HCI and HCC Graduate Georgia Tech

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1 HCI and HCC Graduate Georgia Tech James Foley GVU Center and College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia foley@cc.gatech.edu ABSTRACT In this paper we briefly trace the growth of HCI-related research and graduate education programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and focus on the College of Computing s new Ph.D. program in Human-Centered Computing. This program aims to bridge the gap between technology and humans by integrating concepts from anthropology, cognitive sciences, HCI, learning sciences and technology, psychology and sociology with computing and computer science, in a way that is approachable by students with an undergraduate technical or social sciences degree. Author Keywords Human-Centered Computing Ph.D. Education, HCI Ph.D. Education. ACM Classification Keywords H.5. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI), H.m Miscellaneous, K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education INTRODUCTION Georgia Tech has a long tradition of education and research at the intersection between humans and technology. Early on, as at many universities, the work was around Engineering Psychology and Human Factors with computers joining airplane cockpits and industrial plant control systems and automobiles initially as just another from of technology. As computers became more and more important and began to find their ways into traditional control systems, computers emerged as a major theme in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, a series of significant events have led to the strengthening of this emphasis, all within the scope of HCC. These events, in roughly chronological order Workshop on Human Computer Interaction Organized in early 1981 by Albert Badre, who held a joint appointment between the School of Psychology and the School of Information and Computer Science, this workshop is believed to be the first that used the term Human-Computer Interaction. A workshop report was published the following year [1]. CHMSR - Center for Human-Machine Systems Research The Center for Human-Machine Systems Research (CHMSR) was founded in 1981 to study how humans interact with complex systems. Research includes analysis, modeling, and design of human-machine systems, using or developing approaches based on systems engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, psychology, mathematical and computational modeling, and empirical evaluations. Computer Science Ph.D. with HCI Specialization This is the standard HCI Ph.D., offered by the College of Computing. The first computer science Ph.D degree with an HCI focus was awarded in the mid 1980s by the College s predecessor organization, the School of Information and Computer Science. The program has blossomed: between 1994 and the present, 30 CS PhDs have been awarded to students in HCI and HCI-related areas (ie, cognitive science, learning science and technology). Students in the CS Ph.D. must complete an "Introduction to Graduate Studies" course and then take at least three hours of directed research study under faculty guidance each semester until their qualifying examination. Students take at least five breadth courses, each from a different area of study within the College. The current twelve areas are computer architecture, database systems, graphics and visualization, human-computer interaction, information security, intelligent systems and robotics, learning sciences and technology, networking and communications, programming languages and compilers, software methodology and engineering, systems (including operating systems, distributed and parallel systems), and theoretical computer science. Students must include courses from the systems and theory areas as breadth courses. HCI students typically take psychology courses to meet the 9-hour minor requirement. 1

2 GVU Center The Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center was founded in 1991 as an interdisciplinary research center to further develop Georgia Tech s research and graduate education strengths in computer graphics, animation, information and scientific visualization, virtual reality, multimedia, HCI and user interface software. It now also encompasses research in human-robot interfaces, machine learning and vision. The enduring theme of GVU research is that it is at the interface between computers and the real world, and depends on multiple disciplines for its success. EduTech Institute Founded in 1993, the EduTech Institute is a multidisciplinary research organization committed to enhancing science, math and design education through innovative uses of technology. Development efforts are aimed at creating environments for learning, both embodied and virtual, that