Hello DGP folks,
I'll be teaching CSC318 in September 2021.
It will run synchronously online on Tuesday evenings.
I am looking for TAs for the course.
If you are interested please let me know.
Thank you,
ilona
ILONA POSNER
UX Consultant & Educator
www.ilonaposner.com <http://www.ilonaposner.com>
Hi all,
As you may know, I have recently graduated with a MSc in Computer Science at U of T under the supervision of Joseph Jay Williams<http://www.josephjaywilliams.com/>. My research focused on developing multiarmed bandit algorithms (reinforcement learning) which balance statistical inference and reward maximization and validated these methods in online educational experiments. I also worked on designing and analyzing randomized experiments in online education.
Prior to working with Joseph, I interned at IATSL<http://www.iatsl.org/> where I applied deep learning (mostly computer vision) to assistive technology.
In general, I have a strong background in applied statistics, machine learning, experimentation, and applied research, and am hoping to find a job where such skills are relevant. You can find more information about me here:
LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-nogas-21a70a150/?originalSubdomain=ca>
Personal Website<http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~jnogas/>
GitHub<https://github.com/JJN123>
Google Doc summarizing what I have tried so far in my job search<https://docs.google.com/document/d/18TzKbySnzjGfVsNXWZAP5Yxa3a1I4ZAOJpzYiay…>
Please let me know if you have any advice, connections, or opportunities that you can provide. Is anyone up for chatting and giving advice? Who do you recommend I talk to?
Thanks,
Jacob
Hi Everyone,
Thanks to everybody who joined us to play Skribl, codenames and hanabi last
week. This week we'll do something similar but on Thursday at 5:30pm EST
instead, hope to see you there!
Zoom link to join:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/96404556988
Best,
Blaine
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the reminder and cross-posting
We are hosting an HCI guest talk *tomorrow*.
Dr. Bokyung Lee (https://boleehci.com) is an HCI researcher at Autodesk
Research and will give a talk on *March 12 Friday, at 10:30 am *entitled "*Not
just Helping You Design Easily, But Helping you Design What You Desire*"
(more details below).
We will be using the zoom link below.
*When:* Friday March 12, 10:30am - 11:30am
*Where: * https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81143489333 (Passcode: *201287*)
*Title:*
Not just Helping You Design Easily, But Helping you Design What You Desire.
*Abstract:*
Advanced technologies in digital fabrication and manufacturing are opening
up new possibilities for democratizing design activity to everyone. Several
design tools have been suggested to support people in designing 3D products
without any professional knowledge or education. Still, most of them
started with an assumption that people already know what they want to
design, which is not always true in real life.
Throughout my research, I asked myself a more fundamental question: “*How
can we support people to generate design solutions that fit their desired
uses-cases or scenarios?*” For the last five years, I’ve especially focused
on investigating how our bodies can act as a mediator to convey use-phase
knowledge (which usually remains in the physical space) in the design phase
(which is usually done in the digital space). In this talk, I will share
some of my approaches and discuss the future directions for digital design
tools.
*Bio: *
(from https://boleehci.com)
Dr. Bokyung Lee is an HCI / Interaction Design researcher. And hold a Ph.D.
in Industrial Design at KAIST <http://id.kaist.ac.kr/> (Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology). I am currently working as a
Post-Doctoral Fellow at Autodesk Research <https://autodeskresearch.com/>,
Toronto.
My research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and
Interactive System Designs. I envision the potential interactions for
future technologies (VR/AR/AI-agency) with a goal of enhancing our
experiences. During my Ph.D., I explored embodied interactions for VR/AR
digital design tools. I enjoy creating and applying new user-centered
design methods, as well as prototyping interactive systems. To read my
entire research vision, please visit here <https://boleehci.com/vision/>.
- embodied interaction
- vision-based design study
- simulation-driven design
- generative design / data-driven design
*When:*
Friday March 12, 10:30am - 11:30am
*Where: *
https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81143489333 (Passcode: *201287*)
Hope to see you there!
Mauricio Sousa
---
Posdoctoral Fellow
http://mauriciosousa.github.io/
Hi Everyone,
We're going to be restarting the HCI social meetings again tomorrow Tuesday
March 9th at 5:30PM EST. Come hang out and play games with us!! Or just
talk, we pretty much just do whatever, if there's a game you want to play
or something bring it along and we can play it. In the past we've played
among us, codewords skribl and others.
https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/96404556988
Best,
Blaine
Hi all,
I am a new Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof. Tovi Grossman, and I am
coordinating an HCI guest talk next week.
