pleased to invite you to the Critical Computing Seminar on March 21,
2025, at 11:00 AM. Prof. Aakash Gautam from the University of Pittsburgh,
will deliver a talk, “Reconfiguring for Impact: Reflections on
Community-based Design."
The seminar will take place in the Learning Hub, 4th Floor, Bissell
Building. Please register at: https://bit.ly/4iD40SM, to help us plan for
refreshments.
*Abstract:* In this talk, Prof. Aakash Gautam will reflect on two
participatory technology design projects --- one in Nepal and one in the
U.S. --- that engage with and support marginalized communities. The first
project involved co-designing computing resources with an anti-sex
trafficking organization and survivors living in a shelter home. The
second, an ongoing multi-site effort, is a collaboration with nonprofit
organizations that assist formerly incarcerated individuals (returning
citizens) in their re- entry journey. While the contexts differ,
commonalities exist around the prevalence of stigma, structural challenges,
and the optimism as well as limits of technology in changing the condition.
These projects have yielded insights on assets-based design and
methodological considerations to promote agency and power in complex social
contexts. Prof. Gautam will then take a critical turn to examine two
fundamental questions: What is the right thing to do? and Have we done it?
Questions around the tangible impact of these projects and whether the
academic contributions meaningfully translate into public good remain open.
Through this reflection, Prof. Gautam hopes to prompt a discussion on the
values that guide community-based design and explore ways to bridge the gap
between academic output and community-driven change.
*Bio:* Prof. Aakash Gautam is an assistant professor with dual appointments
in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Information
Culture and Data Stewardship. He completed his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in
2021 for which he received the SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation award. He is
interested in designing socio-technical approaches to supporting dignity,
well-being, and the collective capacity of marginalized communities. Learn
more about him and his work at https://aakash.xyz/.
*Time:* 21 March 2025, 11AM - 1PM
*Location:* Learning Hub, 4th Floor, Claude T. Bissell Building, 140 St
George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6
*Registration:* https://bit.ly/4iD40SM
Regards
Priyank Chandra
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information
Director, STREET Lab <http://www.streetlab.tech/>
University of Toronto
http://www.priyankc.com
This email is not secure.
Hello Everyone,
Many of you may find Oliver's work interesting and may consider attending
this event.
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
==
Dr. Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
The University of Toronto
Ph: +1 647 220 3482 (mobile)
Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Room 5262
Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada
Website <https://www.ishtiaque.net/%20> || Google Calendar
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft@gmail.com…>
|| ORCID ID <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2452-0687> || Semantic Web
<https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Syed-Ishtiaque-Ahmed/145867840>
==
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Oliver Haimson <haimson(a)umich.edu>
Date: Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Subject: my upcoming book event in Toronto!
To: Syed%20Ishtiaque%20Ahmed%20 <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Hi Ishtiaque,
I hope all is well with you. I wanted to reach out and let you know that
I’ll be coming to your area soon for a book event! The event will be at 140
St. George Street, Toronto, Learning Hub, 4th floor (Claude Bissell
Building) in Toronto on Monday, March 10 at 3pm. Here's the link to the
event:
https://sds.utoronto.ca/events/book-talk-trans-technologies-with-professor-…
It would be great to see you if you’ll be around! And I’d love your help in
spreading the word to others who may be interested :)
Oliver
[image: Toronto Trans Technologies, Book talk.png]
--
Oliver Haimson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Michigan School of Information
pronouns: he/him
oliverhaimson.com
My new book *Trans Technologies
<https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262551861/trans-technologies/>* (MIT Press)
is out now!
What is UofT's ranking for HCI on CSrankings.org?
www.csrankings.org
Fun fact of the day! number 3 worldwide. Gold to Tovi, Silver Daniel,
Bronze Ishtiaque/Fanny. Thank you :D
[image: image.png]
Joseph
[I try to prioritize emails sent to williamspriority(a)cs.toronto.edu over my
default email of williams(a)cs.toronto.edu].
