February 2019 - Thirdspace - dgp mailing lists

Ethics Protocol Folder Created - Please Contribute
by Abdul Kawsar Tushar 16 Feb '19

16 Feb '19

Hello everyone, I have created a folder under the Third Space Google account, to share our ethics protocols and respective review comments. I have already put in my own protocol there. Also, I have created a Google Doc in the same folder, to share tips and tricks of the ethics review writing process. Last but not the least, I have shared the handout provided in the seminar on Ethics protocol that I attended last week. Folder Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1alcK3UVjAbx-iNpK8QQDHmVqR2_A9LXq - Tushar -- Yours sincerely, Abdul Kawsar Tushar Graduate Assistant, Department of Computer Science University of Toronto.

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[Tux] TUX Reminder: Ranjitha Kumar's Talk Tomorrow!
by Shaza'a Fayyaz 13 Feb '19

13 Feb '19

cid:image005.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0 cid:image008.png@01D10810.C2D01210 cid:image008.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0 Hello TUX! A reminder that tomorrow we have a Sanders Series Invited Lecture by Prof. Ranjitha Kumar. We look forward to seeing you there! Ali, Daniel, and Tovi Sanders Series Invited Lecture: Prof. Ranjitha Kumar *February 12, 2019. Autodesk MaRS IDEaS Lab @ 661 University Ave., Ground Floor* Lunch reception begins at 12:30 pm. Presentation begins at 1:00 pm. *Data-Driven Design: Beyond A/B Testing* A/B testing has become the de facto standard for optimizing design, helping designers craft more effective user experiences by leveraging data. A typical A/B test involves dividing user traffic between two experimental conditions (A and B), and looking for statistically significant differences in performance indicators (e.g., conversion rates) between them. In this talk, I’ll introduce three other data-driven methods — complementary to A/B testing — that can tie design choices to desired outcomes. Mining interactiondata from existing designscan provide comparative insights about patterns found in the wild, exposing designers to a greater space of divergent solutions than A/B testing. Lightweight prototypes with tight user feedback loops, or experimentation engines, can bootstrap product design involving technologies that are actively being developed (e.g., artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality), where both use cases and capabilities are not well-understood. Finally, generative modelstrained on a set of effective design examples can support predictive workflows that allow designers to rapidly prototype new, performant solutions. *Bio* Ranjitha Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she leads the Data-Driven Design group. She is the recipient of a 2018 NSF CAREER award, and UIUC’s 2018 C.W. Gear Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. Her research has won best paper awards/nominations at premier conferences in HCI, and is supported by grants from Google, Amazon, and Adobe. She received her PhD from the Computer Science Department at Stanford University in 2014, and was formerly the Chief Scientist at Apropose, Inc., a data-driven design company she founded that was backed by Andreessen Horowitz and New Enterprise Associates. cid:image009.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0 *OUR SPONSORS:* cid:image010.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0 *TUX is made possible by the support of our sponsors, Steven Sanders, Autodesk, * *University of Toronto Department of Computer Science, and MaRS*. */About MaRS:/*/MaRS is the one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs—a place for collaboration, creativity and entrepreneurship. Located in the heart of Toronto’s research district, MaRS provides the space, training, talent and networks required to commercialize important discoveries and launch and grow Canadian startups./ _______________________________________________ tux-announce mailing list tux-announce(a)dgp.toronto.edu https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tux-announce

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[Tux] TUX Talk - Rescheduled to Tomorrow
by tovi＠dgp.toronto.edu 12 Feb '19

12 Feb '19

Dear TUX Community, Due to today's weather, we are cancelling the TUX talk today. It will be rescheduled tomorrow at the same time - 1pm-2pm, lunch served at 12:30pm. Location is still TBD - it will either be at MaRS or the U of T DGP Lab. A message will be sent later today to confirm. Thanks, Ali, Daniel, and Tovi _______________________________________________ tux-announce mailing list tux-announce(a)dgp.toronto.edu https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tux-announce

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Fwd: [Development Seminar] Talk by Dr. Crystal Biruk on Data practices/politics in Global Health in Malawi on March 1, 2019 at 12-2 in HS108
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 11 Feb '19

