Research

Human-computer interaction is a fairly young discipline, and as of this writing, it offers few laws that govern interactivity. As the base for a research framework to explore HCI, I use theories of collaboration in conversation to analyze and understand interaction. I view human-computer interaction as an interactive dialogue between the user and his/her information, and this dialogue as an example of a joint activity. Joint activities are activities that cannot be carried out in isolation and which require explicit collaboration of the multiple participants in the activity. Human conversations (dialogue) are the most common example of joint activities, and are used in my research as a model for studying interaction. Some areas of HCI studied are personal information management, information refinding, tools for building interactive systems, digital libraries, use of computers for education, and cultural influence in interface design.

My research is mostly in Human-computer interaction, mostly on the software side of hci (User interface software). For a few years now, I have been interested in multi-platform user interfaces, that is, interfaces that are designed to work on multiple devices (phones, laptops, web, desktops, etc.). A recent emphasis of my research is on Personal Information Management. A secondary theme (but no less important) to my work is in the area of educational uses of
computers.

If you are a student and you want to work with me, the best thing to do is make an appointment to come meet me, then signup for one of my graduate courses, do excellent work in the class, then ask me for a GRA. Very rarely I give a GRA to a student that had not been in one of my courses.

Research Notes

• HCI Notes
• PIM Notes
• Research Aid Material
• Presenting your thesis or dissertation
• Links to resources to assist you in writing, courtesy of First Monday http://www.firstmonday.org/guidelines.html#resource

Research Grants

I keep a list online of my research grants. Click below to see different versions of this list:

• Active grants
• Completed grants.
• NSF or Industry.
• All grants awarded.