CTSB Newsletter August 2008 In this issue: Editorial | Events | Spotlights | News | Conferences | Funding | Groups | Jobs EDITORIAL Welcome once again to this month's Center for Technology & Social Behavior (CTSB) newsletter! In this August issue, we turn the spotlight on the Center for Technology and Social Behavior Director, Professor Justine Cassell. In addition, the spotlight falls on third year Ph.D. student Chris Karr, and CTSB post-doctoral researcher, Miri Arie. We also feature details of first Friday event, Thank CTSB It's Friday. AND, this very week we have a special CTSB Summer Speaker, with details given below. As always, we hope that you find the newsletter a useful resource for information about other CTSB affiliates, forthcoming conference and grant deadlines, as well as reading groups and other activities. If you would like to publicize any news, achievements or announcements in the newsletter, then please let us know. CTSB newsletter editor, Alastair Gill , would also like to know of any resources or employment opportunities for inclusion. Until next month, enjoy the newsletter and the rest of of summer, and we hope to see you at one of the CTSB events. -- Justine Cassell (Director, CTSB) and Alastair Gill (Research Scientist, CTSB) EVENTS Upcoming CTSB events to mark in your calendar: Colloquium Series We are currently putting the finishing touches to the exciting CTSB Colloquium Series for 08-09, and the full program will be announced soon. In the meantime, to give you an idea of what's in store, the first speaker in the 08-09 series will be Jonathan Grudin, from Microsoft, speaking in late September (please check the CTSB colloquium page for details as they become available). As a very special summer addition to the CTSB colloquium series, we welcome Cliff Nass of Stanford University to talk about "Wired for Speech: The Social Psychology of Technologies that Talk and Listen" (2pm, Friday August 1, Frances Searle Building, Room 2-115). Professor Nass is the Thomas M. Storke Professor and Director, Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab at Stanford University, and is the author of Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship (with Scott Brave) and The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places (with Byron Reeves). Thank CTSB it's Friday! The latest in the series of a great summer lunchtime first Friday event, Thank CTSB It's Friday (TCIF) will continue into August. Please join us for a yummy, filling, interesting, and unexpected lunch (12-2pm) this Friday, August 1 in the CTSB meeting room (2-431, Frances Searle Building). Then, if you like, you can simply walk down the hall to hear Cliff Nass speak. If you have specific ideas of activities you would like to see, please get in touch with Alastair Gill . SPOTLIGHTS Faculty Spotlight: Justine Cassell Justine Cassell is the director of the Center for Technology & Social Behavior, and a full professor in the departments of Communication Studies and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Northwestern University. She is also the graduate director of the new Technology and Social Behavior joint Ph.D. in Communication and Computer Science. She holds courtesy appointments in Learning Sciences (School of Education and Social Policy) and Linguistics (Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences). Cassell previously held a tenured associate professor appointment at the MIT Media Lab where she directed the Gesture and Narrative Language Research Group. At MIT, Professor Cassell won the Edgerton prize in 2001, and at Northwestern received the AT&T Research Chair in 2006. Most recently, in 2008, she was awarded the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision award for Leadership. Her work has been awarded a number of best paper prizes, and has received various other kinds of accolades. She holds a master's degree in Literature from the UniversitÃde BesanÃn (France), a master's degree in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and a double Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, in Psychology and in Linguistics. Cassell's research interests originated in the study of human-human conversation and storytelling. Progressively she became interested the role of computational systems to understand, and to participate, in these activities. This focus led her to deconstruct the linguistic and nonverbal elements of conversation and storytelling in such a way as to embody machines with conversational, social and narrative intelligence so that they could interact with humans in human-like ways. In particular, Cassell is credited with developing the Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA), a virtual human capable of interacting with humans using both language and nonverbal behavior. More recently Cassell has investigated the role that the ECA can play in children's lives, as a Story Listening System (SLS), which offers peer support for learning language and literacy skills, for both typical and developmentally-disordered populations. Cassell also directed the first large-scale participatory online community for young people, in 1998. With more than 3000 participants from 139 different countries, that community has allowed her to follow the lives of a particularly diverse group of young people, and to examine the effects of online community on civic engagement, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of