reflect our knowledge of cognition behind learning, complex problem solving and understanding. In general terms, we strive in our research to bridge the gap between experimental studies of learning and education and implementation in the messiness of real classrooms and other learning contexts. Cognitve Science Program Since its establishment in 1994, the program s overarching research theme has been centered on "Cognition, Design, and Technology". We seek to understand cognition in realworld environments, and thus the technological artifacts that are used and created in these environments become our concern as well. In our emphasis on real-world cognition, we address issues of consequence for everyday living in the workplace, in the classroom, and in the home in the contexts of individual and group cognition. The Program offers a Certificate in Cognitive Science at the graduate level and a minor and certificate at the undergraduate level. HCI MS Degree This interdisciplinary degree, started in 1997, is a cooperative effort of the College of Computing; the School of Psychology; and the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC). Students are accepted by any one of these schools; the program is administered through the GVU Center. Each student takes a set of core courses, followed by a set of specialization courses and the team project. The core is divided into fixed and flexible sets. Everyone takes the three-course core (research design, engineering psychology, human-computer interaction) and a subset of courses in the flexible core based on their academic background. The specialization courses are determined by the student s home academic unit. The (semester hours) breakdown for the program is: 9 Fixed core, 12 Flexible core, 11 Specialization, 4 Project. Since its inception, 83 students have earned the MS HCI degree, and 44 students are currently enrolled in the program. Table 1 gives more detail. School Year Students Applying Enrolled Students Table 1: HCI MS statistics since the first class entered. Human-Centered Computing Ph.D. Degree Multiple factors led to the 2004 establishment of this degree program: A critical mass of mass of faculty working in HCI, user interface software, learning sciences and technology, VR and AR, cognitive science, ubiquitous/pervasive/mobile computing; The success of the MS HCI degree; Enrolled Women and Minorities Fall NA Fall NA Fall NA Fall NA Fall Fall Fall Fall A desire by these faculty to establish a new kind of Ph.D. program substantially different than a Computer Science degree and with an emphasis on the intersection of humans and computers; The charter of the Georgia Tech College of Computing to attend to the many aspects of computing that go beyond computer science. We now turn our attention to the goals and form of the HCC Ph.D. THE HUMAN-CENTERED COMPUTING PH.D. PROGRAM Goals of the HCC program include: Creating an interdisciplinary Ph.D. to train researchers with the explicit goal of developing theory and experimentation linking human concerns and computing in all areas of computing, ranging from the technical-use focus of programming language and API designs and software engineering tools and methodologies to the impacts of computing technology on individuals, groups, organizations, and entire societies. 2

3 Develop Human-centered Computing as the science of designing computations and computational artifacts in support of human endeavors. Be accessible to students who do not have a CS undergraduate degree (this is not true of the CS Ph.D. program). Provide those students with a non-cs background a working knowledge of important computing concepts that relate to interactive systems, and programming skills sufficient for prototyping, and sufficient to enable them to have meaningful and effective discussions with computer scientists who develop the tools that are used in implementing computations and computational artifacts in support of human endeavors. Explicitly recognize HCC as an intellectual discipline. STRUCTURE OF THE HCC PH.D. PROGRAM Three required courses (descriped in next section) CS 6451, Introduction to Human Centered Computing Theory and Methods. CS 6452 Prototyping Interactive Systems. CS 7455 Issues in Human-Centered Computing. Completion of the 1-credit seminar courses HCC 8001 and HCC 8002 in the first and succeeding years of study, respectively. Serving as an assistant in CS 6452 Prototyping Interactive Systems for at least one semester. Completing at least three elective courses (see Appendix A for typical areas and courses). Completing a set of three minor courses (see Appendix B for typical areas and courses). Demonstrating four competencies Computing Concepts and Skills Competency Evaluation Competency Written Research Communications Competency Oral Research Communications