Image of Joanna McGrenere

Research
Teaching
Students and Postdocs
Publications
Brief Bio
Professional Activities
Directions to my Office

Joanna McGrenere
Associate Professor
Computer Science
University of British Columbia

 

Email: joanna @ cs.ubc.ca
Office: ICICS/CS X665 (directions)
Phone: 604 827-5201
Fax: 604 822-4231 

Snailmail:
201-2366 Main Mall
Department of Computer Science
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4
Canada



Research

My research is in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with a particular focus on the following areas:

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Teaching

 

Since arriving at UBC, I have spent substantial effort revising and creating new HCI curriculum as well as new facilities to support that curriculum. My general philosophy of HCI teaching is that students learn best while doing hands-on team work, both large term projects and short activities. This philosophy is evident both in my graduate and undergraduate teaching. For example, I developed a new Advanced Methods in HCI undergrad course (CS 444) around a team-based learning model. In parallel, I set up the new HCI Learning Studio which follows a radically different model than traditional CS undergraduate labs in its emphasis on and facilitated support of team-based learning processes, and in supporting the creation of design artifacts and the HCI design process more generally. This studio and curriculum development were funded in part through a competitive UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund grant awarded to me and Karon MacLean.

 

Current academic year (2011-12)

CS 110 in the fall of 2011, a first year course on computation, programs, and programming

CS 444 in the winter of 2012, an undergrad course in Advanced Methods in HCI

Past

CS 554m in the winter of 2011, a graduate course in HCI

CS 444 in the winter of 2011, 2010, 2007, an undergrad course in Advanced Methods in HCI

CS 544 in the fall of 2009, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, a graduate course in HCI

CS 444 in the winter of 2004 and 2006, an undergrad course in HCI

I was one of the instructors for CS 590, a graduate course in research methods 


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Students and Postdocs

Current

Charlotte Tang, postdoc

 

Matthew Brehmer, PhD, co-supervised by Tamara Munzner

Mona Haraty, PhD

 

Jessica Dawson, MSc, co-supervised by Tamara Munzner

Shathel Haddad, MSc

Juliette Link, MSc, co-supervised by Kellogg Booth

Diane Tam, MSc, co-supervised by Karon MacLean

Alumni

Rock Leung, PhD, 2011 [pdf] co-supervised by Peter Graf (Psychology)

Karyn Moffatt, PhD 2010 [pdf]

Leah Findlater, PhD 2009 [pdf]

Andrea Bunt, PhD 2007, co-supervised by Cristina Conati [pdf]

 

Mohan Raj Rajamanickam, MSc [pdf coming]

Gokhan Himmetoglu, MSc, co-supervised by Karon MacLean [pdf coming]

Matthew Brehmer, MSc 2011, co-supervised by Claudia Jacova (Medicine) [pdf]

Amirhossein Mehrabian, MSc 2011 [pdf essay]

Jih-Shiang (Gordon) Chang, MSc, co-supervised by Karon MacLean [pdf essay]

Tom Hazelton, MSc, co-supervised by Karon MacLean [pdf]

Jeff Hendy, MSc 2009, co-supervised by Kellogg Booth [pdf]

Yamin Htun, MSc 2007 [pdf]

Meghan Allen,  MSc 2006 [pdf]

Jennifer Gluck, MSc 2006 [pdf]

Adam Bodnar, MSc 2006, co-supervised by Tamara Munzner [pdf]

Dmitry Nekrasovski, MSc 2006, co-supervised by Tamara Munzner [pdf]

Qixing Zheng, MSc 2005, co-supervised by Kellogg Booth [pdf]

Andrew Chan, MSc 2004, co-supervised by Karon MacLean [pdf]

Rhian Davies, MSc 2004 [pdf]

Leah Findlater, MSc 2004 [pdf]

Karyn Moffatt, MSc 2004, co-supervised by Maria Klawe [pdf]

 

Juliette Link, undergraduate RA (summer 2010)

Jessica Dawson, undergraduate RA (summer 2008), directed studies (winter 2009-10) NSERC USRA (summer 2010, summer 2011)

Justine Yang, NSERC USRA (summer 2008), directed studies (fall 2009)

Sandra Yuen, undergraduate project course (winter 2007-08)

Kim Tee, undergraduate honours thesis (winter 2003-04), and NSERC USRA (summer 2004)

Eve Macgregor, undergraduate project course (winter 2003-04)

Sarah Yang, undergraduate directed studies (winter 2002-03)

 

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Publications

Refereed Conference and Journal Papers

Dissertation

Book Chapters

Other Publications, Workshops, Panels, Demonstrations, Posters, and Technical Reports top of page