11 Feb '19

Best Regards, Ishtiaque Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Aakash Solanki <aakash.solanki(a)mail.utoronto.ca> Date: Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 1:54 PM Subject: [Development Seminar] Talk by Dr. Crystal Biruk on Data practices/politics in Global Health in Malawi on March 1, 2019 at 12-2 in HS108 To: <DEVSEMEVENTS-L(a)listserv.utoronto.ca> COOKING DATA: CULTURE AND POLITICS IN AN AFRICAN RESEARCH WORLD Dr. Crystal Biruk Assistant Professor of Anthropology Oberlin College and Conservatory Date: Friday, March 1, 2018 Time: 12:00PM – 2:00PM Venue: Rm 108, 155 College Street, TORONTO, ON, M5T 1P8 Abstract: This talk is based on the author’s ethnography of the production of quantitative data by survey projects in Africa. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Malawi with demographic projects in sites ranging from questionnaire design meetings, trainings for data collectors, fieldworker-led data collection in the field, and policy venues, this talk presents a fine-grained analysis of data’s handling by diverse actors to critically examine the criteria and metrics that help numbers in the era of global health attain their legitimacy. Bio: Dr. Crystal Biruk’s research centers on the ethics and politics of intervention in the global South. Dr. Biruk takes interest in how the growing presence of humanitarian, development, and scientific projects in sub-Saharan Africa reconfigures local social geographies, producing new kinds of status, mobility, expertise, and exclusions. *This talk is co-hosted with/at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health *The 2018-2019 Development Seminar series is co-sponsored with the Technoscience Research Unit RSVP: https://utdevsem.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/crystalbiruk/ Questions? write to devsem at utoronto dot ca or facebook messenger @utdevsem or twitter handle @utdevsem Like our Facebook Page to follow updates: facebook.com/utdevsem Twitter Handle: @utdevsem, tweet using hashtag #devsem Sincerely, Aakash — Aakash Solanki PhD Student, Collaborative Program in Anthropology and South Asian Studies Co-ordinator, Development Seminar <https://utdevsem.wordpress.com>University of Toronto

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next group meeting
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 09 Feb '19

09 Feb '19

Do we know who is/are presenting next week? Best Regards, Ishtiaque Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/

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Ethics in AI talk next Tuesday
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 08 Feb '19

08 Feb '19

Many of you will find this interesting: https://ethics.utoronto.ca/events/513/ethics-of-ai-in-context-sheila-mcilra… Best Regards, Ishtiaque Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/

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Fwd: FW: Andrew Feenberg gives next DCI Lecture on Feb 14: Three Approaches to the Internet: Network, World, Individuation and Concretization
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 08 Feb '19