Thijs Roumen (PhD student from Hasso Plattner Insitute, Germany) will give
a talk on *Feb. 24th (Wed) @ 10-11am (EST). *Thijs will be presenting his
work on portable laser cutting techniques (more details below). We will be
using the zoom link below.
zoom link (pc: 909215): https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83764572467
Thijs's website: http://www.thijsroumen.eu/
*Speaker's Biography*
Thijs Roumen is a PhD candidate in Human Computer Interaction in the lab of
Patrick Baudisch, Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. He received
his MSc from the University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg in 2013 and BSc
from the Technical
University of Eindhoven, Netherlands in 2011. Between the PhD and master he
worked
at the National University of Singapore as a Research Assistant with
Shengdong Zhao.
His research interests are in personal fabrication, digital collaboration
and enabling
increased complexity for laser cutting. His papers are published as full
papers in top-tier
ACM conferences CHI and UIST. He serves on several ACM program committees
including ACM UIST.
*Talk title*
Portable Laser Cutting
*Abstract*
Laser-cut 3D models shared online tend to be basic and trivial—models build
over long periods of time and by multiple designers are few/nonexistent. I
argue that this is caused by a lack of an exchange format that would allow
continuing the work. At first glance, it may seem like such a format
already exist, as laser cut models are already widely shared in the form of
2D cutting plans. However, such files are susceptible to variations in
cutter properties (aka kerf) and do not allow modifying the model in any
meaningful way (no adjustment of material thickness, no parametric changes,
etc.). I consider this format machine specific.
My first take on the challenge is to see how far we can get by still
building on the de-facto
standard, i.e., 2D cutting plans. I tackled the challenge by rewriting 2D
cutting plans, replacing non-portable elements with portable ones. However,
this comes at a cost of extra incisions, reducing the structural integrity
of models and impacting aesthetic qualities and rare mechanisms or joints
may go undetected. I thus take a more radical approach, which is to move to
a 3D exchange format (kyub). This eliminates these challenges, as it
guarantees portability by generating a new machine-specific 2D file for the
local machine when exported. Instead, it raises the question of
compatibility: Files already exist in 2D—how to get them into 3D? I
demonstrate a software tool to reconstruct the 3D geometry of the model
encoded in a 2D cutting plan, allows modifying it using a 3D editor, and
re-encodes it to a 2D cutting plan. I demonstrate how this approach allows
me to make a much wider range of modifications, including scaling, changing
material thickness, and even remixing models.
The transition from sharing machine-oriented 2D cutting files, to 3D files,
enables users
worldwide to collaborate, share, and reuse. And thus, to move on from users
creating
thousands of trivial models from scratch to collaborating on big complex
projects.
Hope to see many of you there!
Yan
-------
Postdoctoral Fellow, https://chensivan.github.io/
In case anyone's interested (and sorry if this was spam for you, I used a
clear subject line so hopefully you can just ignore it if it is!), below my
signature are details for this talk I'm giving:
Tomorrow at 11 am EST (Fri 22, Jan): Joseph will be giving a Vector Talk on
Adapting Real-World Experimentation To Balance Enhancement of User
Experiences with Statistically Robust Scientific Discovery.
Click this link to add to Google Calendar
<https://www.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=Vector%20Instit…>
with
zoom link and abstract.
Or email angelina.liu(a)mail.utoronto.ca and cc williams(a)cs.toronto.edu for a
copy of the recording.
Here our lab's "HCI talk"
http://www.josephjaywilliams.com/prospectivestudents#TOC-HCI-Human-Computer…
But the talk will be pretty accessible with zero background in
statistics/machine learning. The key ideas are: If you run randomized
experiments in the real world, how can you make them adaptive experiments?
By using machine learning to rapidly use data to give people the better
interventions, while also enabling reliable statistical analysis of the
data?
Actually, it will be great to get feedback on this talk from HCI people,
like whether we are convincing you to actually use these methods for
randomized experiments you would run.
Anyone from my lab (or DGP) who joins the talk, please let me know if you
are willing to use the zoom 'thumbs up' emoticon and just flash that EVERY
TWO MINUTES! Even if you think my speed is fine, flash it :D. That will
greatly increase the audience's comprehension and user experience!