Joseph Jay Williams, Assistant Professor, www.josephjaywilliams.com
Intelligent Adaptive Interventions research group
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto (primary)
Dept. of Psychology; Statistical Sciences (courtesy graduate appointments –
admitting PhD students); Economics; Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence Faculty Affiliate
Subject: Research Seminar: Changing Behaviour using AI and Experimentation:
Applications in Education, Health Behaviour, Marketing, Website Design
Zoom link to join: tiny.cc/williamszoom (see tiny.cc/williamstalk if issues)
Add to your calendar: https://calendar.app.google/sojJZmf5QKAiYaDeA
Research Seminar: Changing Behaviour using AI and Experimentation:
Applications in Education, Health Behaviour, Marketing, Website Design
Friday 20th September, 10-11:30am Pacific (1:00-2:30 pm EST) ICCS 246
Join Prof. Joseph Jay Williams and Prof. Dongwook Yoon in a special
research seminar on Changing Behaviour using AI and Experimentation. This
is an in-person event, with opinion to join online at tiny.cc/williamszoom,
or request recording after from williamsassistant(a)adaptint.org. All are
welcome and no registration required.
Abstract:
This lecture presents tools and methods for optimizing a product or
intervention by making it Intelligent and Adaptive, including: (1)
Messages/Prompts in Mobile Apps; (2) Explanations of concepts in websites;
(3) Texts & Emails for Marketing & Health. This work is based on the AdapEx
framework,which recently received 1st prize in the $1M Xprize competition
for future of experimentation, to transform components of an interface into
Intelligent agents, that integrate human intelligence (crowdsourcing) and
artificial intelligence (LLMs). These components become Adaptive by using
perpetually MicroExperiments to test out these different actions, and using
qualitative and quantitative data to optimize what to show to a
user/customer, in different contexts. We show how to use AdapComps to
integrate AI/LLMs, Machine Learning for adaptive experiments, theories of
psychology, and human-computer interaction/user experience design.
Speaker's Bio:
Joseph Jay Williams is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto
in Computer Science, with courtesy appointments supervising PhD students in
Statistical Science, Psychology, and the Vector Institute for Artificial
Intelligence, and courtesy appointments in Economics & Industrial
Engineering. He directs the Intelligent Adaptive Interventions lab, which
aims to transform any user interface into an Intervention to help people
change their behaviour and learn, by reimagining randomized "A/B"
experiments as a tool for Intelligent Adaptation. His lab's work is
represented in over 80 papers (www.intadaptint.org/papers
<https://app.cyberimpact.com/redirect?ct=XXJdQKf28RO-Q1e8l5W9HQ2YdChm_l-2mJ_…>),
2 Best Paper Awards (1 at CHI), 4 Runner Up/Honorable Mention for Best
Paper (CHI, EDM, LAS), and 1st place in a $1M Xprize competition for the
future of experimentation technology in education. We've received over $2M
in grant funding, enabling interventions impacting over 500 000 people.
Their 10 PhD Students span HCI (Human Computer Interaction),
Cognitive/Social/Clinical/Health Psychology, applied ML (reinforcement
learning), applied AI (LLMs), & Statistics.
Joseph was previously an Assistant Professor in Information Systems &
Analytics at National University of Singapore, Research Scientist at
Harvard, postdoc at Stanford, and did his PhD at UC Berkeley. He is
originally from Trinidad and Tobago. Talks for different audiences are at
www.intadaptint.org/representative-talks
<https://app.cyberimpact.com/redirect?ct=0T7DYyu8f0ewD1X-f2Gav1bTAk4Cv7T0Ww0…>,
and their research agenda on Intelligent Adaptive Experimentation is
summarized at the URL tiny.cc/williamsresearch
<https://app.cyberimpact.com/redirect?ct=ewGEeRjjTzLphABm65X4mA8FT7Esd1tRugW…>
.
