We are pleased to have Scott Hudson from Carnegie Mellon University presenting at our SFU Distinguished Lecture series.

Scott H

Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Time: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: TASC1 9204, Burnaby campus

Talk Title: The Future is Not What it Used to Be: Some Thoughts on Why the Fun Stuff in Technical Human-Computer Interaction is All Ahead of Us

Abstract:
In this talk, I will consider how the future of technical Human-Computer Interaction is different than it used to be—what has changed, what has stayed the same, and mostly what should we do about it. Although it seems mundane, when we consider change in any sort of computing technology, we must consider “the elephant in the room” of Moore’s law. I will present two quick thought experiments in this talk to try to convince you that you really don’t understand the implications of Moore’s law, that this really does matter, and that you should perhaps be thinking a little differently about your work as a result.
(Spoiler alert: you are dramatically underestimating how much change in computing power is ahead of you, and probably under-utilizing its potential for HCI advances.)

Based on this, the core of my talk will consider what we might be missing in terms of how we go about our work, and talk about several exemplars of where a different view of a “new future” might lead in terms of specific research directions. With these exemplars as motivation, I will consider some more general thoughts about the methodologies we use in our work and suggest a few ways we might consider thinking differently about how we go about our work.

Biography:
Scott Hudson is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University and previously held positions at the University of Arizona and Georgia Tech. He has published extensively in technical HCI. He recently received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award. Previously, he received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award, was elected to the CHI Academy, and received the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence at CMU.

His research interests within HCI are wide-ranging, but tend to focus on technical aspects of HCI. Much of his recent work has been considering advanced fabrication technologies such as new machines, processes, and materials for 3D printing, as well as computational knitting and weaving, and applications of mechanical meta-materials.