July 2018 - vrg - dgp mailing lists

HCI Group Meeting Tomorrow
by Seyong Ha 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

Hi everyone, We have a HCI Group meeting tomorrow at 11:45 @DGP Seminar room. Caleb will be presenting his summer research project. Details are blow. Thanks, Seyong —— In this meeting, I will introduce my current project, 'Engaging with Intangible Cultural Heritage through Live Streaming’ and have a discussion about the project. I have also included a link (https://tinyurl.com/y7uaz9ds <https://tinyurl.com/y7uaz9ds>) for suggestions and discussions. Introduction: Live streaming has recently gained worldwide popularity, due to the affordable digital video devices, high-speed Internet access, and social media. Besides video game and other entertainment content such as live performance, users have begun to share a variety of non-entertainment content, such as civil content, knowledge sharing, and even showcasing ancient cultural practices, including Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), especially in China. ICH refers to social practices and traditions originated within folk culture, and includes oral traditions, customs, language, music, dance, rituals, festivities, craftsmanship that are considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. However, little has been explored the practices and challenges of the vibrant communities of those streamers who share knowledge or showcase cultural practices through live streams, and few effective tools have been designed and developed to support their needs. I will first give an overview about ICH and how streamers are sharing cultural practices through live streaming in China, and discuss the ongoing research to understand the practices of these streamers and their community and the challenges and opportunities in this design space. ------------------------------------------ Dynamic Graphics Project Lab., Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Seyong Ha

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HCI Reading Group "Beyond Memorability / InfoVis as Pseudo-Science" 2PM Friday July 27 @ DGP Seminar Room
by jritchie＠dgp.toronto.edu 26 Jul '18

26 Jul '18

Hello all, We continue our bi-weekly reading group next week on Friday, July 27 at 2PM. We will be reading the paper "Beyond Memorability: Visualization Recognition and Recall" (InfoVis 2015) by Michelle Borkin et. al. This paper is notable for provoking a vociferous response from an influential, non-academic InfoVis practitioner in a newsletter he titled "Information Visualization Research as Pseudo-Science". We can pick apart whether the paper is good or bad, whether it makes an interesting contribution, and how much of the criticism was appropriate. Paper link: https://vcg.seas.harvard.edu/publications/beyond-memorability-visualization… Video link: https://youtu.be/A6vEepYE2nY Newsletter link: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/infovis… Forum discussion: http://sfew.websitetoolbox.com/post/information-visualization-research-as-p… Eris will "champion" the paper by reading it thoroughly and leading the discussion, highlighting why she thinks the work is important. The meeting will take place in the Seminar Room, so that we can take a closer look at the paper + surrounding debate. Snacks and drinks will be provided! Best, Jacob

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HCI Group Meeting This Tuesday (July 24th)
by Seyong Ha 22 Jul '18

22 Jul '18

Hi folks, We have a HCI group meeting this Tuesday (July 24th) at 11:45 @DGP Seminar room. In this meeting, Joseph Jay Williams, a new faculty member of CS dept. who has been working on CS Education and HCI, will be presenting on his research approach o and some past projects on crowdsourced, dynamic personalized A/B testing using reinforcement learning and discuss some ongoing/future work. He is interested in seeing who might like to collaborate on these kinds of projects, now or in the future. or to apply the methodologies for dynamic A/B testing or reinforcement learning to their ongoing projects. The information for the meeting and the place to add questions or comments linked to here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/147QhhyTPVFJ1inKiJpWt60nyYarAVQluVqAHBD5…>. Feel free to make comments and add questions in the document, as well as provide relevant links. Details are also attached below. Thanks, Seyong —— Adapting User Technologies: Bridging Designers, Machine Learning and Psychology through Collaborative, Dynamic, Personalized Experimentation Enhancing people's real-world learning and thinking is a challenge for HCI and psychology, while AI aims to build systems that can behave intelligently in the real-world. This talk presents a framework for redesigning the everyday websites people interact with to function as: (1) Intelligent adaptive agents that implement machine learning algorithms to dynamically discover how to optimize and personalize people’s learning and reasoning. (2) Micro-laboratories for psychological experimentation and data collection. I present an example of how this framework is used to create “MOOClets” that embed randomized experiments into real-world online educational contexts – like learning to solve math problems. Explanations (and experimental conditions) are crowdsourced from learners, teachers and scientists. Dynamically changing randomized experiments compare the learning benefits of these explanations in vivo with users, continually adding new conditions as new explanations are contributed. Algorithms (for multi-armed bandits, reinforcement learning, Bayesian Optimization) are used for real-time analysis (of the effect of explanations on users’ learning) and optimizing policies that provide the explanations that are best for different learners. The framework enables a broad range of algorithms to discover how to optimize and personalize users’ behavior, and dynamically adapt technology components to trade off experimentation (exploration) with helping users (exploitation). —— ------------------------------------------ Dynamic Graphics Project Lab., Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Seyong Ha