Joseph
Joseph Jay Williams, Assistant Professor, www.josephjaywilliams.com
Intelligent Adaptive Interventions research group
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto (primary)
Dept. of Psychology; Statistical Sciences (courtesy graduate appointments –
admitting PhD students); Economics; Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence Faculty Affiliate
What web apps do you recommend for generating slides using LLMs/GPT?
e.g. Asking for specific slide images. Or creating full slide decks of
bullet points and images, from voice recordings and transcriptions, for new
lectures I'm generating. It'd be great if it plugged into Google slides.
Joseph
{Sent from mobile phone with voice to text, please excuse any typos or
abruptness}
Joseph Jay Williams, Assistant Professor, www.josephjaywilliams.com
Intelligent Adaptive Interventions research group
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto (primary)
Dept. of Psychology; Statistical Sciences (courtesy graduate appointments –
admitting PhD students); Economics; Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence Faculty Affiliate
This event has been canceled.
Intadaptint + friends end of semester social
Thursday Apr 13, 2023 ⋅ 6pm – 9:30pm
Eastern Time - Toronto
Location
171 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 1P7, Canada
https://www.google.com/maps/search/171+College+St,+Toronto,+ON+M5T+1P7,+Can…
This is the IntelligentAdaptiveInterventions lab's end of year 'lime' (aka
social),6-8 pm smith house 171 college st. Anyone is welcome to swing by
for 10-X mins and say hi. feel free to stop by, invite any other people. We
are very inclusive, better to invite people than not! Especially keen to
have more psych, stats,HCI, ML people! There may/may not be a Santa suit
and masks...
Here is the url to join remotely and wave hi via zoom, or just see what's
going on: tiny.cc/iaihybrid
What can we celebrate and show AppreciationsAdmirationsEmulations for? (see
ZzGuidingQuestions at tiny.cc/iaiappreciation)
-What is everyone grateful for and who are they grateful for from the
semester? Choose 1-3 things,1-3 people
E.g.
Mahima as LabManager,and congrats on getting into grad school.
Xprize FutureOfEducationalExperimentation top3!! (Tiny.cc/ixprize)
Andrew, Bingcheng,yi as summer undergrad research awardees!
Goodbye to people going away for the summer
CHI best paper award + papers
SIGCSE workshop
Harsh LLM internship Microsoft.
What else?
Todo for SocialManagers:
1. Bring Facebook portal/hybrid setup so people can pop in at
tiny.cc/iaihybrid (pan,tong)
2. Invite undergrads
3. Location: The Smith's Hour at 171 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 1P7,
Canada
4. Invite others, psych, stats, ML, friends of lab, DGP
5. ZzAddOtherPrototype
Organizer
josephjaywilliams(a)gmail.com
josephjaywilliams(a)gmail.com
~~//~~
Invitation from Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/
You are receiving this email because you are an attendee on the event. To
stop receiving future updates for this event, decline this event.
Forwarding this invitation could allow any recipient to send a response to
the organizer, be added to the guest list, invite others regardless of
their own invitation status, or modify your RSVP.
Learn more https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37135#forwarding
Intadaptint + friends end of semester social
Thursday Apr 13, 2023 ⋅ 6pm – 9:30pm
Eastern Time - Toronto
Location
171 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 1P7, Canada
https://www.google.com/maps/search/171+College+St,+Toronto,+ON+M5T+1P7,+Can…
This is the IntelligentAdaptiveInterventions lab's end of year 'lime' (aka
social),6-8 pm smith house 171 college st. Anyone is welcome to swing by
for 10-X mins and say hi. feel free to stop by, invite any other people. We
are very inclusive, better to invite people than not! Especially keen to
have more psych, stats,HCI, ML people! There may/may not be a Santa suit
and masks...
Here is the url to join remotely and wave hi via zoom, or just see what's
going on: tiny.cc/iaihybrid
What can we celebrate and show AppreciationsAdmirationsEmulations for? (see
ZzGuidingQuestions at tiny.cc/iaiappreciation)
-What is everyone grateful for and who are they grateful for from the
semester? Choose 1-3 things,1-3 people
E.g.
Mahima as LabManager,and congrats on getting into grad school.
