Activities in Considerate Systems

Speaker: Ted Selker

Host: Henry Lieberman

Host Affiliation: CSAIL - MIT

Date: Monday, December 10, 2018

Time: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Refreshments: 2:45

Location: 32-G449

Abstract: Information systems are being called upon not only to help keep us organized and productive, but also to help in the way we live. We are starting to see them as solving social problems as they might begin reducing disruption; helping people enjoy others or even increase self-awareness. This talk will introduce notions of how we can use AI to introduce social awareness in our design practices and artifacts.

The talk will frame the Considerate System stance of social feedback to a user. We will describe results from a variety of considerate research projects, with examples including systems supporting people on PCs , mediating media interactions, saving energy in the Sustainability Base Leeds Platinum building, reducing distracted driving and in meeting support. We conclude that all interactions with people in the physical world require an appreciation that they are in a social environment and engagement.

BIO: Ted Selker spent five years as Director of Considerate Systems research at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley. He was also responsible for developing the campus’ research mission, teaching HCI, Android product design, and research in voting with disabilities. Ted spent ten years as an Associate Professor at the MIT Media Laboratory where he created the Context Aware Computing group, co-directed the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, and directed the Industrial Design Intelligence Future of Design project.
His successes at targeted product creation and enhancement led to his role of IBM Fellow and director of User Systems Ergonomics Research at IBM. He also worked at Xerox PARC and Atari Research Labs.
Ted's innovation has been responsible for profitable and award winning products, ranging from notebook computers to operating systems. For example, his design of the TrackPoint in-keyboard pointing device is used in many notebook computers. His visualization and visual interface work has made impacts in the performance of the PowerPC, usability in OS/2, ThinkPad setup, Google maps, etc. His adaptive help system has been the basis of products as well. Ted’s work has resulted in numerous awards, patents, and papers, and has often been featured in the press. Ted was given the American Association for People with Disabilities Thomas Paine Award for his work on voting technology, and was co-recipient of the Computer Science Policy Leader Award for Scientific American 50.

For more information please contact: Maria Rebelo, 617-253-5895, mr@csail.mit.edu