News

  • The Interaction Hour: Exploring Social Media's Role in Opioid Addiction Recovery

    The School of Interactive Computing, May 30, 2019

    In the late 1990s, the United States saw a sharp increase in the number of opioid overdose deaths – rising by nearly 600 percent between 1999 and 2017, according to data provided by the CDC. It has, appropriately, been labeled an epidemic, and in 2018 the country’s life expectancy dropped for the third consecutive year, reflecting the ongoing drug crisis and rising suicide rates. As researchers and clinicians continue to examine the quality of different approaches to treatment, many seeking recovery have taken matters into their own hands. Our guest, School of Interactive Computing Ph.D. student Stevie Chancellor, will present a paper on this subject next week at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow, Scotland. What exactly do these addiction support communities entail? What alternative strategies are people pursuing in recovery, and why? How can we ensure that clinicians are well-informed about the types of self-treatments being used outside of their care?

  • Tech Unbound Podcast EP3: Battling Bias and Making Better Decisions Using Visual Data Interactions

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, May 28, 2019

    May 28, 2019 - We lean on data a lot - in catching bad guys to making hiring decisions and even planning the weekly grocery list. But we’re biased creatures, and sometimes we get it wrong.

    Host Joshua Preston talks with Emily Wall, Ph.D. student in computer science, about how technology can allow us to better understand how we interact with visual data and use that understanding to make better decisions.

  • AIs and Humans Become ‘Creative Equals’ with New Design Tool

    Video Game Developers Use an AI partner In Wildly Different Ways, From Friend to Boss

    May 16, 2019

    Will video game developers welcome AI assistance in their workflow? In short, yes, and in wildly different ways, based on research from Georgia Tech published this month.

  • Tech Unbound Podcast EP2: Computers Dissect Every Minute of HBO's Game of Thrones to Reveal the Show's Dominant Colors and Dialogue

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, May 13, 2019

    May 13, 2019 - Winter has arrived. The end of a pop culture era is here with the final episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones airing on Sunday. Fans of the show express their fandom in many different ways, but none quite like those at Georgia Tech.

    On today’s show, we discuss an interactive data visualization that analyzes the color and dialogue in every single minute of every single episode of the first six seasons of the hugely popular television fantasy show based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. 

    Host Joshua Preston talks with Fred Hohman, Ph.D. student in computational science and engineering and computer science, one of the creators of the data visualization that is aptly named "A Viz and Ice and Fire." 

    Explore "A Viz of Ice and Fire - Summarizing Entertainment Video Using Color and Dialogue."

    Also check out more Georgia Tech love for Game of Thrones.

  • Two Georgia Tech Alums Receive Prestigious Awards at CHI 2019

    May 8, 2019

    Jennifer Mankoff, one of Professor Gregory Abowd’s first of 30 Ph.D graduates in 2001, was inducted into the prestigious CHI Academy this week, and Gillian Hayes (2007), also advised by Abowd, was awarded the Social Impact award.

  • IC Researchers Seek to Improve Treatment for Schizophrenia Under New $2.7 Million NIMH Grant

    May 1, 2019

    This grant offers researchers the opportunity to apply findings of past research to real-world clinical settings.

  • IC’s Caitlyn Seim to Serve as Spring Ph.D. Commencement Speaker

    April 30, 2019

    Seim, who is advised by IC Professor Thad Starner, was chosen by a committee of leaders from across campus, including the Office of the Dean of Students, various faculty, and commencement officials.

  • CHI 2019: Georgia Tech Research Integrates Human Capabilities with Machine Advances for Positive Impact in Society

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, Apr 30, 2019

    Georgia Tech faculty and students from across the Institute are bringing their broad interdisciplinary research approach and expertise to the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019), May 4-9 in Glasgow, UK.

    Among more than 700 institutions and 2,600 researchers participating, Georgia Tech is a Top 10 institution with accepted research. This research includes an expansive portfolio of work that uses technology to address tough social issues, such as drug addiction and mental health problems, and builds techniques to advance human capabilities in areas including creativity, advocacy, policy, and education.

  • Tech Unbound Podcast EP1: A.I. Agent Plays Frogger and Convinces Spectators It Knows What It’s Doing

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, Apr 30, 2019

    Why did the frog cross the road? Georgia Tech’s newest artificial intelligence (AI) system plays the video game Frogger and can offer up explanations to human spectators about why it makes each move.

    Upol Ehsan, Ph.D. student in computer science at Georgia Tech, talks about the AI system. 