Xprize FutureOfEducationalExperimentation top3!! (Tiny.cc/ixprize)
Andrew, Bingcheng,yi as summer undergrad research awardees!
Goodbye to people going away for the summer
CHI best paper award + papers
SIGCSE workshop
Harsh LLM internship Microsoft.
What else?
Todo for SocialManagers:
1. Bring Facebook portal/hybrid setup so people can pop in at
tiny.cc/iaihybrid (pan,tong)
2. Invite undergrads
3. Location: The Smith's Hour at 171 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 1P7,
Canada
4. Invite others, psych, stats, ML, friends of lab, DGP
5. ZzAddOtherPrototype
Organizer
josephjaywilliams(a)gmail.com
josephjaywilliams(a)gmail.com
Guests
josephjaywilliams(a)gmail.com - organizer
IAI FTEs
shuruiz(a)ece.utoronto.ca
shuruiz.utoronto(a)gmail.com
plaks(a)psych.utoronto.ca
joel.leforestier(a)mail.utoronto.ca
yiyiw.wang(a)mail.utoronto.ca
IAI Undergrads
huang(a)cs.toronto.edu
panasiuk.sofia(a)gmail.com
anna.heath(a)sickkids.ca
hci(a)dgp.toronto.edu
reem.ayad(a)mail.utoronto.ca
nbier(a)cmu.edu
View all guest info
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=NmNzMzhwaGhjNG9q…
Reply for hci(a)dgp.toronto.edu and view more details
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=NmNzMzhwaGhjNG9q…
Your attendance is optional.
~~//~~
Invitation from Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/
You are receiving this email because you are an attendee on the event. To
stop receiving future updates for this event, decline this event.
Forwarding this invitation could allow any recipient to send a response to
the organizer, be added to the guest list, invite others regardless of
their own invitation status, or modify your RSVP.
Learn more https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37135#forwarding
Dear All,
We are populating a list of papers, workshops, LBWs, Panels, etc. accepted
for CHI 2023. Please check the list, and if your accepted submission is not
listed, please add that to the document. Also, please share this document
with other UofT folks who have accepted submissions for CHI 2023.
*URL: *
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bwf88CW3H01JeHx4BbCdg9TykZJkCLTAEPYUbh4…
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
==
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
The University of Toronto
Ph: +1 647 220 3482 (mobile)
Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Room 5262
Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada
Website <https://www.ishtiaque.net/%20> || Google Calendar
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft@gmail.com…>
|| ORCID ID <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2452-0687> || Semantic Web
<https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Syed-Ishtiaque-Ahmed/145867840>
==
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Shion Guha <shion.guha(a)utoronto.ca>
Date: Thu, Apr 6, 2023 at 12:40 PM
Subject: UofT @ CHI 2023 Document
To: Anastasia Kuzminykh <anastasia.kuzminykh(a)utoronto.ca>, Priyank Chandra <
priyank.chandra(a)utoronto.ca>, Ishtiaque Ahmed <ishtiaque.ahmed(a)utoronto.ca>,
Robert Soden <robert.soden(a)utoronto.ca>, Alex Mariakakis <
mariakakis(a)cs.toronto.edu>, Carolina Nobre <carolina.nobre(a)utoronto.ca>,
Joseph Jay Williams <williams(a)cs.toronto.edu>, Fanny Chevalier <
fanny(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Dear UofT HCI Colleagues,
CHI is Nigh! As usual, I have a google doc circulating where if you please
add your own publications of any type, I will get it posted on the FI
website and we can boost the signal on social media. This will help our
reputation as UofT as a whole since other schools do this to showcase their
strengths at CHI!
*URL: *
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bwf88CW3H01JeHx4BbCdg9TykZJkCLTAEPYUbh4…
Please add folks or contributions of other people I may have missed.
Searching UofT affiliation on the CHI Program gives me 180 results! So
clearly, I am missing folks!