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HCI Group Meeting Tuesday (July 17th)
by Seyong Ha 15 Jul '18

15 Jul '18

Hi folks, We have a HCI group meeting on this Tuesday at 11:45 @DGP Seminar room. This meeting, Fanny will introduce her current project , 'explorable multiverse analyses' , and have a discussion about the project. Please join the meeting and have a great discussion. Details are below. Thanks, Seyong Increasing the Transparency of Research Papers with Explorable Multiverse Analyses When performing statistical analysis on empirical data, researchers inevitably make a series of arbitrary choices among several options for processing data (i.e. exclusions of participants for various reasonable reasons, aggregation of participants based on one data dimension, data transformations, etc.) and analysing it (i.e. frequentist vs. Bayesian inferential models, corrections, inclusion or exclusion of different variables, etc.). Due to space restrictions (and possibly other reasons), researchers typically practice selective reporting of their results, that is, only one particular possibility among the larger landscape of reasonable options, even if they have experimented with multiple paths in their research. But these arbitrary choices may be misleading, in that some choices may result in fluctuations in conclusions. Revealing the outcome of the multiple (reasonable) analysis paths for a data set would inform the reader on the fragility or robustness of the presented results. Together with colleagues I am working on a project that introduces explorable multiverse analyses, a new approach to statistical reporting where readers of research papers can explore alternative analysis options by interacting with the paper itself. This approach draws from two recent ideas: multiverse analysis <http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/published/multiverse_publishe d.pdf> a new philosophy of statistical reporting where the researcher conducts many different statistical analyses and summarizes all outcomes in their paper in order to show how fragile or robust their findings are; and explorable explanations <http://worrydream.com/ExplorableExplanations/> textual or illustrated explanations that can be read as normal explanations, but where the reader can also become active by interacting with some elements of the explanation. I will show early prototypes and elicit ideas and thoughts from you on this idea from your experience as an author, reader, and (possibly) reviewer of academic papers.

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Instructor position for 3rd year intro HCI course at UTM
by Cosmin Munteanu 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

Hi all, my home department (ICCIT) at the UTM campus is looking for a grad student to teach CCT380 -- this is the equivalent of CS 318 (intro to HCI, following the very traditional model of covering user observations, design guidelines, and usability evaluations). The CCT version is just slightly different -- more focus on design (e.g. wireframes) and on understanding user needs (observations), and less focus on building a fully functional prototype (the final evaluation is usually done with semi-functional prototypes such as those done in Adobe XD). Most students in this course have a solid background in design (anything Adobe). Teaching materials will be provided (everything from lecture slides to hands-on activities to assignments). If you are interested in applying, please see attached our job posting document for instructions and more formal job details. The deadline has been extended until Monday July 16. Also, please let me know if you have any questions about this course. Thanks, Cosmin -- Dr. Cosmin Munteanu Assistant Professor Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, University of Toronto Mississauga Co-Director Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab, University of Toronto Assistant Professor (Cross-appointed) Faculty of Information, University of Toronto Assistant Professor (Cross-appointed) Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto Email: cosmin(a)taglab.ca Web: http://cosmin.taglab.ca Phone: 905-569-4294 CCT Building Rm. 3067 University of Toronto Mississauga 3359 Mississauga Road Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6

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HCI Reading Group "The Turn To Practice" 2PM Friday July 13 @ Crimson Teas
by jritchie＠dgp.toronto.edu 10 Jul '18

