Balancing design and technology to tackle global grand challenges

Abstract

There are many urgent problems facing the planet: a degrading environment, a healthcare system in crisis, and educational systems that are failing to produce creative, innovative thinkers to solve tomorrow's problems. Technology influences behavior, and I believe when we balance it with revolutionary design, we can reduce a family's energy and water use by 50%, double most people's daily physical activity, and educate any child anywhere in the world to a level of proficiency on par with the planet's best students. My research program tackles these grand challenges by using a new model of interdisciplinary research that takes a long view and encourages risk-taking and creativity. I will illustrate how we are addressing these grand challenges in our research by building systems that balance innovative user interfaces with novel activity inference technology. These systems have helped individuals stay fit, led families to be more sustainable in their everyday lives, and supported learners in acquiring second languages. I will also introduce the World Lab, a cross-cultural institute that embodies my balanced approach to attack the world's biggest problems today, while preparing the technology and design leaders of tomorrow. James Landay is a Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech, specializing in human-computer interaction. He will become a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford in August, 2014. Previously, James was a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. His current research interests include Technology to Support Behavior Change, Demonstrational Interfaces, Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing, and User Interface Design Tools. He is the founder and co-director of the World Lab, a joint research and educational effort with Tsinghua University in Beijing. Landay received his BS in EECS from UC Berkeley in 1990 and MS and PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993 and 1996, respectively. His PhD dissertation was the first to demonstrate the use of sketching in user interface design tools. He was previously the Laboratory Director of Intel Labs Seattle, a university affiliated research lab that explored the new usage models, applications, and technology for ubiquitous computing. He was also the chief scientist and co-founder of NetRaker, which was acquired by KeyNote Systems in 2004. From 1997 through 2003 he was a tenured professor in EECS at UC Berkeley. He was named to the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2011. He currently serves on the NSF CISE Advisory Committee.