Abstracts:

Alyssa Sheehan, Designing for the Future of Meaningful Work
My research is focused on evaluating emerging workplace technologies to shape the Future of Work. In this talk, I will share one example of how tools like augmented reality implemented on the manufacturing shop floor change the nature of work for blue-collar professionals. My work points to the need for computing design to address different value systems across blue- and white-collar domains. Specifically, we need to consider the professional boundaries these tools remake to create technologies that positively impact the future of work – not just developing tools that are useful but creating jobs that are meaningful in the face of automation and the enabling data economies. Designing for meaningful work provides a lens that prioritizes individual worker values and attends to existing organizational norms necessary for the design and use of effective automated systems.

Vedant Das Swain, Information Workers Perspectives on Phenotyping Performance and Wellbeing with Passive Sensing Enabled AI
We live in a time when our conception of a thriving worker is in flux. These changing definitions significantly affect information workers, who are increasingly unsatisfied with the care they get at work. To provide workers insight into successful behaviors, my research has explored the potential of passive sensing to algorithmically estimate performance and wellbeing. I refer to these approaches as Passive Sensing-enabled AI (PSAI). While hybrid work paradigms have simultaneously created new opportunities for PSAI, but have also fostered anxieties of misuse and privacy intrusions within a power asymmetry. At this juncture, it is unclear if those who are sensed can find these systems acceptable. In this talk, I will first introduce the state-of-the-art PSAI for information workers. Then, I will share my findings from scenario-based interviews of 28 information workers to highlight their perspectives as data subjects in PSAI. I unpack their expectations using the Contextual Integrity framework of privacy and information gathering. Participants described the appropriateness of PSAI based on its impact on job consequences, work-life boundaries, and preservation of flexibility. They also perceived that PSAI inferences could be shared with selected stakeholders if they could negotiate the algorithmic inferences. My research takes a step towards worker-centric approaches to implementing PSAI as an empowering tool in the future of work.

Yixuan ("Janice") Zhang, The Rise & Fall of Online Trust
Online trust is becoming a central issue in modern society. Trusting fallacies can harm the wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole, especially during crises like COVID-19. During crises, the inconclusive, conflicting, and time-sensitive information created by varied sources and disseminated on diverse platforms can engender a sense of confusion and uncertainty. This uncertainty makes it difficult for people to determine what and whom they should trust. In this talk, I will share several empirical studies to answer: how people form and develop their online trust over time and how content producers (human & AI) approach “trustworthy” design. I will then discuss ongoing and future efforts in building tools to address issues of online trust, investigating the risks of AI to prevent “manipulating” trust, and developing theoretical frameworks to guide rigorous future research.

Speaker Bios:

Alyssa Sheehan is currently a PhD candidate in Human Centered Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Director for the Georgia Center of Innovation for Aerospace. Her industry experience working in manufacturing has directly informed her research which is focused on evaluating and designing automation for the future of work in blue collar domains. Together with industry partners, Alyssa investigates the impact of new technologies on workplace practices in settings including manufacturing, logistics, and emergency response to inform technology design and data practices. Situated within the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), her research has been published in top tier computing venues including Association for Computing Machinery Computer Human Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and Designing Interactive Systems.

Vedant Das Swain is a PhD Candidate in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, advised by Munmun De Choudhury and Gregory Abowd. His research contributes to the future of work and behavioral wellbeing in general. He identifies, develops, and critiques opportunities to leverage ubiquitous technologies for algorithmic inference of performance and mental wellbeing. He consistently works with organizational psychologists to inform his investigations and also collaborates with Microsoft Research to develop better tools for worker wellbeing. His research has been published at top-tier computing venues like CHI, CSCW, UbiComp/IMWUT, ACII, and IEEE CogMI. His paper at CHI 2022 won a Best Paper Honorable Mention award. He is the winner of the Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award at UbiComp 2022 and the GVU Foley Scholar Award 2022. His research has been supported by IARPA, NSF, CDC, ORNL, and Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Yixuan ("Janice") Zhang is a PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech. Her research broadly lies in human-computer interaction (HCI), data visualization (VIS), equitable computing, and the interdisciplinary fields of crisis informatics and health informatics. She regularly publishes in premier HCI and visualization venues, such as ACM CHI, CSCW, and IEEE VIS. Her research has been well recognized by academia: she was named a Rising Star in EECS 2022, and selected as a Foley Scholar. The impact of her research extends beyond academia; for example, she was invited to present her work to broader audiences, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). More information is available at https://zjanice.github.io

How to watch: If you can't attend. please watch the Live Stream, or view the Recording (available 30 days after event). If you have any questions, email us at gvu@cc.gatech.edu.

Schedule of Brown Bag Speakers Spring 2023