Thanks,
Shion
Highly recommend: Tue 21 Mar 12pm Zoom talk on HCI teaching
Check out details below. Also highly recommend you join the community,
resources, or attend EduCHI at CHI- HCI teaching symposium. I learned a ton
last year and you realize how much we all overly limit ourselves to the way
we teach HCI at the institutions we've been at, and how much time we can
save and do a much better job by borrowing ideas from others, and help them
out by sharing ours!
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Olivier St-Cyr <olivier.st.cyr(a)utoronto.ca>
Date: Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 6:21 PM
Subject: Master Class #2 @ EduCHI 2023
To:
Cc: gray42(a)purdue.edu <gray42(a)purdue.edu>, cmacdona(a)pratt.edu <
cmacdona(a)pratt.edu>, c.e.lallemand(a)tue.nl <c.e.lallemand(a)tue.nl>,
olesona(a)uw.edu <olesona(a)uw.edu>, a.r.l.carter(a)swansea.ac.uk <
a.r.l.carter(a)swansea.ac.uk>, Olivier St-Cyr <olivier.st.cyr(a)utoronto.ca>,
pittc(a)uw.edu <pittc(a)uw.edu>
*Please distribute widely **Apologies in advance for cross-posting
Dear Colleagues,
As part of the EduCHI 2023 Symposium (
https://educhi2023.hcilivingcurriculum.org/ - part of the CHI 2023
conference), we are going to present a series four (4) pre-symposium master
classes.
We're excited to announce the details for our second Master Class in the
series leading up to EduCHI 2023.
In this class, Purdue University professors Colin Gray and Paul Parsons
will teach us about building student capacity to engage with design methods
(see Infographics below). Join us next Tuesday, March 21st, 2023 from 16:00
– 17:00 UTC.
For details and FREE registration:
https://educhi2023.hcilivingcurriculum.org/building-student-capacity-to-eng…
Hope to see you there!
Best,
Olivier
--
Olivier St-Cyr, PhD, LEL (he/him/his)
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream
Faculty of Information
University of Toronto
olivier.st.cyr(a)utoronto.ca
Webpage: https://profstcyr.ca/
[image: A picture containing text, electronics, screenshot Description
automatically generated]
[image: Graphical user interface, website Description automatically
generated]
[image: Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated]
[image: Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated]
Dear DGP-HCI,
We are populating a list of papers in CSCW with UofT authors. Please find
the link below. Please check if your paper/poster/panel/workshop/demo is
listed. If not, please add those. Please mention the time of the
presentation, too. Put the names of the UofT authors in bold. Thanks!
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
==
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Fellow, Schwartz Reisman Institute <https://www.torontosri.ca/>
The University of Toronto
Program Committee Chair, ICTD 2022 <https://ictd.org/ictd2022/>
Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Room 5262
Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada
Ph: +1 647 220 3482
web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/
My Availability: Google Calendar Link
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&c…>
==
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Shion Guha <shion.guha(a)utoronto.ca>
Date: Wed, Oct 19, 2022 at 2:31 PM
Subject: UofT at CSCW 2022
To: Ishtiaque Ahmed <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>, Robert Soden <
robert.soden(a)utoronto.ca>, Priyank Chandra <priyank.chandra(a)utoronto.ca>,
Anastasia Kuzminykh <anastasia.kuzminykh(a)utoronto.ca>, Alex Mariakakis <
mariakakis(a)cs.toronto.edu>, Carolina Nobre <carolina.nobre(a)utoronto.ca>,
Christoph Becker <christoph.becker(a)utoronto.ca>
Dear Colleagues,
It's time once again for our annual tradition. If you have any papers,
posters, workshops, panels etc at CSCW 2022, please fill in at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FZkEDw73S5JZ0UKgPu7fxia0kfuO1--SSpDJ9e-…
I have likely missed many folks so please reach out to other colleagues at
FI, DCS and beyond. When I type in University of Toronto at
https://programs.sigchi.org/cscw/2022 I get a lot of returns!
We will post this on the ischool webpage and tweet about it vociferously to
build awareness of our awesome CSCW research groups here!
Thanks,
Shion