Joseph
*INFORMATION ON TALK:*
Subject Line: Fri 22 Jan 11 am: Vector Talk on Adapting Real-World
Experimentation to Balance Enhancement of User Experiences with
Statistically Robust Scientific Discovery
Joseph Jay Wiliams <http://www.josephjaywilliams.com/> is giving a talk in
the Vector Institute for AI seminar this Friday: Jan 22nd at 11am EST. (Click
to add to Calendar
<https://www.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=Vector%20Instit…>).
To
request a recording & slides, email angelina.liu(a)mail.utoronto.ca and cc
williams(a)cs.toronto.edu.
Link to register
<https://vectorinstitute.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qde2uqjwoGdEcu1GeiqDS3a…>
Meeting ID: 997 2464 7235
Password: 123456
Zoom Meeting Link
<https://vectorinstitute.zoom.us/w/99724647235?tk=ljUeWXxozZn8COEiN82E9F0TnJ…>
Short Title:Adapting Real-World Experimentation To Balance Enhancement of
User Experiences with Statistically Robust Scientific Discovery
Long Title:Perpetually Enhancing User Interfaces in Tandem with Advancing
Scientific Research in Education & Mental Health: Enabling Reliable
Statistical Analysis of the Data Collected by Algorithms that Trade Off
Exploration & Exploitation
How can we transform the everyday technology people use into intelligent,
self-improving systems? For example, how can we perpetually enhance text
messages for managing stress, or personalize explanations in online
courses? Our work explores the use of randomizedadaptiveexperiments that
test alternative actions (e.g. text messages, explanations), aiming to gain
greater statistical confidence about the value of actions, in tandem with
rapidly using this data to give better actions to future users.
To help characterize the problems that arise in statistical analysis of
data collected while trading off exploration and exploitation, we present a
real-world case study of applying the multi-armed bandit algorithm TS
(Thompson Sampling) to adaptive experiments. TS aims to assign people to
actions in proportion to the probability those actions are optimal. We
present empirical results on how the reliability of statistical analysis is
impacted by Thompson Sampling, compared to a traditional experiment using
uniform random assignment. This helps characterize a substantial problem to
be solved – using a reward maximizing algorithm can cause substantial
issues in statistical analysis of the data. More precisely, an adaptive
algorithm can increase both false positives (believing actions have
different effects when they do not) and false negatives (failing to detect
differences between actions). We show how statistical analyses can be
modified to take into account properties of the algorithm, but that these
do not fully address the problem raised.
We therefore introduce an algorithm which assigns a proportion of
participants uniformly randomly and the remaining participants via Thompson
sampling. The probability that a participant is assigned using Uniform
Random (UR) allocation is set to the posterior probability that the
difference between two arms is 'small' (below a certain threshold),
allowing for more UR exploration when there is little or no reward to be
gained by exploiting. The resulting data can enable more accurate
statistical inferences from hypothesis testing by detecting small effects
when they exist (reducing false negatives) and reducing false positives.
The work we present aims to surface the underappreciated complexity of
using adaptive experimentation to both enable scientific/statistical
discovery and help real-world users. The current work takes a first step
towards computationally characterizing some of the problems that arise, and
what potential solutions might look like, in order to inform and invite
multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers in machine learning,
statistics, and the social-behavioral sciences.
Bio:Joseph Jay Williams is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science (and
a Vector Institute Faculty Affiliate, with courtesy appointments in
Statistics & Psychology) at the University of Toronto, leading the
Intelligent Adaptive Interventions research group. He was previously an
Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore's School of
Computing in the department of Information Systems & Analytics, a Research
Fellow at Harvard's Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning,
and a member of the Intelligent Interactive Systems Group in Computer
Science. He completed a postdoc at Stanford University in Summer 2014,
working with the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning and the
Open Learning Initiative. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in
Computational Cognitive Science (with Tom Griffiths and Tania Lombrozo),
where he applied Bayesian statistics and machine learning to model how
people learn and reason. He received his B.Sc. from University of Toronto
in Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, and is
originally from Trinidad and Tobago. More information about the Intelligent
Adaptive Intervention group's research and papers is at
www.josephjaywilliams.com <http://www.josephjaywilliams.com/>.
Joseph
Joseph Jay Williams
www.josephjaywilliams.com
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Intelligent Adaptive Interventions (IAI) research group
Hi DGP!
Some of us have talked about starting a discussion or reading group on Health + CS related topics. We have a slack channel #health that we’ve started and we’ve been thinking about making it a weekly session to discuss over zoom as well.