10 Jul '18

Hello all, We continue our bi-weekly reading group this Friday, July 13th, at 2PM. We will be reading the paper "The turn to practice in HCI: Towards a Research Agenda" (CHI 2014) by Kari Kuutti and Liam Bannon. A follow-up to our discussion last time, this paper explores the divide in HCI between two different kinds of investigations - the investigation of interaction (often in a controlled lab environment) and the investigation of practices in technology use, which takes a somewhat broader view. Paper link: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557111 "Video" link: "https://youtu.be/sUnRRZEgXNo" Simon will "champion" the paper this week by (re-)reading the paper thoroughly and leading the discussion, highlighting why he thinks the work is important, and offering his own critique of the author's conclusions. The meeting will take place at Crimson Teas (415 Spadina Ave), which is a 5 min walk from Bahen. Dim sum snacks and tea will be provided! Best, Jacob

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HCI / Data Visualization Talk - Anamaria Crisan - July 10th, Tuesday, 1PM, BA5187
by Nicole Sultanum 10 Jul '18

10 Jul '18

Hello folks, Anamaria Crisan <http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~acrisan> from UBC will be visiting on *Tuesday next week, July 10th*. She will be giving a talk at *1PM *(title/abstract below) at, and is available for demos before and after. *Send me an email by Thursday EOD (July 5)* if you would like to sign up for a demo slot. Cheers, Nicole ********** *Title: *Establishing a visualization design space - A case study in infectious disease genomic epidemiology *Talk Abstract:* Data visualization is an important tool for exploring and communicating findings from genomic and health datasets. Yet, without a systematic way of understanding the design space of data visualizations, researchers do not have a clear sense of what kind of visualizations are possible, or how to distinguish between good and bad options. We have devised an approach using both literature mining and human-in-the-loop analysis to construct a visualization design space from corpus of scientific research papers. We ascertain why and what visualizations were created, and how they are constructed. We applied our approach to derive a Genomic Epidemiology Visualization Typology (GEViT) and operationalized our results to produce an explorable gallery of the visualization design space containing hundreds of categorized visualizations. We are the first to take such a systematic approach to visualization analysis, which can be applied by future visualization tool developers to areas that extend beyond genomic epidemiology. *Bio:* Ana Crisan is a current PhD candidate in computer science at UBC studying how heterogenous types of public health data can be integrated and visualized. She is a CIHR Vanier Scholar and is jointly supervised by Dr. Tamara Munzner (Computer Science) and Dr. Jennifer Gardy (School of Population and Public Health). Prior to her PhD studies, Ana worked with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control supporting research in genomic epidemiology, and had also previously worked on prostate cancer biomarker development with a Vancouver based start-up. A summary of her present and past work can be found on her website: www.cs.ubc.ca/~acrisan.

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HCI Meeting Next Tuesday (July 10th)
by Seyong Ha 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Hi folks, Next Tuesday, we have HCI group meeting and HCI/Vis talk. The meeting will begin at 11:45 am @ DGP Seminar room and the talk will start right after the meeting. In the meeting, Devamardeep, one of our undergrad students, will lead a brainstorming for his summer research about "Layout Management in Virtual Reality using Eyelid Gestures." After the meeting, Anamaria Crisan from UBC will be giving a talk, titled "Establishing a visualization design space - A case study in infectious disease genomic epidemiology." Details are attached below. Thanks, Seyong Ha ----- Brainstorming Topic: Layout Management in Virtual Reality using Eyelid Gestures I want to the user to perform precise object manipulation, like grabbing a book and moving it only along a table. To do so, we can use information of the surrounding objects (like the table) to constrain the book's position or create new constraints. Currently there are three constraints that the user can create: point, line, and plane. We also want to activate / deactivate the constraints (maybe I want to move the book through the table). A lot of times in real life you close one eye to help align objects precisely, we are thinking of using this gesture to activate the constraint. How should objects interact with these constraints? And how can we make it easier to create constraints (ie. snap the plane constraint to be parallel to nearby surfaces) What other eye gestures can be helpful in this context? ie. shooting lasers out of your eyes to delete objects. ---- Talk Title: Establishing a visualization design space - A case study in infectious disease genomic epidemiology Talk Abstract: Data visualization is an important tool for exploring and communicating findings from genomic and health datasets. Yet, without a systematic way of understanding the design space of data visualizations, researchers do not have a clear sense of what kind of visualizations are possible, or how to distinguish between good and bad options. We have devised an approach using both literature mining and human-in-the-loop analysis to construct a visualization design space from corpus of scientific research papers. We ascertain why and what visualizations were created, and how they are constructed. We applied our approach to derive a Genomic Epidemiology Visualization Typology (GEViT) and operationalized our results to produce an explorable gallery of the visualization design space containing hundreds of categorized visualizations. We are the first to take such a systematic approach to visualization analysis, which can be applied by future visualization tool developers to areas that extend beyond genomic epidemiology. Bio: Ana Crisan is a current PhD candidate in computer science at UBC studying how heterogenous types of public health data can be integrated and visualized. She is a CIHR Vanier Scholar and is jointly supervised by Dr. Tamara Munzner (Computer Science) and Dr. Jennifer Gardy (School of Population and Public Health). Prior to her PhD studies, Ana worked with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control supporting research in genomic epidemiology, and had also previously worked on prostate cancer biomarker development with a Vancouver based start-up. A summary of her present and past work can be found on her website: <http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~acrisan> www.cs.ubc.ca/~acrisan.

