Monthly Archives: May 2019

Bonnie Nardi Recognized with Lifetime Achievement Award

May 30, 2019

Informatics Professor Emeritx Bonnie Nardi is headed to Europe, where she will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Society for Socially Embedded Technology (EUSSET). This society is comprised of researchers interested in socially embedded technologies and how they influence our everyday lives. Recognizing that traditional methods for systems design often do not take into account important aspects of human, social and cultural life, EUSSET members present this award to scholars who have reshaped the computing field with innovative human-centered approaches. Nardi’s work puts her squarely in this group of scholars.

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Mark Baldwin Receives UCI Engage Great Partner Award

May 23, 2019

At a ceremony on May 22, 2019, informatics Ph.D. student Mark Baldwin received the UCI Engage Graduate Student Great Partner Award. UCI Engage builds campus-community partnerships that align UCI’s resources and expertise with the knowledge and strengths of local communities, and this award honors graduate students who have initiated or participated in such partnerships. Baldwin’s work on the Makapo Aquatics Project, creating a steering system to allow visually impaired individuals to participate in outrigger canoe racing, is a perfect example of a successful campus-community collaboration.

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UCI School of Medicine: “New Study Shows Crowdsourced Traffic Data Could Save Lives”

May 22, 2019

A new University of California, Irvine-led pilot study finds, on average, Waze “crash alerts” occur two minutes and 41 seconds prior to their corresponding California Highway Patrol (CHP)-reported crash.  These minutes could mean the difference between life and death. The paper titled, “Crowdsourced Traffic Data as an Emerging Tool to Monitor Car Crashes,” was published today in JAMA Surgery.

Informatics Professor Sean Young is the study’s lead author. Read the full story on the UCI School of Medicine website.

Univision: “Rosalva Gallardo, a Peruvian who stands out working for Google in Silicon Valley” (video interview)

May 20, 2019

She was born in Lima, where she studied informatics engineering before coming to the US to pursue a doctorate in California on a full scholarship at UC Irvine. Now, she is in charge of working with software developers at partner companies to ensure that Google’s technologies such as Android are being implemented and utilized optimally.

Watch the video interview at Univision.

Active Learning Transforms Ubiquitous Computing Course

May 8, 2019

The 100 students enrolled in “IN4MATX 148: Project in Ubiquitous Computing” last quarter might not have realized it, but they got a free course upgrade. The learning objectives and range of topics remained the same from years past, as did the emphasis on the ecological and social impacts of the internet of things (IoT), but the winter 2019 offering featured two significant differences from prior courses. “We had access to the Anteater Learning Pavilion, which was transformative,” explains Associate Professor in Informatics and Education Kylie Peppler, who taught the course, “and we purchased hands-on materials through the Informatics department.”

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SHRM: “Why Are Companies Ending Remote Work?” (Judith and Gary Olson quoted)

May 7, 2019

In their research published in 2000, Judith Olson and her husband and UCI colleague, Gary Olson, found that those most likely to succeed at working remotely are people who have worked with others at the main worksite before, have similar work styles, like one another, have access to high-end technology that helps them collaborate, and are skilled at using that technology.

But a situation in which all these factors are present is rare, the researchers found. And if some of these factors are missing, it creates “strain on the relationships among teammates and require[s] changes in the work or processes of collaboration.” Often, teams do not succeed “because distance still matters.”

Read the full story at SHRM.

Marketplace: “Remote offices find creative workarounds as more Americans stay home” (Judith Olson quoted)

Xerox, American Express, Dell and about two dozen other Fortune 500 companies have made entire divisions remote. But it’s not as simple as just giving employees a laptop and sending them home, said Judith Olson, a professor of informatics and computer science at UC Irvine. Moving people out of the office can make simple collaborative tasks much less efficient.

Read the full story at Marketplace.