Competency Passing a written and oral comprehensive exam. Successfully conducting, documenting, and defending an original research project. COURSE DESCRIPTIONS CS 6451 Introduction to Human-Centered Computing Introduction to the range of issues across the HCC disciplines, including design and research methodologies; cognitive, social, and cultural theories; assessment and evaluation; ethical issues. (3 credits) Learning Objectives for the course are: Familiarize students with a range of issues, theoretical, methodological, and conceptual across the HCC disciplines; Familiarize students with different perspectives on humans cognitive, social, cultural; Provide experience with design and evaluation; Familiarize students with ethical issues; Create community. CS 6452 Prototyping Interactive Systems Introduction to design, prototyping and implementation of systems for human-centered computing. Focuses on core concepts in computer science and implications for interactive systems. (3 credits) Learning objectives for this course are: Develop literacy in programming skills sufficient to create interactive system prototypes. Be able to analyze and communicate program architecture and technical software design decisions with others. Understand computational constraints on common concepts in interactive systems. Gain an understanding of common "idioms" useful in creating interactive software, as well as with the architectures prevalent in such systems. Develop a basic literacy in a number of forms of prototyping, ranging from low-fidelity forms such as paper prototypes to high-fidelity forms such as code. Implement a significant computer program ( lines), comprising multiple files, and demonstrating knowledge of multiple approaches to interactive system creation. CS 7455 Issues in Human Centered-Computing. Indepth focus on theoretical, methodological, and conceptual issues across the HCC disciplines associated with humans (cognitive, biological, socio-cultural); design; ethics; and analysis and evaluation. (3 credits) Learning objectives for this course are: To provide an in-depth examination of a range of issues, theoretical, methodological, and conceptual, across the HCC disciplines; To enable students to compare and contrast issues across areas; To afford students in different focus areas the opportunity to discuss these kinds of issues in their individual research projects with one another; 3

4 To assist students in understanding theoretical and methodological challenges they face as researcher and designer, and in developing multidisciplinary perspectives, intuitions, and a reflective perspective on these; To deepen and sustain the development of students as multi-lingual HCC researchers. CS 8001 Presentations and discussions of timely issues in HCC. Seminar provides a structured environment for first year students to deepen understanding of HCC theory, concepts, and methods (1 credit). The learning objective for this seminar is to provide an in-depth examination of a range of issues, theoretical, methodological, and conceptual, across the HCC disciplines CS 8002 Advanced Seminar in Human-Centered Computing (1 credit). The learning objective for this course is to provide a structured environment in which students in their second and succeeding years can deepen their understanding of HCC theory, concepts, and methods. CS 4452 Human-Centered Computing Concepts, is a new course for graduate students in HCC and other disciplines, and for seniors who are not majors in computing or computing-related fields. Its content, or equivalent study, will be a pre-requisite for CS PROGRAM DATA The HCC PhD program officially launched in November, and we are still accepting applications. To date, over 60 applications have been received; our goal is 6 to 8 marticulating students for Fall The HCI MS program accepted its first class in 1997; table 1 summarizes our applicant and enrollment experience. EXPERIENCE TO DATE Because the HCC Ph.D. is just now launching, we do not yet have accumulated wisdom concerning what works and what does not work. HCC DIGITAL LIBRARY We have already contributed considerable material to the library, and will continue to add material while at the same time working with the community to ensure that he material in the library is accessible and useful. FIVE QUESTIONS FOR WORKSHOP DISCUSSION Question 1 What are others experiences in teaching computing-oriented courses that include students with CS undergraduate degrees as well as students with very little programming experience and understanding of computing technology and concepts? Question 2 What to others see as the pros and cons of a Ph.D. program that does not try to give non-cs students any experience with computer programming, versus one that does? Think both about how to set up the curricula and