Bio

Dr. Potts has a training in behavioral science and his research background is in requirements engineering, design rationale and argumentation, user-centered design, and personal privacy. He is most interested in the usefulness and usability of information technology. In particular, his work addresses the flexibility of software to the needs of individual users, groups and institutions, by using a combination of modeling and design techniques from computer science and the social sciences. More recently, he has turned his attention to the ways in which technology embodies or policies and ethical principles - or fails to do so - and how we help students learn about the social implications of computing, professional practices and responsibilities, and how to communicate with non-specialists. He is a member of the college's Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and is playing an active role in the formation of education strategy at the campus level.