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HCII Seminar Series - Steven Dow

Steven Dow seated on steps outdoors

Speaker
Steven Dow
Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305

Video
Video link

Description

"Advancing Socio-Technical Systems for Community-Driven Creativity"

As the world’s problems increase in scope and complexity, the practice of design has been shifting. Designers are seen less as saviors and more as facilitators of problem-solving processes. As the practice of design evolves, so too, must the tools to support the creative process. While tools can make people more creative, productive and collaborative, even the most creative group of individuals cannot solve wickedly complex problems without engaging a larger community of use. This talk explores principles for creativity-support tools, and how the broader shifts in design practice—towards participatory and community-driven approaches—create new opportunities for socio-technical ecosystems to support creative problem solving.

Speaker's Bio

Steven Dow is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, Director of the ProtoLab research group, Co-Founder of the Design for San Diego initiative, and a member of the Design Lab. Steven conducts research on human-computer interaction, social computing, and creativity and seeks to improve communities’ abilities to creatively solve their own challenges. Steven received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015 for research on “advancing collective innovation.” He was co-PI on five other NSF grants, a Google Faculty Grant, a Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research Award, Stanford’s Postdoctoral Research Award, and a Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Grant. Steven was on the faculty in the HCI Institute at CMU from 2011-2015. He holds an MS and PhD in Human-Centered Computing from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from University of Iowa.

Speaker's Website
https://spdow.ucsd.edu/