08 Feb '19

Both the lecture and the seminar may be interesting to you. Best Regards, Ishtiaque Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Christoph Becker <christoph.becker(a)utoronto.ca> Date: Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 5:45 PM Subject: FW: Andrew Feenberg gives next DCI Lecture on Feb 14: Three Approaches to the Internet: Network, World, Individuation and Concretization To: Ishtiaque Ahmed <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu> Hi Ishtiaque, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. Marie is here next week, and I’m organizing another DCI lecture – you might be interested? See below. Please feel free to spread the word, the event is open to all. I’m also putting together another research studio similar to last time , on Wednesday afternoon, with a few PhD students and my Postdoctoral Fellow talking about their work. Small, ~10 people. Are you interested in coming, and/or do you want your PhD student(s) to join? I’m aiming for 2pm-5pm. Let me know asap please. Sorry for the late notice. Cheers, Christoph *From:* Christoph Becker *Sent:* February 7, 2019 12:57 PM *To:* 'ISCHOOL-FAC-REG-L(a)listserv.utoronto.ca' < ISCHOOL-FAC-REG-L(a)listserv.utoronto.ca>; 'phd-ischool-l(a)listserv.utoronto.ca' <phd-ischool-l(a)listserv.utoronto.ca> *Subject:* Andrew Feenberg gives next DCI Lecture on Feb 14: Three Approaches to the Internet: Network, World, Individuation and Concretization Dear colleagues and students, I am very pleased to announce next week’s DCI Lecture will be given by Prof. Andrew Feenberg - many of you know him. He will focus on ‘The Internet’ and explore it through three approaches - actor network theory, the phenomenological concept of world, and Simondon’s concepts of individuation and concretization. Together with Feenberg, DCI Fellow Marie Ferrario, and colleagues in Europe, I am organizing a seminar this year on ‘Values in Computing’, so we may touch on that subject in the discussion period…. I’m also organizing a small informal ‘research studio’ on Wednesday afternoon, details TBC. If you want to join that, please let me know asap. Similarly, if you’d like an opportunity to meet with Andrew, please do let me know – there is still a bit of time in his itinerary (Wed-Fri next week). Please spread the word! The full announcement is up on the DCI website at https://wp.me/p6lxwc-A6. Details below, twitter here <https://twitter.com/ChriBecker/status/1093569025572028416>. All the best, Christoph Prof Christoph Becker Associate Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto Director, Digital Curation Institute, University of Toronto http://dci.ischool.utoronto.ca https://twitter.com/ChriBecker *Prof. Andrew Feenberg, DCI Lecture, Feb 14: Three Approaches to the Internet: Network, World, Individuation and Concretization* Please join us for the next DCI Lecture on February 14 at 4pm at the Bissell building, BL728 (7th floor). Light refreshments will be served. Prof. Feenberg will speak for about an hour, followed by a moderated Q&A period. *Andrew Feenberg* is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab <http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/actlab/>. He has also taught for many years in the Philosophy Department at San Diego State University, and at Duke University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Universities of California, San Diego and Irvine, the Sorbonne, the University of Paris-Dauphine, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and the University of Tokyo and the University of Brasilia. Dr. Feenberg is Directeur de Programme at the College Internationale de Philosophie for the period 2013-2019. He is the author of *Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Lukacs_Marx_Critical_Theory.html> (Rowman and Littlefield, 1981; Oxford University Press, 1986), *Critical Theory of Technology* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Critical_Theory_Technology.html> (Oxford University Press, 1991), *Alternative Modernity* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Alternative_Modernity.html> (University of California Press, 1995), and *Questioning Technology* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Questioning_Technology.html> (Routledge, 1999). A second edition of *Critical Theory of Technology* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Critical_Theory_Technology.html> appeared with Oxford in 2002 under the title *Transforming Technology* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Transforming_Technology.html>. *Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_HM_Catastrophe_Redemption_History.html> appeared in 2005 with Routledge. *Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Reason_Experience.html>* appeared with MIT Press in 2010. The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukacs and the Frankfurt School <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Philosophy_Praxis.html> was published by Verso Press in 2014. His most recent book, Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason, appeared with Harvard University Press in 2017. Translations <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/publications.html> of several of these books are available. Dr. Feenberg is also co-editor of *Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Marcuse_Critical_Theory_Promise_Utopia.html> (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1987), *Technology and the Politics of Knowledge* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Technology_Politics_Knowledge.html> (Indiana University Press, 1995), *Modernity and Technology* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Modernity_Technology.html> (MIT Press, 2003), *Community in the Digital Age* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Community_Digital_Age.html> (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004) and (Re)inventing the Internet <http://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Reinventing_Internet.html> (2012) . His co-authored book on the French May Events of 1968 appeared in 2001 with SUNY Press under the title *When Poetry Ruled the Streets* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_When_Poetry_Ruled_Streets.html>. He has also created the May Events Archive <http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/projects/mai68/> consisting of scanned documents from the events at the Simon Fraser University library http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/projects/mai68/. With William Leiss, Feenberg has edited a collection entitled *The Essential Marcuse* <https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/pub_Essential_Marcuse.html>published by Beacon Press. A book on Feenberg's philosophy of technology entitled *Democratizing Technology* <http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4347-democratizing-technology.aspx>, appeared in 2006. A second book appeared in 2017 entitled *Critical Theory and the Thought of Andrew Feenberg.* For more on these publications, see https://www.amazon.com/author/andrewfeenberg or consult his personal homepage at www.sfu.ca/~andrewf.. *Abstract*: The Internet is unlike anything else in the history of technology that preceded its creation. It is neither a tool nor a machine, but a network. As such it is a new type of technical system. It resembles the telephone system in some respects, but it also has similarities to broadcast networks that distribute entertainment, shopping malls that distribute goods, and transportation systems insofar as it opens new “worlds” to its users. What is more, the users of the Internet take on new capacities and identities through their participation in the network, most obviously the unprecedented absorption in mediated social relations exemplified by Facebook. This talk will attempt to put some order in the understanding of the Internet in terms of three theoretical approaches, loosely interpreted to suit this new object. These approaches are actor network theory, the phenomenological concept of world, and Simondon’s concepts of individuation and concretization.