    The work takes a formative step towards understanding the role of natural language AI explanations and how humans perceive them. It’s a human-centered approach to developing AI agents, one that Upol says is needed in order to make black-boxed AI systems explainable to everyday users.

  • Georgia Tech's Child Study Lab Sees Computer Science as New 'Microscope' for Autism Research

    April 28, 2019

    Georgia Tech’s Child Study Lab, which was established in 2010 by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation, and collaborators at Weill Cornell Medical College were awarded last year with a $1.7 million grant from the NIH.

  • IC's Miranda Parker Uncovering Factors that Lead to CS Programs in Georgia

    April 25, 2019

    Miranda Parker is investigating the qualities in high schools that lead to having a CS program in Georgia. One thing she’s learned, which can be said for a majority of research in IC, is that it comes down to the people.

  • The Interaction Hour podcast: Autism and Computing

    The Interaction Hour - School of Interactive Computing, Apr 23, 2019

    In the late 1990s, Professor Gregory Abowd of Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing developed a tool to allow people to collect and reflect upon memories over a long period of time. Motivated by his father’s collection of 30 years worth of videos, Gregory wanted to create something that assisted in annotating and searching videos to create short memories. Around 2002, he began using this for his own family memories and made a discovery while watching one of the videos. His oldest son, who was then 5 years old and already diagnosed with autism, demonstrated stark differences in behavior and communication between videos at 18 months and others at 26 months. Amazed by what he saw in the videos, Gregory began to consider other more serious applications of this memory-capturing tool. In the coming years, it would become a key research initiative for Gregory and others at Georgia Tech.

  • People May Be Able to Find Images on a Computer Based Solely on Their Eye Movements

    April 12, 2019

    What if we could find images on our computer just by tracking our eye movements? ML@GT assistant professor James Hays explores this idea in new research that will be presented next month at CHI 2019.

  • IC Student Brianna Tomlinson Earns Campus Life Scholarship

    April 11, 2019

    The scholarship provides $5,000 from Campus Services and offers a lunch to honor recipients on April 18.

  • In The News: Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Military?

    Tech Register, Apr 9, 2019

    School of Interactive Computing Professor Ron Arkin offers some insight on the question of lethal autonomous weapons. What are the pros and cons of utilizing artificial intelligence in the military?

    Related: The Interaction Hour -- Don't Call Them Killer Robots, With Professor Ron Arkin

  • Georgia Tech’s Newest AI System Explains Its Decisions to People in Real-Time to Understand User Preferences

    April 9, 2019

    Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed an artificially intelligent (AI) agent that can automatically generate natural language explanations in real-time to convey the motivations behind its actions.

  • HackGT Hopes to be a ‘Catalyst’ for Underserved Atlanta Students

    April 5, 2019

    Set for April 13 on the Georgia Tech campus, Catalyst is a one-day workshop, blended with traditional hackathon challenges.

  • The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain

    New York Times, Apr 4, 2019

    Congestion pricing has the potential to significantly change how traffic flows through Manhattan streets, how commuters get around the city, how companies like Uber and Lyft operate. But most radically, if the policy spreads it could challenge a deeply embedded cultural idea, requiring people to pay for something Americans have long demanded — and largely believe they’ve gotten — free of charge. Congestion pricing is premised instead on the notion that public roads are a valuable and scarce resource. And we should pay in some places to use it not primarily to gin up revenue, but to help manage access for everyone. “It’s a huge departure from how we’ve culturally thought about this over the years,” said Kari Watkins, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

  • Six Members of GT Computing Awarded Prestigious Fellowships

    April 4, 2019

    J.P. Morgan, IBM, Snap, and Facebook awarded six College of Computing faculty and students.

  • Charles Isbell Named Dean of College of Computing

    April 1, 2019

    Charles Isbell, professor and executive associate dean of the College of Computing, has been named the next dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, effective July 1.

  • New 'Realities' Coming to a Browser Near You

    GT Alumni Association, Mar 28, 2019

    A historical moment for technology not dissimilar to the advent of motion films or the creation of the Internet is coming, and Georgia Tech’s Blair MacIntyre is helping lead the way. But this time around, the experience won’t be limited to a simple screen. 

    The movement centers on rapidly maturing 3-D technologies needed to create virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. 

  • Coda, Georgia Tech’s newest and largest home in Tech Square, was envisioned in a digital world years before it became a part of Midtown’s skyline

    March 27, 2019

    In 2015, the IMAGINE Lab, part of the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization at Georgia Tech, was tasked by stakeholders at the institute to create a pilot project for a quick visual tool for planning the future Coda building.

