Changing Academic Life: “Gloria Mark on service, multitasking, creativity and fun”

June 13, 2017

Gloria Mark is a Professor in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California Irvine. Gloria talks about her experiences as chair of a major conference, not just the work but also the rewards. She talks about how she moved from a Fine Arts background, painting murals on buildings, to a PhD in cognitive science and now studying the relationship between media use, attention and stress, but still being able to be creative in work. She also reflects honestly on her own struggles to manage her screen time and stress but above all she reminds us of the importance of fun and fulfillment in work.

Listen to the interview at Changing Academic Life.

2017 SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award

June 7, 2017

ISR alum Roy T. Fielding and Director Richard N. Taylor received the 2017 SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) for their paper titled “Principled Design of the Modern Web Architecture,” which was presented at ICSE 2000. The ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award is presented annually to the authors of a highly impactful paper presented at a SIGSOFT-sponsored or co-sponsored conference held at least 10 years prior.

CityLab: “Can Cities Hack Diversity?” (Ito quoted)

June 6, 2017

“I think it’s really critically important to have metrics for transparency about whether a city is approaching its diversity goals,” says Mizuko Ito, director of the University of California, Irvine’s Connected Learning Lab and research director of the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub. “There are so many case studies of well-meaning public policies that were launched with very good intentions, but that resulted in no, or even negative outcomes around inclusivity. It’s something that’s really hard to get right, because it’s not simply about getting butts in seats. It really is about fostering a change in culture, practices, and expectations.”

Read the full story at CityLab.

Wired: “Banned From the US? There’s a Robot for That” (Mark quoted)

June 5, 2017

Two telepresence robots roll into a human-computer interaction conference. Sounds like the beginning of a very nerdy joke, but it really happened (#2017). A few weeks ago in Denver, Colorado, a robot I was piloting over the internet from my computer in Idaho stood wheel-to-wheel with a similar ‘bot in a pink skirt controlled by a researcher in Germany. We huddled. We introduced ourselves by yelling at each other’s screens. Given the topic of the conference, this particular human-computer interaction was a little too on the HD touch-screen nose. But as much as the huddle symbolized of the future, it was also a political statement about a troubled present.

“It is a political statement, right? That we can allow people to come,” says Gloria Mark, General Chair of CHI and a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She says that even with the telepresence robots reserved for people wth denied visas, the conference still lost some attendees over the looming ban. “They just didn’t even want to take a chance of coming,” she said.

Read the full story at Wired.

Nardi publishes book on the computerization of the economy

June 2, 2017

Informatics Professor Bonnie Nardi has published a new book on the computerization of the economy titled Heteromation, and Other Stories of Computing and Capitalism. Co-written with Hamid R. Ekbia, a professor of informatics, cognitive science and international studies at Indiana University Bloomington, together they investigate the often “hidden” participation of digital technology users that yield economic value for companies via an essentially free labor force in computer-mediated networks. Nardi and Ekbia have coined this practice as “heteromation.”  In their book, they consider different types of heteromated labor of capital accumulation, such as “communicative labor, seen in user-generated content on social media; cognitive labor, including microwork and self-service; creative labor, from gaming environments to literary productions; emotional labor, often hidden within paid jobs; and organizing labor, made up of collaborative oups such as citizen scientists.”

The hardcover and e-book versions of Heteromation are available for purchase from MIT Press.

Fast Company: “Thanks To Telepresence Robots, Kids Can Attend School From Home” (Judy Olson cited)

June 1, 2017

The machines, usually paid for either with funding for students with special needs or from grants and donations, allow students who might otherwise be socially isolated to stay in touch and even make eye contact with classmates and teachers. That helps keep their spirits up and helps them stay motivated academically, according to Judy Olson, a professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Olson is the coauthor of a paper on telepresence robots in education that was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s recent annual conference on human-computer interaction.

Read the full story at Fast Company.

Bangkok Post: “Get engaged! Focus your mindset to execute results” (Mark cited)

May 31, 2017

Effective training is not possible without engagement; however, engaging today’s audiences can be difficult. According to Gloria Mark, an informatics professor at the University of California, Irvine, the average person’s attention span is only about three minutes before they feel the impulse to set aside whatever they are currently doing and begin a new activity.

Read the full story at Bangkok Post.

Trammell releases second volume of Analog Game Studies

May 19, 2017

Aaron Trammell, associate professor of informatics, published the second volume of Analog Game Studies in May with co-editors Evan Torner (University of Cincinnati) and Emma Leigh Waldron (UC Davis). The publication is a compilation of articles from the bimonthly online journal Analog Game Studies, which is dedicated to the academic and popular study of games containing substantial analog components, such as board, card and die games. Each year the journal compiles the previous volume’s articles, with the addition of a bonus article, into a print anthology. The first volume was released in June 2016, and now both volumes are available for purchase or a free download from ETC Press at Carnegie Mellon University.

The second volume continues the work of analyzing analog games within the larger frameworks of social meaning. Guest articles include Bruno Faidutti’s landmark essay “Postcolonial Catan” and “Out of the Dungeons: Representations of Queer Sexuality in 71 RPG Source Books” by Jaakko Stenros and Tanja Sihvonen, as well as many others.

UCI’s game design program ranked 3rd in state, 18th in nation by ACR

May 17, 2017

Animation Career Review (ACR) has released its 2017 Game Design School Rankings in which UCI was ranked the 3rd best school for game design in California, 4th best on the West Coast, 6th best among public colleges and 18th best in the nation. These rankings highlight the growth and impact of UCI’s B.S. in Computer Game Science, which is housed in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. The computer game science bachelor’s gives undergraduate students invaluable hands-on experience in programming, designing and implementing virtual games.

ACR launched in 2011 with the goal to be the most comprehensive source of information for aspiring animation and game design professionals. The criteria ACR uses when compiling top school lists include academic reputation, admission selectivity, depth and breadth of programs, degree value as it relates to tuition and indebtedness and geographic location. ACR also incorporates school surveys during the evaluation process.