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Demos for Ranjitha Kumar - Visiting DGP Feb 13
by Peter Hamilton 07 Feb '19

07 Feb '19

Hello Everyone, Ranjitha Kumar (website <http://ranjithakumar.net/>) will be visiting the DGP on Wednesday February 13th, following her TUX talk on Tuesday (12th). I'll be arranging demos for her throughout the day. Please let me know if you'd like to arrange a meeting. This is a great opportunity to show off your work! -Peter Hamilton *Abstract* A/B testing has become the de facto standard for optimizing design, helping designers craft more effective user experiences by leveraging data. A typical A/B test involves dividing user traffic between two experimental conditions (A and B), and looking for statistically significant differences in performance indicators (e.g., conversion rates) between them. In this talk, I’ll introduce three other data-driven methods — complementary to A/B testing — that can tie design choices to desired outcomes. Mining interactiondata from existing designscan provide comparative insights about patterns found in the wild, exposing designers to a greater space of divergent solutions than A/B testing. Lightweight prototypes with tight user feedback loops, or experimentation engines, can bootstrap product design involving technologies that are actively being developed (e.g., artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality), where both use cases and capabilities are not well-understood. Finally, generative modelstrained on a set of effective design examples can support predictive workflows that allow designers to rapidly prototype new, performant solutions. *Bio* Ranjitha Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she leads the Data-Driven Design group. She is the recipient of a 2018 NSF CAREER award, and UIUC’s 2018 C.W. Gear Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. Her research has won best paper awards/nominations at premier conferences in HCI, and is supported by grants from Google, Amazon, and Adobe. She received her PhD from the Computer Science Department at Stanford University in 2014, and was formerly the Chief Scientist at Apropose, Inc., a data-driven design company she founded that was backed by Andreessen Horowitz and New Enterprise Associates.

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Fwd: Reminder: Seminar at 11am today
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 07 Feb '19

07 Feb '19

Dear Students, Robert's work is very interdisciplinary and intersects with many topics in HCI and CSCW. If you can, I encourage you to attend his talk. Also, please note that there is a Grad student roundtable with Robert at 4 pm today. I encourage you to attend the roundtable and talk to him. Best Regards, Ishtiaque Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Steve Easterbrook <sme(a)cs.toronto.edu> Date: Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 5:59 AM Subject: Reminder: Seminar at 11am today To: <dcs-all(a)cs.toronto.edu>, <envcorefaculty2019-l(a)listserv.utoronto.ca> Folks, A reminder that Robert Soden will be giving a talk at 11am today on his work in crisis informatics. In addition there will be a roundtable meeting for grad students to meet with Robert at 4pm today in BA5250. All welcome! Steve --- The Social Life of Environmental Data: Lessons from Crisis Informatics Robert Soden, University of Colorado Boulder http://robertsoden.io Talk: 11am, Thursday February 7th (room BA1210) Advances in algorithms, sensors, databases, and computing power in recent decades have led to the development of fundamentally new approaches in science and policy for supporting safe, healthy, and sustainable communities in the around the world. These new technologies promise to improve our ability to monitor the natural and built environments and more effectively respond to crisis and disaster, but they can also limit public participation in planning, focus attention only on what can be measured with current tools, and reinforce existing social inequalities. To realize the promise of emerging technologies, we need to develop a better understanding of how they intervene in the governance of complex technological and environmental challenges. In this talk, I will discuss my research in this area drawing from studies on flood hazard mapping Colorado, post-earthquake damage assessment in Nepal, and sea-level rise modeling the San Francisco Bay Area. I show that an expanded agenda for crisis informatics research that draws on insights from science and technology studies, design research, and the humanities can improve the development of technologies used for responding to environmental challenges. Robert Soden is a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder working on crisis informatics, human-centered computing (HCC), and science and technology studies (STS). His research examines the implications of changing technologies on efforts to address environmental challenges including disasters and climate change. He holds a Master's Degree in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from American University and Bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Prior to starting his PhD, Robert was a professional software developer and a consultant to the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), where he launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, a worldwide effort to harness open data, open source software, and civic technology to improve disaster and climate risk management. His research has been awarded multiple best paper awards and honorable mentions at ACM’s CHI and CSCW, as well as other computing venues.

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Today's meeting cancelled. Fwd: St. George campus closing at 3 p.m.
by Ishtiaque Ahmed 06 Feb '19

06 Feb '19

FYI Regards, Ishtiaque ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: UTalert(a)utoronto.ca <UTalert(a)utoronto.ca> Date: Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 1:48 PM Subject: St. George campus closing at 3 p.m. To: <ishtiaque.ahmed(a)utoronto.ca> A message from UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SEVERE WEATHER ALERT Due to severe weather the University will be closing St. George campus as of 3 p.m. All classes, exams, extracurricular activities and University-sponsored events have been cancelled. Only essential services personnel should report to work. Managers and instructors are asked to be flexible in allowing people to leave early from work or class. You can check the status of operations at all three of our campuses by checking www.utoronto.ca/campus-status. An update will be posted online tomorrow by 6:30 am.

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Thirdspace February 2019