Research Colloquium at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology in Surrey presents

Saul Greenberg

University of Calgary faculty presenter

Wednesday February 7, 2007 at 1:30 pm

Room 14-400, SFU Surrey Campus, 14th floor Central City Tower

Saul Greenberg

Title: Enhancing Creativity through Toolkits

Abstract:

Interface toolkits in ordinary application areas let average programmers rapidly develop software resembling other standard applications. In contrast, toolkits for novel and perhaps unfamiliar application areas enhance the creativity of these programmers. By removing low-level implementation burdens and supplying appropriate building blocks, toolkits give people a 'language' to think about these new interfaces, which in turn allows them to concentrate on creative designs. This is important, for it means that programmers can rapidly generate and test new ideas, replicate and refine ideas presented by others, and create demonstrations for others to try. To illustrate this important link between toolkits and creativity, I describe example toolkits we have built within several novel domains: distributed groupware, video-based media spaces, single display groupware and digital tables, and physical user interfaces. I then show how people have leveraged these toolkits to create innovative interfaces.

Bio:

Professor and iCORE / Smart Technologies Chair in Interactive Technologies

University of Calgary

Saul Greenberg is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. While he is a computer scientist by training, the work by Saul and his talented students typifies the cross-discipline aspects of Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and Physical User Interfaces. He and his crew are well known for their development of: - toolkits enabling rapid prototyping of groupware and physical user interfaces; - innovative and seminal system designs based on observations of social phenomenon; - articulation of design-oriented social science theories, and - refinement of evaluation methods.

His research is well-recognized. He holds the iCORE/Smart Technologies Industrial Chair in Interactive Technologies. He also holds a University Professorship, which is a distinguished University of Calgary award recognizing research excellence. He was recently elected to the ACM CHI Academy in for his overall contributions to the field of Human Computer Interaction.

Finally, Saul is a prolific author who has authored and edited several books and published many refereed articles, as listed at http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/papers/. He is also known for his strong commitment in making his tools, systems, and educational material readily available to other HCI researchers and educators.

Saul Greenberg website