  • 3 IC Faculty Members Awarded Promotions

    March 22, 2019

    Devi Parikh and Dhruv Batra were awarded tenure and elevated to associate professor, while Karen Liu was elevated to full professor.

  • Meet IC: Atlanta Native Matthew Guzdial Merges Passions for Machine Learning and Creativity

    March 22, 2019

    Meet Matthew Guzdial, a machine learning and creativity researcher under advisor Mark Riedl who has already gained plenty of attention for his work on artificial intelligence in video games.

  • Engineering Georgia Names Four Tech Women Most Influential

    Georgia Tech, Mar 21, 2019

    Georgia Tech faculty claimed four spots in Engineering Georgia’s second annual listing of Top 100 Influential Women in Georgia. They are Ellen Dunham-Jones, Lauren Stewart, Christine Valle, and Kari Edison Watkins.

    The women were recommended and reviewed by their peers, industry leaders, and members of the Engineering Georgia editorial board. The top 100 were selected for the positive influence they have made and continue to make on the transportation systems, utilities, buildings, parks, trails, and communities that Georgia citizens interact with every day.

    Kari Edison Watkins (No. 94) - the Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research includes multi-modal transportation planning and the use of technology in transportation. She won numerous awards for the OneBusAway program, which she co-created for greater Seattle-Tacoma. Mass Transit magazine named her to the Top 40 under 40 in 2013, and the Council of University Transportation Centers awarded her the New Faculty Award in 2017.

  • Body Surrogate Robot Helps People with Motor Impairments Care for Themselves

    Digital Trends, Mar 18, 2019

    Robots might be coming for your job, but they can do tremendous good in the world as well. Assistive technologies can benefit people with disabilities by giving them greater independence and control over their lives, like the assistant robot developed by a team at Georgia Tech to help people who have severe motor impairments. “Our goal is to give people with limited use of their own bodies access to robotic bodies so they can interact with the world in new ways,” Professor Charlie Kemp from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech said in a statement. The system they came up with is based on a robot called a PR2 mobile manipulator manufactured by Willow Garage. It is a wheeled robot with two arms and a head, and it can manipulate objects like water bottles, washcloths, hairbrushes, or an electric shaver.

  • Metro Atlanta Transit Pitch: Flying Pods, Lots of Questions

    AJC, Mar 15, 2019

    Five metro Atlanta governments bit on entrepreneur Mike Stanley’s idea for what some thought might be too good to be true. His Boston-area company Transit X proposed developing affordable transit using flying pods that would hang from overhead monorails and be entirely privately funded and owned. Officials in Henry County and several southside cities agreed in recent months to negotiate access to public rights of way along roads for a future system. Some mentioned being impressed by Stanley’s background as an MIT graduate. Kari Watkins, a Georgia Tech professor who focuses on transportation systems, questioned whether a Transit X system would have enough capacity to meet needs. And she suggested some communities might not want its visual impact along streets. She cautioned communities about selling one private company broad access to land along roads: “Don’t tie yourself to some sort of technology that is not yet proven.” So far, Stanley’s only example of Transit X pods hanging from a rail is on a 40-foot-long test section inside a building in Leominster, Mass. He said he is trying to raise private funding for an outdoor test track that could be operational later this year in Ohio.

  • Celebrating International Women's Day 2019 -- GVU style

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, Mar 8, 2019

    Of more than 100 faculty advancing human-centered technology research through the GVU Center at Georgia Tech, a full third are women. To celebrate International Women's Day and the release of Captain Marvel on March 8, the center created a data visualization using an image of actress Brie Larson, who plays Captain Marvel. The movie of the same name is the first major MCU film starring a woman. Georgia Tech projects from more than 900 researchers through the years are mapped to the image of Larson and can be searched for more details on the center's work.

    GVU also celebrated the day - and hopes to continue the conversation through the year - through a data graphic highlighting some of the women that have inspired its community.

  • Michael Best to Speak at U.N. for Release of Report on Digital Gender Equality

    March 8, 2019

    Michael Best will speak at the United Nations next week during the formal release of a research report by the EQUALS Global Partnership, a coalition of more than 90 partners from government, industry, and academia that he helped found in 2015.

  • Dream Makers: How the Women in AI Are Shaping Our Future

    Vogue, Mar 6, 2019

    School of Interactive Computing Assistant Professor Devi Parikh was featured in a Vogue magazine story highlighting the contributions of women in artificial intelligence. This was part of a larger campaign where they highlight American women who are doing inspiring work.

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