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[Tux] TUX 2018-2019: Schedule and Speaker Suggestions
by Daniel Wigdor 03 Jul '18

03 Jul '18

[cid:image005.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0] [cid:image008.png@01D10810.C2D01210] [cid:image008.png@01D357B6.5B82A7B0] Hello TUX! Our next season of TUX is just around the corner, and we wanted to kick things off with some information. We are excited to be continuing our member presentations and Sanders Series Invited Lectures, and will once again be meeting on alternating Tuesdays, with talks from 1pm-2pm and lunch served prior to the talks. Below is the schedule for 2018-2019 presentations. Speakers are still TBD, and will be announced once confirmed. TUX 2018-2019 Speaker Schedule Tuesday, September 25, 2018 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, October 9, 2018 1pm-2pm DGP Member Tuesday, October 23, 2018 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, November 6, 2018 1pm-2pm DGP Member Tuesday, November 20, 2018 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, December 4, 2018 1pm-2pm DGP Member Tuesday, January 15, 2019 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, January 29, 2019 1pm-2pm DGP Member Tuesday, February 12, 2019 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, February 26, 2019 1pm-2pm DGP Member Tuesday, March 12, 2019 1pm-2pm Autodesk-MaRS Sanders Tuesday, March 26, 2019 1pm-2pm DGP Member On that note, we'd like to ask for your input regarding potential speakers for next year. You may nominate member presentations, speakers from the Greater Toronto Area, or Sanders Series Invited Lectures, distinguished HCI visionaries from around the world. You may also nominate yourself! Speakers can be in academia, industry, or independent institutions. This year, we will also consider senior PhD or Post-Docs for member presentations. We encourage the suggestion of speakers from a broad range of research and practitioner communities that touch on HCI and related topics. Please use the following link for speaker nominations, no later than July 13th: https://goo.gl/forms/RHasTfKed8FUf7rB2 Enjoy your summer, and see you in September! Ali, Daniel, and Tovi [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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HCI Meeting Tomorrow (July 3rd )
by Seyong Ha 02 Jul '18

02 Jul '18

Hi all, Hope everyone enjoys the holiday today. We have a HCI Meeting tomorrow at 11:45 @ DGP Seminar Room. This week, Zhen is going to lead a brainstorming for his summer research. Please join the meeting and give him valuable feedback on his research. Details are attached below: Topic: How to use the Augmented Reality (e.g., HoloLens) to help people work in a mobile environment. He is going to lead a brainstorming session with two major ideas: 1) People usually have many artifacts surrounding them in their office: multiple monitors, piles of documents, sticky notes attached to the walls/monitors, etc. But this information is missing when they are working in other environments: cafe, home, subway, etc. Using AR, they will be able to see their artifacts on a virtual desk in front of them, in the same position as if in their office. 2) Since a tablet is popular to be used in said scenarios, I am also interested in how we could combine the tablet with the AR to create more interactions. Thanks, Seyong ------------------------------------------ Dynamic Graphics Project Lab., Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Seyong Ha

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