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Admitting grad students: Might it be useful for us to exchange notes/have discussions/reflect together?
by Joseph Jay Williams 31 Dec '21

31 Dec '21

Admitting grad students: Might it be useful for us to exchange notes/have discussions/reflect together? Joseph Joseph Jay Williams, Assistant Professor, www.josephjaywilliams.com Intelligent Adaptive Interventions research group Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto Dept. of Psychology & Statistical Sciences (courtesy graduate appointments – admitting PhD students) Faculty Affiliate at Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence

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TA jobs in Sept '21?
by Prof. I. Posner 07 May '21

07 May '21

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>

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Recent MSc Graduate Job Search
by Jacob Nogas 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

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

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HCI Social Meeting Thursday March 18
by Blaine Lewis 16 Mar '21

16 Mar '21

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

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Fwd: [Reminder][DGP Guest Talk] Dr. Bokyung Lee (Autodesk), March 12th @ 10:30am
by Mauricio Sousa 11 Mar '21

11 Mar '21

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/

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HCI Social Meeting
by Blaine Lewis 08 Mar '21

08 Mar '21

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

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[Guest Talk] Thijs Roumen, Feb. 24th @ 10am
by Yan Chen 23 Feb '21

23 Feb '21

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/

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Tomorrow at 11 am EST (Fri 22, Jan): Joseph giving Vector Talk on Adapting Real-World Experimentation To Balance Enhancement of User Experiences with Statistically Robust Scientific Discovery.
by Joseph Jay Williams 21 Jan '21

21 Jan '21

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

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Discussion group on health related research topics
by Brenna Li 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

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

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Fwd: Passing on media & design CFP
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 23 Dec '20

23 Dec '20

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/

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