The meetings will be Wednesdays and will start this week, January 13, 2021 at 12pm ET. The zoom link is: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/7301759089. We will be going over some of the topics we want to discuss and talk about the structure of how the meetings will proceed.
If you’re interested or want to know more, please join the slack channel and come to the meeting!
Hope to see many of your there!
Best,
Brenna
FYI
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute <https://www.torontosri.ca/>
University of Toronto, ON, CA
Ph: +1 647 220 3482
Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed
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: Jocelyn Braun <jocelynbbraun(a)gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 7:20 PM
Subject: Passing on media & design CFP
To: <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Colleagues, I’m passing on this call: digital art, film, communications,
design and presentations welcome.
Thanks.
*URBAN ASSEMBLAGE: THE CITY AS ARCHITECTURE, MEDIA AND DATA *
https://architecturemps.com/london-hatfield/
Dates: 28-30 June 2021
Places: Virtual / London / Hatfield, UK.
*Abstracts: 1st April, 2021*
-
*THEMES:* Digital art, intelligent design, smart cities, AI, data, film,
photography, urban design, architecture
*PUBLISHERS:* Intellect Books | Routledge
*FORMATS:* Zoom, in-person (socially distanced), pre-recorded films,
written papers, Lightning Talks
-
*CALL:*
Through ubiquitous computing, big data, A.I. and a plethora of related
digital technologies, our cities have become sites for the production,
processing and sharing of information. They are also places designed and
built through data based digital architecture, planning and construction.
The ‘digital city’ and ‘smart buildings’ being just two consequences. These
data filled places are also sites for the creative imagination. *The
Matrix*,* Ex Machina*,* Her, Minority Report* are just a few of the films
that have built on the imaginary in recent times. In the creative
industries Google’s *Data Arts Team* is an example of how art and industry
interact around these themes. In landscape design and public art we
increasingly see the digital recalibration of data into imagery as part of
the creative process.
However, there are concerns. GIS, Google Maps and Facebook all offer
interconnected information on urban life. They are also conduits for the
collation of personal data and its misuse. The assumption of digital access
for all leads some to worry about issues of social exclusion. Sociologists
highlight the dangers of the digital dependency of future generations. 3D
printed buildings threaten job losses in the construction industry. The
idea of parametric urbanism is an anathema to many for whom the city is a
place of interpersonal interaction.
This conference seeks to explore these themes through a range of
disciplinary perspectives.
*Technology, media, sociology, urban planning, art, digital design,
communications, architecture and more. *
*-*
https://architecturemps.com/london-hatfield/
FYI.
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Olivier St-Cyr <olivier.st.cyr(a)utoronto.ca>
> Subject: One TA position for INF2169H - User Centred Design Winter-2021
> Date: 16 December 2020 at 12:17:21 GMT-5
> To: "hfastlab(a)mie.utoronto.ca" <hfastlab(a)mie.utoronto.ca>, "cel-local(a)mie.utoronto.ca" <cel-local(a)mie.utoronto.ca>, "milgram(a)mie.utoronto.ca" <milgram(a)mie.utoronto.ca>, "chignell(a)mie.utoronto.ca" <chignell(a)mie.utoronto.ca>, Nicole Sultanum <nicolebs(a)cs.toronto.edu>, "hciprofs(a)cs.toronto.edu" <hciprofs(a)cs.toronto.edu>
>
> Hello all:
>
> We (Faculty of Information) have one TA position available for a Winter-2021 course (emergency position to fill).
>
> Course: INF2169H User-Centred Information Systems Development (with an emphasis on UX/HCI research methods)
> Timetable: Friday 1pm to 4pm
> Hours: 140 hours
> Requirements: Must be enrolled in a PhD degree in HF/HCI/UX
>
> @Paul @Mark @CS_hciprofs could you please distribute this e-mail to your PhD students?
>
> Please contact me directly if you are interested or have questions.
>
> Best,
>
> Olivier
>
> --
> Olivier St-Cyr, PhD, LEL (he/him/his)
> Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
> UXD Concentration Liaison
> Faculty of Information
> University of Toronto
> +1-416-978-8876
> olivier.st.cyr(a)utoronto.ca <mailto:olivier.st.cyr@utoronto.ca>
> Webpage: https://profstcyr.ca/ <https://profstcyr.ca/>
> Office Hours: https://profstcyr.youcanbook.me/ <https://profstcyr.youcanbook.me/>