State-of-the-Art Symposia: One of three parallel sessions
Speakers
Leah Findlater MSc'04, PhD'09
Assistant Professor, Human Centered Design and Engineering, University of Washington
Bio: Leah Findlater is an Assistant Professor in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). She directs the Inclusive Design Lab, whose mission is to lower barriers to technology use and information access for users with a range of physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities. She has published over 60 papers in top-tier academic venues, ten of which have been recognized with Best Paper or Honorable Mention awards. She holds an NSF CAREER Award and her research is funded by NSF, the Department of Defense, Nokia and Google. Before joining HCDE, she was on the faculty at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies, and spent two years as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the UW Information School. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia.
Brian Gleeson PDF'13
Human Factors Design Engineer, Interaction Designer, Apple Inc.
Bio: Brian does interaction design, research, and experience prototyping as part of the design organization at Apple. He works across Apple products, with a focus on haptics and physical interaction. Brian’s background is in haptic interaction and human perception. During his time at UBC, Brian focused on human-robot interaction for human-scale robots. Brian is excited about digging into difficult usability problems, making the everyday interaction with our devices just a bit more pleasant, and helping to translate great ideas into great products. He feels lucky to work with so many world-class designers and engineers in a strongly interdisciplinary team. Brian misses Vancouver, but doesn’t mind being out of the rain.
Kori Inkpen PhD'97
Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
Bio: Dr. Kori Inkpen is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Manager of the Social Technologies Research Group. Kori has worked in the area of Human Computer Interaction for the past 25 years exploring how technology can enhance engagement and communication, and the potential it offers to transform the way we interact with friends, families, and colleagues. Dr. Inkpen has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia (1997) and she was a Professor of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University (1998-2001) and Dalhousie University (2001-2007). She has published over 100 scientific papers and is named in over 20 patents. Kori is a frequent invited keynote speaker at international conferences and has held numerous senior roles on conference program and organizing committees. Kori has also been active in efforts to support women and underrepresented minorities in computing and organized the first “Imposter Syndrome” panel at the ACM Grace Hopper 2009 conference.
Rock Leung PhD'11
UX Research Lead, Samsung R&D Canada
Bio: Rock Leung is currently a UX (User Experience) Research Lead at Samsung R&D Canada. He has also conducted UX research for SAP and other companies. He has a PhD in CS from UBC, specializing in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) research. His research on improving the learnability of mobile computing devices for older adults has been published in prominent journals and conferences. A common thread in Rock’s work has been connecting different groups to foster useful innovation. As a user researcher, he has helped connect product teams with target users to inform design and strategy. He has also spent years supporting collaborations between academia and industry to explore applying research findings and ideas from academia to products and internal tools. Further, he helped start the Radical Research Summit – an annual gathering of UX researchers, HCI researchers, and industry stakeholders – to strengthen the local UX research community. For more information, go to www.rockleung.com.
Barry Po MSc'02, PhD'05
Vice President, AI Solutions
Universal mCloud
Bio: Barry Po is head of AI products and strategy at Universal mCloud, a clean-tech company combining analytics, AI, and HCI to optimize the performance of smart buildings, wind farms, and other renewable assets in thousands of locations around the world. A veteran of both startups and enterprise business, he has led global product teams operating in over 80 countries and has had leadership roles at some of the world's most valuable brands. He graduated from UBC with a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2005. Barry is active in the Vancouver high-tech community as a guest speaker, mentors budding entrepreneurs and innovators, and serves on the Dean's Advisory Board in the Faculty of Communications, Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University.
Brad Swerdfeger MSc'10
UX Lead, Globalization - Shopify Plus
Bio: Brad Swerdfeger leads UX for the Globalization domain at Shopify Plus in Waterloo, Ontario. There, he applies computational design techniques to help Shopify's largest merchants grow their business globally. He has spent the better part of the last decade designing marketing platforms for multinational, large scale brands through a systems-focused approach. Prior to joining Shopify, Brad worked at Sapient, where he led teams through the design and development of a multitude design systems and platforms for large, multinational brands. Brad has also created award-winning IRL experiences that allow people to experience stories through innovative uses of technology. Brad's philosophy is to design and communicate experiences in such a way that are synergistic with technologies that are being employed. The resulting systems are thus easy to build and result in scalable, generative ecosystems.
Melanie Tory BSc'99, PDF'06
Senior Research Scientist, Tableau Research
Bio: Melanie Tory is a senior research scientist focusing on interactive visual data analysis. Her research explores techniques and tools to help people analyze data more effectively. This includes intuitive interactions with visualizations and the design and evaluation of tools that support sensemaking, analytical guidance, and collaboration. Before joining Tableau, Melanie was an Associate Professor in visualization at the University of Victoria. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from SFU and did both a BSc and post-doc at UBC. Melanie is an active member of the visualization and HCI research communities. She is Associate Editor of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications and has served as Papers Co-chair for the IEEE Information Visualization and ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces conferences.
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UBC Computer Science 50th Anniversary
Celebrate 50 Years of Excellence in Research, Learning, and Innovation
2018-2019