Three School of Interactive Computing researchers were chosen for paper presentations at one of the most selective and unique computing conferences in the world.

The Aarhus Conference, hosted by Aarhus University in Denmark, has been held every decade since 1975, addressing the most urgent and vital issues in computing worldwide. 

The latest conference, titled Computing (X) Crisis, took place in August and featured presentations, critiques, and workshops that explored computing’s influence on the human condition in a world filled with crises.

Assistant Professor Cindy Lin, Associate Professor Lynn Dombrowski, and School of Interactive Computing Professor and Chair Shaowen Bardzell authored the paper Whose, Which, and What Crisis? A Critical Analysis of Crisis in Computing Supply Chains. It was one of only 15 papers selected by conference organizers.

In the paper, in which Lin is credited as the lead author, the researchers advance a theoretical framework for understanding crises that impact the computing supply chain.

Bardzell, who served as program chair of the 2015 Aarhus Conference, approached Dombrowski and Lin about collaborating on a paper submission. Bardzell said the conference gets more than 100 submissions and has a minuscule acceptance rate.

“I knew I was going to go no matter what because I enjoyed it so much 10 years ago,” Bardzell said. “I was fortunate to come together with Lynn and Cindy. We spent six months reading, thinking, and debating together every week, and it was a pleasure to write it together.”

The authors identified common themes in areas they were already researching and examined how these themes affected the computing supply chain.

“We wanted to think about what this word means in relation to computing,” Dombrowski said. “Who gets to take advantage of a crisis, or who can construct a crisis in relation to computing? What’s not being talked about when we use that word?”

Lin is studying the rise of data centers and their impact on the environment and consumers. Dombrowski is an expert on the labor market and unjust labor practices. Bardzell has conducted extensive research on how chip manufacturing affects farming and agriculture in her homeland of Taiwan.

“We don’t often think about computing research as intergenerational colleagues working together,” Lin said. “I feel like the three of us represent very interesting generations of computing research that’s tied to critically thinking about the social and political aspects of computing. Each of us has different ways of thinking about those things.”

In the paper, the three authors discuss the concept of “against crisis thinking,” which emphasizes that crises affecting the computing supply chain aren’t self-evident phenomena. Human-computer interaction scholars, they say, should pay more attention to how the word “crisis” is introduced into public discourse and how it can be exploited by powerful actors and impact marginalized communities.

“Some players get to declare what is a crisis and whom it affects,” Lin said. “They create solutions to resolve the crisis, but they might not address what a chronic experience of a crisis may be.”

Although Bardzell said she considers it an honor to present at a conference that is so selective and is held only once a decade, she was encouraged to be among researchers dedicated to solving pressing societal and planetary issues.

“Academia can appear as a cutthroat environment where you’re trying to establish your brand and be known for XYZ,” Bardzell said. “At Aarhus, there was a strong sense of community and working alongside each other, and we’re better because of the people who work alongside us.”

Lin agreed and said that participating in Aarhus is different from the annual conferences where the researchers normally submit papers. 

“There’s something special about reflecting every 10 years,” Lin said. “It shows how much has changed but also how much things have remained the same.”