Catalyzing Computing

In this episode Khari Douglas interviews Dr. Beth Mynatt, the Executive Director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), a College of Computing Distinguished Professor, and the Director of the Everyday Computing Lab. Dr. Mynatt discusses her research into human computer interaction and her work at IPaT and the GVU center.

Timestamps to jump to certain topics below:

Start of interview with Beth Mynatt - (01:10)

Transforming graphical user interfaces into auditory interfaces - (02:03)

Time spent at Xerox Parc - (08:55)

Getting into teaching - (12:09)

Research administration and the interaction between computer science and the social sciences - (15:01)

Socio-technical interventions for health disparity reduction - (20:59)

Funding for long-term, healthcare-related studies - (27:24)

Beth's dream research center - (30:30)

Content generation for workforce development - (32:24)

Outro - (36:47)

The Computing Community Consortium held a visioning workshop in Atlanta, GA in March 2019 to discuss and articulate research visions for authoring rich graphical content for new workforce training. The workshop’s goal was to articulate research challenges and needs and to summarize the current state of the practice in this area. This workshop is in response to growing needs in the field and new research programs such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Advancing Cognitive and Physical Capabilities (FW-HTF).

In this episode Khari Douglas discusses the goals and outcomes of the event with workshop organizer Dr. Holly Rushmeier (Yale) and Dr. Beth Mynatt (Georgia Tech).

This is part 2 of Khari Douglas' interview with Dr. Keith Marzullo, the Dean of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and formerly the director of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. In this episode, Dr. Marzullo discusses joining an iSchool as a computer scientist, the latest projects at the Maryland iSchool, and the future of cybersecurity.

Khari Douglas interviews Dr. Keith Marzullo, the Dean of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Marzullo joined the iSchool from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he directed the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. In this episode, Dr. Marzullo discusses his research background, experience teaching, and his time spent in the federal government.

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently co-sponsored the Code 8.7: Using Computational Science and AI to End Modern Slavery conference. Code 8.7 brought together computer science researchers and technologists with policy researchers, law enforcement officials, and activists involved in the fight against human trafficking.

In this episode Khari Douglas interviews CCC Council Members Dan Lopresti (Lehigh University), Nadya Bliss (Arizona State), and James Cockayne (Centre for Policy Research at UN University) on the discussions, outcomes, and next steps of Code 8.7.

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently hosted a visioning workshop on Thermodynamic Computing. This episode of the Catalyzing Computing podcast features an interview with Natesh Ganesh, one of the workshop organizers and a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who is interested in the physical limits to computing, brain inspired hardware, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and emergence of intelligence in self-organized systems.

Gavin Crooks, formerly a Senior Scientist at Rigetti Quantum Computing and a world expert on non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the physics of information, also shares his thoughts on the workshop.

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently hosted a visioning workshop on Thermodynamic Computing. This episode of the Catalyzing Computing podcast features an interview with workshop organizers, Tom Conte (Georgia Tech) and Todd Hylton (UC San Diego) to discuss their reasons for proposing the workshop, what thermodynamic computing is, and the potential impact that thermodynamic computing could have on future technology.

Workshop participant Christof Teuscher (Portland State University) also shares his thoughts on the workshop and his work with new models of computation, including computing with DNA.

The second episode of Catalyzing Computing features an interview of CCC Council Member Suresh Venkatasubramanian. Suresh is a professor at the University of Utah with a background in algorithms and computational geometry, as well as data mining and machine learning. Suresh talks about joining the CCC, the work of the CCC’s Fairness and Accountability task force, and the impact of the internet and algorithms on the modern world.

The first episode of Catalyzing Computing features an interview of CCC Council Member Suresh Venkatasubramanian. Suresh is a professor at the University of Utah with a background in algorithms and computational geometry, as well as data mining and machine learning. In this episode Suresh talks about growing up in India, his grad school trajectory, career choices, and his current research interest in algorithmic fairness.