Research

Research Areas

• HCI

• CSCW

• CSCL

• Technology Learning

• Digital Libraries

• Museum Informatics

• Sociotechnical Systems

• Databases for the Long Term

• Agile research methods

Research Topics I am interested in

• Metaphors, Mental Models and Misconceptions when learning new technology

• Over-the-Shoulder Learning: ways to support informal social learning of technologies

• Informal and social aspects of ICT use: learning, coping, helping, diagnosing, fixing, tailoring, combining and appropriating - and their implications for design

• Metaphors and mental models used in learning about a new technology:

  • Particular instances: Voice User interfaces, Large Language Models, VR/AR/XR

• Common misconceptions about how a particular technology works

• Problematic Metadata: rules about the values that can be input that don’t fit reality

• Learning as Search, Search as Learning

• Collaborative information seeking

• Computational Metacognition: techniques for learning new technologies more efficiently

• Agile Research: developing fast and light methods for exploring research spaces 

• Sociotechnical systems analysis and design

• Metrics as sociotechnical systems

• Low cost approaches to information visualization

• The application of collaborative technologies to museums

• Collaborative aspects of data quality management

• Long term implications of scientific database use and management

• Metadata and the long term: what the names of fields and values actually mean

• Misconception analysis: the things that confuse people in certain ways, why they do and what to do about it

Questions I am asking myself. 

Maybe they will lead to a research insight

• Why is learning tech so hard?

  • Can we make it easier?

• How do people learn a new technology?

  • How do people learn more about a tech they use?

  • How come they often don't?

  • People don't just struggle on their own, their also ask friends families and colleagues for help

    • Does that always work just fine?

    • Why not?

    • What can we do about it?

  • People often search for tech help online

    • Does that always work just fine?

    • Why not?

    • What can we do about it?

• What do techies do when they learn a new technology

  • are there particular learning techniques that they use?

  • Can we teach them to others

• What might an interface to help learning a technology look like?

  • what could we build to support reflective learning?

• Can we do research better-faster-cheaper?

  • How can we explore new research problems in a better way?

  • how can we use metaphors, reframing and different perspectives to help address research problems in a creative way?

Project Opportunities

If you are a student at UIUC, and are looking for project ideas for an independent study, practicum or something similar, I have some ideas for projects