local and global community. Cassell will be on sabbatical in 2008-2009 at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, writing a book about this research. More details of Professor Cassell's research can be found on her webpage. Student Spotlight: Chris Karr Chris Karr is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Media, Technology & Society program. Chris is a 2002 graduate of Princeton University's Computer Science department, where he wrote his senior thesis on distributed applications for aggregating geospatial information. After graduation, Chris worked as a software developer for Academic Technologies in Northwestern University's NUIT group, designing and implementing digital libraries and educational software. Chris studies the application of user context in desktop and ubiquitous settings. Chris is part of the CollaboLab and is advised by Dr. Darren Gergle. He is currently working on a project that combines an automatic context-sensing framework with assistive technologies to create adaptive software for the elderly and disabled. Chris lives in downtown Chicago and serves as a mentor for the Friends First program on weekends. Staff Spotlight: Miri Arie Miri Arie is a post-doctoral fellow working with Justine Cassell. Miri came to Northwestern from Tel-Aviv University, where she completed a Ph.D. program in clinical child psychology. During her graduate program she worked as an intern in clinical child psychology at Schneider Children medical center of Israel, where she acquired a broad experience in psychopathologies and treatment methods. Miri's interests lie in studying the development of social skills in children and understanding the psychopathologies related to social skill deficits. Miri's current research with Justine Cassell focuses on developing a social skills assessment tool for children using interactive technology. Her previous research and clinical experience includes: selective mutism, high-functioning autism, Asperger's disorder, anxiety, mood-disorders and autobiographical memory. Outside of her research, Miri enjoys spending time with her family, reading and cooking. Faculty News Roundup Fabian Bustamante (EECS) and David Choffnes will present the paper "Taming the Torrent: A practical approach to reducing cross-ISP traffic in P2P systems" in this month's ACM SIGCOMM 2008 conference. Louis Gomez (Learning Sciences) published a paper with Spiro Maroulis in the Teachers College Record on "Does 'Connectedness' Matter? Evidence From a Social Network Analysis Within a Small-School Reform". Sid Horton (Psychology) and Katya Otis presented work at the Society for Text and Discourse conference last month on "Visual Availability and Referential Communication in Younger and Older Adults". Seda Memik (EECS), Song Liu, Yu Zhang, and Gokhan Memik presented a paper entitled "An approach for adaptive DRAM temperature and power management" at the recent Annual International Conference on Supercomputing conference in Kos, Greece. Don Norman (EECS) wrote a column for the latest ACM Interactions magazine entitled "Workarounds and Hacks: The Leading Edge of Innovation". Mary Weismantel (Anthropology) has written the foreword to Mary Elisa Christie's book Ktichenspace: Women, Fiestas, and Everyday Life in Central Mexico published this month by the University of Texas Press. Funding Opportunities Note: the following list is not exhaustive. You can help by alerting us to relevant opportunities. NSF - Environmental Implications of Emerging Technologies - This program provides support to develop and test the environmental effects of new technologies. Fundamental and basic research is sought to establish and understand outcomes as a result of the implementation of new technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology. The program also supports research on the development and refinement of sensors and sensor network technologies that can be used to measure a wide variety of physical, chemical, and biological properties of interest in characterizing, monitoring, and understanding environmental impacts. Applications should be submitted through FastLane following standard guidelines. Deadline for submissions is September 15. NIH - Technological Innovations for Interdisciplinary Research Incorporating the Behavioral and Social Sciences - This program aims to advance the understanding of health through development of innovative new technologies to facilitate collaborative research integrating social and/or behavioral scientific disciplines with other disciplines. This announcement supports applications to develop tools for use in conducting interdisciplinary, multilevel research that will integrate levels of analysis ranging from individual (e.g., cellular, biological, physiological, molecular, genetic) to population levels and all levels in between (e.g., interpersonal, family, community, social, global). Here, 'technologies' includes such things as research tools, software, equipment or devices eligible for commercialization that provide opportunities for moving interdisciplinary research forward. Applications must involve collaborative teams in the development of the proposed technologies. These teams will be composed of at least one or more social and/or behavioral scientists engaged with other specialists in product development. Letter of intent not required, proposal deadline is September 17. DHS - International Research in Homeland Security Science & Technology Mission Areas - This solicitation seeks projects to augment and complement, through international research and collaboration, the depth and breadth of homeland security science and technology research. Specifically, these proposal may include but not limited to: Evaluation of novel tools or approaches to confronting homeland security challenges; Basic research to provide data, understandings, or models that support S&T efforts or policy decisions; and S&T and operations research evaluations to support revolutionary improvements in DHS's mission and its component agencies. operations. Deadline for submissions is September 30. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Health and Society Scholars Program - This program is designed to build the nation's capacity for research, leadership and policy change to address the multiple determinants of population health. The program is based on the principle that progress in the field of population health depends upon multidisciplinary collaboration and exchange. Its goal is to improve health by training scholars to: (1) investigate rigorously the connections among biological, genetic, behavioral, environmental, economic and social determinants of health; and (2) develop, evaluate and disseminate knowledge and interventions that integrate and act on these determinants to improve health. Potential applicants should carefully read the program details before applying. The deadline is October 3. Herb Block Foundation: Defending Basic Freedoms Program - This program seeks proposals to safeguard the basic freedoms guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, and to help eliminate all forms of prejudice and discrimination and to assist government agencies to be more accountable to the public. Anti-discrimination projects which involve joint efforts of two or more organizations are encouraged. The Herb Block Foundation will also consider contemporary societal issues that may arise. Potential applicants should initially submit a letter of inquiry. The deadline for applications is October 6. Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar Program - Each year the program invites a number of scholars to its New York headquarters to investigate topics in social and behavioral sciences. The Foundation particularly welcomes groups of scholars who wish to collaborate on a specific project during their residence at Russell Sage. Research projects generally contribute to the Foundation's ongoing effort to analyze the shifting nature of social and economic life in the United States. Areas include behavioral economics, cultural contact, the "future of work", immigration, and other issues in the social sciences. Deadline for applications is October 15. CTSB Exploration Grants A further reminder about the CTSB "exploration grants" program. Any interdisciplinary project qualifies. In particular, we encourage faculty and graduate students to collaborate across departments on projects that might potentially lead to larger grant proposals. We are particularly interested in supporting the hire of undergraduates as a part of these collaborative teams. If you are interested, please contact Justine Cassell . Conference Submission Deadlines SAC 2009 24th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing Honolulu, Hawaii (March 8-12, 2009). Submission deadline is August 16. EVIA 2008 2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Information Access Tokyo, Japan (December 16, 2008), a Satellite Workshop of NTCIR-7. Submission deadline is September 1. GW 2009 8th International Gesture Workshop Bielefeld, Germany (February 25-27, 2000). Submission deadline is September 12. RASCAL 2009 Relating Asymmetries between Speech & Comprehension in the Acquisition of Language Groningen, The Netherlands (January 24-25, 2009). Submission deadline is September 22. C&T 2009 4th International Congress on Communities and Technologies University Park, Pennsylvania (June 25-27, 2009). Submission deadlines: Papers December 15; Doctoral Consortium, workshop proposals February 15, 2009. Reading Groups If you would like to advertise a reading group, let Alastair know. Currently the Autism Reading Group meets on Fridays at 3pm in the CTSB (Frances Searle, room 2-431). This month's meetings will take place on July 1st and 15th. If you would like to join the group, please contact Alastair. The Grounding Reading Group will be taking a break over the summer - please contact Kino Aguilar for details of the next meeting. The Children's Collaborative Problem Solving Reading Group is being organized to help us better understand children's cognitive and behavioral processes in the context of collaborative peer problem solving. Meeting time and place are yet to be confirmed, but anyone interested in participating in the group should email Francisco Iacobelli . Employment Opportunities If you would like to advertise any kind of job openings within your research group or lab, then please contact Alastair Gill , providing a brief description of the position(s) available, and any skills / experience required. You can sign-up, manage the way you receive the CTSB newsletter, or forward the current newsletter to a colleague, via the CTSB newsletter management page CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Northwestern University | Frances Searle Building, #2-431 | 2240 Campus Drive | Evanston, IL 60208 | USA http://ctsb.northwestern.edu