Brief Bio

Joanna McGrenere is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, where she co-leads the Imager Lab, which is an interdisciplinary group of researchers investigating human computer interaction, visualization, and graphics. Joanna’s research interests are predominantly in human computer interaction and span personlized user interfaces, universal usability, assistive technology, and computer supported cooperative work. She earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2002, working with Ronald Baecker (UofT) and Kellogg Booth (UBC). While doing her PhD, from 1997-2001 she concurrently spent time at the IBM Toronto Lab's Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), first as an intern and subsequently as an IBM CAS Fellowship Student. Joanna is the first recipient of the Anita Borg Early Career Scholar Award (2004), awarded for significant research contributions, in part for her leadership of the Aphasia Project, as well as for outreach to women. Most recently she has been named a Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career Scholar. She regularly serves on the program committees for various conferences, including CHI, UIST, and Graphics Interface. Joanna has been a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (2003-2009) and held several IBM Faculty Awards (2004-07, 2009). Her early prominence in the Canadian HCI community is illustrated by her involvement in NECTAR (Network for Effective Collaboration Technologies through Advanced Research), an NSERC research network (2004-2009), and more recently as a network investigator in GRAND (Graphics, Animation, and New Media), an NSERC network centre of excellence (2010-present).

Degrees

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Professional Activities

Conference Participation

Student Research Competition Co-Chair, ACM CHI 2009, 2010

Program Committee, ACM IUI 2009

Program Committee, ACM ASSETS 2008

Program Committee, ACM CHI 2007, 2009, 2011

Program Committee, Graphics Interface 2003, 2004, 2009

Lead organizer, Designing Technology for People with Cognitive Impairments, CHI 2006 workshop.

Program Committee, ACM UIST, 2004

Posters Co-Chair, ACM UIST, 2004

Conference Organization, ACM UIST, 2003

Student Fellows Co-Chair, ACM Conference on Universal Usability, 2000

Conference and Journal Reviewing

Interacting with Computers, 2010

Internation Journal of Human Computer Studies, 2007, 2008, 2009

ACM ToCHI, 2009

Graphics Interface, 2002, 2006, 2007

ACM CHI, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010

ACM UIST, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2010

Universal Access in the Information Society, 2006

International Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, 2004

ACM Computing Surveys, 2002

ACM SIGGRAPH 2000                                                                                                      

8th International World Wide Web Conference, 1999

Invited Presentations

Improving the Learnability of Mobile Device Applications for Older Adults, Nokia, Vancouver, 2009

Notification Design: Managing Interruptions on the Jazz Platform, IBM CAS / NSERC Strategic Workshop in Smart Internet Technologies, CASCON, Toronto, 2009

Notification Design: Managing Interruptions on the Jazz Platform, IBM CAS University Days, Toronto, 2009

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia (And Getting Tenure Along the Way), TORCHI, University of Toronto, 2009

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia (And Getting Tenure Along the Way), Queen's University, 2009

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia (And Getting Tenure Along the Way), University of Waterloo, 2009

Taming User Interface Complexity, IBM Pacific Development Centre Software Technology Seminar Series, Vancouver, BC, 2007.

Generalization in Human-Computer Interaction, University of Colorado at Boulder, Science of Learning Conference, Cognitive Science, Boulder, CO, 2006.

Taming User Interface Complexity, Sauder Business School, UBC, Vancouver, BC, 2006.

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, informal talk, 2006.

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia, IBM Center for Advanced Studies, Toronto, ON, 2005.

Taming User Interface Complexity, IBM Center for Advanced Studies, Toronto, ON, 2004.

The Aphasia Project: Designing Technology for and with People Who have Aphasia, Princeton University, Department of Computer Science colloquium, Princeton, NJ, 2003.

The vision of autonomic computing is compelling, but is it viable? IBM’s Make It Easy Conference, panel: Autonomic Computing, Toronto, ON, 2003.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, Carlton University, Ottawa, ON, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, York University, Toronto, ON, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, 2002.

The Design and Evaluation of Multiple Interfaces: A Solution for Complex Software, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, 2002.

Personalization: A Design Solution to Software 'Bloat'. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, 2000.

Masking Complexity: Some Interface Design Alternatives. IBM User Centered Design Group, Worldwide Webcast, Toronto, ON, 2000.

Are we all in the same 'bloat'?. Annual General Meeting for Communications and Information Technology Ontario, Toronto, ON, 1999.

Experiencing Word Processing. Corporate Design Group, Ottawa, ON, 1999.

Experiencing Word Processing. National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 1999.

Learning Complex Software. Annual General Meeting for Communications and Information Technology Ontario, Toronto, ON, 1998.


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Directions to my Office

I am located in the relatively new X-wing of the ICICS/CS Building on UBC campus. The main address from the ICICS/CS building is 2366 Main Mall. If you enter from this address, follow the signs to the X-wing, then take the south elevator to the 6th floor. My office is X665.

The most direct way to get to my office is to enter the X-wing from street level (X-wing is it's own building, connected by walkways to the old building). The entrance is at the corner of Engineering Road and Agronomy Road, then take the south elevator to the 6th floor. My office is X665.

Google map of corner of Engineering and Agronomy roads

UBC Wayfinding map to the ICICS/CS Building Addition (Building Addition = X-wing)

As shown on the UBC map in the link directly above, the closest parking is in the Health Sciences Parkade. (Scroll down the page if you do not see the map at first.)

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