Please join us for the inaugural speaker next Wednesday!
When: Wednesday, November 14, 12:00PM – 1:00PM
Where: TSRB Auditorium (Rm. 175)
Title: Nurturing Community Engagement with Participatory Sensing Systems
Abstract:
Low-cost sensors, DIY (do-it-yourself) methods and bottom-up initiatives are expanding the scope of participatory sensing research beyond the development of digital tools. New modes of making and participation are emerging as ordinary citizens gather, share and analyze environmental data alongside professional scientists. This talk critically re- envisions sensing systems beyond instruments of data collection, to encompass broader trajectories for community togetherness, political participation, and co-production of knowledge between scientists and non-experts.
I present my research across three themes: (1) shared community sensing, (2) hands-on making, and (3) the design of hybrid bio-electronic systems. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, critical making and the design and deployment of functional prototype systems, I focus on strategies for community engagement with, and activism around environmental sensing. In particular, I explore community appropriations of sensing materials, which range from networked air quality sensors that were shared by groups of homeless, parents, bicyclists and activists; to DIY making of large, glowing balloons that change color based on surrounding air quality; and the integration of organic and living materials into environmental sensing systems.
Bio:
Stacey Kuznetsov (http://www.staceyk.org/) is a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute where she leads a range of research efforts themed within citizen science, grassroots community activism, political computing, and DIY technologies including biosensing. Stacey has led innovative workshops at ACM SIGCHI and ACM DIS conferences, and her work has been published
at a number of prestigious venues including CHI, DIS, NordiCHI, and UbiComp, where she was awarded a Best Paper Award in 2011. Stacey was also awarded a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship at CMU. She was a research intern at the Socio Digital Systems Group at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK in 2011. Earlier, she worked as a software engineer at a small startup company (http://google.com). She received her undergraduate degree from New York University with a double major in Philosophy and Computer Science.
For more information, visit http://nokia.lmc.gatech.edu/
