Through my affiliation with the Center for Internet and Society, I've had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of Stanford experts from computer science, engineering, psychology, and elsewhere on the Hybrid Spaces for Enhanced Wellbeing Project. This project studies wellbeing in the workplace in conjunction with the study of privacy. The project is supported with a total budget of $920,000 through Stanford's Catalyst fund for the period between 7/01/2018 to 6/20/2020.
More details on this collaboration:
"Many Americans are overstressed, overweight, tired, sick, distracted, wasteful, unhappy, and isolated. At the same time, people in countries like the United States spend 87% of their time indoors. Although there are hypotheses about buildings’ effects on occupant wellbeing, the evidence is sparse and few of these hypotheses have been tested at scale or over time. A scientific approach to designing buildings could both create knowledge as well as improve the physical and mental health of large populations."
Specific advancements include in this project the following: "(1) Expanding Internet of Things research to capture rich data for modeling and inferring occupants’ behaviors, cognitions, emotions, relations, and physiological states; (2) Using statistical modeling and machine learning to connect these human states to building features, informing the understanding of how buildings impact wellbeing and behavior; (3) Bringing nature indoors by engineering biophilic building modules with adaptable acoustic and thermal properties; (4) Using large ambient displays, wearable and mobile devices, and persuasive design techniques to create novel digital adaptations based on occupant activity and wellbeing that contribute to the understanding of behavior change over longer periods of time; and (5) Extending building management systems so that they simultaneously promote building performance, environmental sustainability, and occupant wellbeing and sense of belongingness."
past collaborations
Media x @ Stanford: STUDYING THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE
At the Media X Institute I conducted research and provided administrative support to Stanford faculty working on the Memories, Estates, and Legacies in the Digital Age project, with a focus on mapping the landscape and producing a research agenda for the study of the digital workplace . Here's a description of the project I was involved in:
More details on this collaboration:
"After five decades of personal computing, it is important to re-visit the common paradigms used in the design and delivery of digital technologies. The desktop metaphor for organizing and managing information has been transcended to include cloud services, mobile applications, sensor input, and machine-to-machine operations. Personal analytics have enabled the analysis of practices and physiological states to gain insights and tailor services to individuals and groups. Social computation, social media interactions, self-organizing enterprises, crowdsourcing models, and virtual reality have opened up new opportunities for engagements across the globe, transcending location and time.
WHAT IF: What if we could track and understand the variety of factors influencing the ways that digital media might enable and constrain identity during a person’s entire work life?
WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO Our goal is to develop the first comprehensive map of the rapidly changing scholarly and commercial landscape of digitized labor. This will involve investigating work-related digital and organizational records and systems, and considering theories about work, as well implications for employers and workers. It will also include creating a research agenda that can guide new scholarship and organize research."
Center for Deliberative Polling
At Stanford I’ve also been a researcher at the Center for Deliberative Polling (CDD), and the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab. At the Center for Deliberative Polling I performed content analysis from a pool of more than 400 California residents who participated, over a weekend, in moderated deliberations about the future of their State. Here's a description of the project:
More details on this collaboration:
"On June 24, 2011, a scientifically selected random sample of 412 registered voters from throughout the state participated in California’s first ever statewide Deliberative Poll on governance reform, in Torrance, CA. The turnout for the “What’s Next California?” Poll was unprecedented in the 17 year history of Deliberative Polling® and the participants came prepared and eager to share their views and engage with fellow Californians in discussions about how our state is governed. By the People is a special project organized by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions to bring the views of informed, “ordinary” citizens to a national discussion on the important issues of the day. The Poll focused on four issue areas: The statewide initiative process, legislative representation, local government, and tax and fiscal policy. A total of 30 proposals were considered in these four areas. Over the course of the weekend’s deliberations participants became more informed and in many cases changed their views significantly after deliberation with peers. What do California voters think should be done to fix the state when they focus on the substance of the issues? “What’s Next California?” offers some clear answers."
COMMUNICATION between humans & interactive media LAB
The CHIMe Lab as led by Professor Cliff Nass. I collaborated with a CHIMe Lab principal investigator and participating undergraduate students towards the design and implementation of experiments that investigated how drivers interact with car interfaces. The experiments examined how particular types of human-computer interaction (for example: different types of design elements communicated through an interactive car dashboard) can help promote environmentally-friendly driving behavior.