more importantly, the ability of graduates to be successful in different career paths. Question 3 What career paths have your graduates pursued, and for what career paths you do believe your program prepares your graduates? Question 4 What does industry (ie, research labs) want/expect in a PhD degree. Question 5 Is one undergraduate course (CS 4452) and one graduate course (CS 6452) sufficient to give students who do not have an undergraduate CS degree sufficient grounding in programming and computing concepts to be able to be good prototypers and effective / credible / respected communicators with computer scientists? CONCLUSION The HCI MS program is a success. The HCC PhD program is new and evolving. Early feedback, based on student and faculty interest, is positive. We will only truly know whether the program is successful in 5 to 10 years, after students have graduated and have begun productive professional careers. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my colleagues who led the planning process for the HCC Ph.D. Beth Mynatt and Nancy Nersessian and to the many, many faculty, students and administrators, past and present too numerous to mention who have contributed to the growth of Georgia Tech s HCC-related graduate education programs. Here we simply list the centers, schools and colleges with which the activities have been associated: CHMSR (Center for Human and Machine Systems Research); College of Computing; EduTech Institute; GVU (Graphics, Visualization and Usability) Center; Industrial Design Program; School of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Laboratory for Human-Computer Interaction and Health Care Informatics; School of Literature, Communications and Culture; and the School of Psychology. REFERENCES 1. Directions in Human/Computer Interaction, Albert Badre and Ben Shneiderman (eds.), Ablex, APPENDIX A: TYPICAL SPECIALIZATION AREAS AND COURSES Artificial Intelligence: CS 6010 Principles of Design CS 6601 Artificial Intelligence CS 7610 Modeling and Design CS 7611 AI Problem Solving CS 7613 Knowledge Systems Engineering CS 7620 Case-Based Reasoning Cognitive Science: CS 6795 Introduction to Cognitive Science CS 7695 Philosophy of Cognition 4

5 CS 7697 CS 7790 CS 8795 CS 8893 Cognitive Models of Science and Technology Cognitive Modeling Colloquium in Cognitive Science Special Topics in Cognitive Science Collaboration: CS 6470 Design of Online Communities CS 7460 Collaborative Computing Human-Computer Interaction: CS 6455 User Interface Design and Evaluation CS 6750 Human-Computer Interaction Information Security: CS 6725 Information Security Strategies and Policies Learning Sciences and Technology: CS 6460Educational Technology: Conceptual Foundations CS 7465 Educational Technology: Design and Evaluation CS 7467 Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Software: CS 6456 CS 7470 CS 7497 Principles of User Interface Software Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Virtual Environments Software Engineering: CS 6320 Software Requirements Analysis and Specification Visualization: CS 6480 Computer Visualization Techniques CS 6485 Visualization Methods for Science and Engineering CS 7450 Information Visualization APPENDIX B: TYPICAL MINOR AREAS AND COURSES Industrial Design: ID 6101 Human-Centered Design ID 6200 Graduate Studio I ID 6201 Graduate Studio II Industrial and Systems Engineering, Option 1: ISyE 6205 Cognitive Engineering ISyE 6215 Models in Human-Machine Systems ISyE 6234 Measurement and Evaluation of Human- Integrated Systems Industrial and Systems Engineering, Option 2: ISyE 6223Understanding and Supporting Human Decision Making ISyE 6215 Models in Human-Machine Systems ISyE 6234 Measurement and Evaluation of Human- Integrated Systems Human-Computer Interaction: CS 6455 User Interface Design and Evaluation CS 6750 Human-Computer Interaction Literature, Communication and Culture, Option 1 LCC 6316 Historical Approaches to Digital Media LCC 8000 Proseminar in Media Theory LCC 8001 Digital Media Studies Literature, Communication and Culture, Option 2: LCC 6318 Experimental Media LCC 6321 The Architecture of Responsive Spaces LCC 6650 Project Studio: Augmented Reality Literature, Communication and Culture, Option 3: LCC 6215 Issues in Media Studies: Game Design as a Cultural Practice LCC 6317 Interactive Fiction LCC 6650 Project Studio: Game Design Psychology, Option 1: PSYC 6011 Cognitive Psychology PSYC 6012 Social Psychology PSYC 6014 Sensation and Perception Psychology, Option 2: PSYC 6018 Principles of Research Design PSYC 6019 Statistical Analysis of Psychological Data I PSYC 7101 Engineering Psychology I: Methods Public Policy: PUBP 6014 Organization Theory PUBP 6421 Development of Large-scale Socio-technical Systems PUBP 8803 Special Topics: The Internet and Public Policy 5