Gregory Abowd

Gregory Abowd

Gregory Abowd

Dean of the College of Engineering, Northeastern University

Gregory D. Abowd is Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern in March 2021, he was a Regents’ Professor and held the J.Z. Liang Chair in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he also served as Associate Dean of Research and Space for the College of Computing. Abowd is an internationally renowned and highly cited scientist, well known for his contributions in the general area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and specifically for his groundbreaking research in ubiquitous computing.

In more than 26 years at Georgia Tech, Dr. Abowd initiated bold and innovative research efforts, such as Classroom 2000 and the Aware Home, as well as pioneering innovations in autism and technology, health systems, CampusLife, and a joint initiative with engineering in computational materials. He was on the founding editorial board of IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine, and was founding Editor-in-Chief of Foundations and Trends in HCI and The Proceedings of the ACM in Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies. He also founded the non-profit Atlanta Autism Consortium in 2008 to serve and unite the various stakeholder communities in Atlanta connected to autism research and services.

Dean Abowd’s contributions to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing have been recognized through numerous awards. In 2008, he was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. That same year, he was inducted into the ACM CHI Academy, the most prestigious honor for researchers in HCI. In 2009, he received the ACM Eugene Lawler Humanitarian Award for his work in autism and technology. As of 2020, he graduated 30 Ph.D. students, 20 of whom have gone on to successful careers at top universities around the world.

Dr. Abowd received the degree of B.S. in Honors Mathematics in 1986 from the University of Notre Dame. He then attended the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning the degrees of M.Sc. (1987) and D.Phil. (1991) in Computation from the Programming Research Group in the Computing Laboratory. From 1989-1992 he was a Research Associate/Postdoc with the Human-Computer Interaction Group in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York in England. From 1992-1994, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Software Engineering Institute and the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University.

dean@coe.northeastern.edu

Website

Research Focus Areas:
  • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
Additional Research:
Data Security & Privacy; Healthcare Security; Human-Computer Interaction; Ubiquitous Computing; Software Engineering

IRI Connections:
IRI And Role

Ashok Goel

Ashok Goel

Ashok Goel

Professor; School of Interactive Computing
Director| Ph.D. program in Human-Centered Computing; College of Computing
Co-Director; Center for Biologically Inspired Design
Fellow; Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems

Ashok Goel is a Professor of Computer Science in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. At Georgia Tech, he is also the Director of the Ph.D. Program in Human-Centered Computing, a Co-Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Design, and a Fellow of Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems. For more than thirty years, Ashok has conducted research into artificial intelligence, cognitive science and human-centered computing, with a focus on computational design, modeling and creativity. His recent work has explored design thinking, analogical thinking and systems thinking in biological inspired design (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiRDQ4hr9i8), and his research is now developing virtual research assistants for modeling biological systems. Ashok teaches a popular course on knowledge-based AI as part of Georgia Tech's program on Online Masters of Science in Computer Science. He has pioneered the development of virtual teaching assistants, such as Jill Watson, for answering questions in online discussion forums (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbCguICyfTA). Chronicle of Higher Education recently called virtual assistants exemplified by Jill Watson as one of the most transformative educational technologies in the digital era. Ashok is the Editor-in-Chief of AAAI's AI Magazine.

ashok.goel@cc.gatech.edu

Office Location:
GVU/TSRB

Design & Intelligence Laboratory

Google Scholar

Research Focus Areas:
  • Human Augmentation
  • Platforms and Services for Socio-Technical Frontier
  • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
Additional Research:

Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Science; Computational Design; Computational Creativity; Educational Technology; Design Science; Learning Science and Technology; Human-Centered Computing


IRI Connections:

Sonia Chernova

Sonia Chernova

Sonia Chernova

Associate Professor; School of Interactive Computing
Director; Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning (RAIL) Lab

I am an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. I received my Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and held positions as a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab and as Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute prior to joining Georgia Tech. I direct the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning (RAIL) lab, where we work on developing robots that are able to effectively operate in human environments. My research interests span robotics and artificial intelligence, including semantic reasoning, adjustable autonomy, human computation and cloud robotics. Please visit the RAIL lab website for a description of our latest projects.

chernova@cc.gatech.edu

404.385.4753

Personal Page

  • RAIL Lab
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    • Collaborative Robotics
    • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
    Additional Research:

    Robotics; Artificial Intelligence; Semantic Reasoning; Adjustable Autonomy; Human Computation and Cloud Robotics.


    IRI Connections:

    Rosa Arriaga

    Rosa Arriaga

    Rosa Arriaga

    Associate Professor

    Arriaga is a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher in the School of Interactive Computing. She uses psychological concepts, theories and methods to address fundamental topics of HCI and Social Computing. Her current research interests are in the area of chronic care management and mental health. She designs mHealth systems that address gaps in chronic care and mental health management. The computational systems she designs: foster engagement, facilitate continuity of care, promote patient self-advocacy, and mediate communication between patient and healthcare providers.

    arriaga@cc.gatech.edu

    404-385-4239

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Lifelong Health and Well-Being
    Additional Research:
    Bioinformatics; Human-Computer Interaction; Developmental Psychology; Chronic Care Management

    IRI Connections:

    Annie Anton

    Annie Anton

    Annie Anton

    Professor

    Annie Anton, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, which she chaired until 2017. Previously, she served as a professor in the Computer Science Department of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, where she was director of the CSC Policy and Compliance Initiative and a member of the NCSU Cyber Defense Lab. In 2010, she chaired the NC State University Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee. In 2008, she chaired the NC State Public Policy Task Force. Anton's research focuses on methods and tools to support the specification of complete, correct behavior of software systems used in environments that pose risks of loss as a consequence of failures and misuse. This includes systems in which the security of personal and private information is particularly vulnerable. Current extensions to this work, include the analysis of federal security and privacy regulations, and compliance practices. Anton is the founder and director of ThePrivacyPlace.org, a research group of students and faculty at Georgia Tech, CMU, NC State and UMBC. This group is interested in technologies that assist practitioners and policy makers in meeting the challenge of eliciting and expressing policies and regulations (a form of requirements). These tools help ensure that software systems are aligned with the privacy polices and regulations that govern these systems. Her professional activities include a notable combination of multi-disciplinary research and education. She is co-founder of the annual Requirements Engineering and the Law Workshop (RELAW). She is a former associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, cognitive issues subject area editor for the Requirements Engineering Journal, and the International Board of Referees for Computers & Security. Antón has served on various boards, ᅠincluding: ᅠPresident Obama's Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, the NIST Information Security & Privacy Advisory Board, the IEEE Computer Society Research Board, an Intel Corporation Advisory Board, the Future of Privacy Forum Advisory Board. ᅠShe is a former member of the U.S. DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, the CRA Board of Directors, the NSF Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate Advisory Council, the Distinguished External Advisory Board for the TRUST Research Center at U.C. Berkeley, the DARPA ISAT Study Group, the USACM Public Policy Council, the Advisory Board for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees, the Microsoft Research University Relations Faculty Advisory Board, the CRA-W, the Georgia Tech Advisory Board (GTAB), and Corporate Secretary for Trekking for Kids, Inc.

    aa16@gatech.edu

    404.894.8591

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Cybersecurity Public Policy
    Additional Research:
    Data Security & Privacy;

    IRI Connections:

    Frank Dellaert

    Frank  Dellaert

    Frank Dellaert

    Professor; School of Interactive Computing
    Robotics Ph.D. Coordinator; College of Computing

    Dr. Dellaert does research in the areas of robotics and computer vision, which present some of the most exciting challenges to anyone interested in artificial intelligence. He is especially keen on Bayesian inference approaches to the difficult inverse problems that keep popping up in these areas. In many cases, exact solutions to these problems are intractable, and as such he is interested in examining whether Monte Carlo (sampling-based) approxIMaTions are applicable in those cases.

    frank.dellaert@cc.gatech.edu

    404.385.2923

    Office Location:
    GVU Center

    IC Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Autonomy
    • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
    Additional Research:

    Advanced sequential Monte Carlo methods; Spatio-Temporal Reconstruction from Images; Simultaneous Localization and Mapping; Robotics; Computer Vision


    IRI Connections:

    Ronald C. Arkin

    Ronald C. Arkin

    Ronald C. Arkin

    Regents' Professor; School of Interactive Computing
    Director; Mobile Robot Laboratory

    Ronald C. Arkin received the B.S. Degree from the University of Michigan, the M.S. Degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1987. He then assumed the position of Assistant Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he now holds the rank of Regents' Professor and is the Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech since October 2008. During 1997-98, Professor Arkin served as STINT visiting Professor at the Centre for Autonomous Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. From June-September 2005, Prof. Arkin held a Sabbatical Chair at the Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan and then served as a member of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Group at LAAS/CNRS in Toulouse, France from October 2005-August 2006.

    arkin@cc.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-8209

    Office Location:
    GVU/TSRB

    College of Computing Profile Page

  • Mobile Robot Lab
  • Research Focus Areas:
    • Autonomy
    • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
    Additional Research:

    Artificial intelligence; Robotics; Robot ethic; Autonomous agents; Mobile Robots and Unmanned Vehicles; Multi-Agent Robotics; Machine Learning


    IRI Connections:

    Alan Ritter

    Associate Professor Alan Ritter

    Alan Ritter

    Associate Professor

    Alan Ritter is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. His research interests include natural language processing, information extraction, and machine learning. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon.  His research aims to solve challenging technical problems that can help machines learn to read vast quantities of text with minimal supervision.  His work has been featured in the press including WIRED, TNW and VentureBeat.  Alan is the recipient of an NSF CAREER, an Amazon Research Award, a Sony Faculty Innovation Award, and several paper awards presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

    alan.ritter@cc.gatech.edu

    Office Location:
    CODA 1157B

    Personal Website

    Google Scholar

    Additional Research:
    • AI
    • Large Language Models
    • Natural Language Processing

    IRI Connections:

    Alexander T. Adams

    Alexander Adams

    Alexander Adams

    Assistant Professor

    Alex Adams’s research focuses on designing, fabricating, and implementing new ubiquitous and wearable sensing systems. In particular, he is interested in how to develop these systems using equity-driven design principles for healthcare. Alex leverages sensing, signal processing, and fabrication techniques to design, deploy, and evaluate novel sensing technologies.

    Originally a musician, Alex became fascinated by how he could capture and manipulate sounds through analog hardware and digital signal processing, which led him back to his hometown (Concord, NC). Alex completed his BS at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2014 and his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2021 (advised by Professor Tanzeem Choudhury). Alex then became the resident Research Scientist for the Precision Behavioral Health Initiative at Cornell Tech (NYC) until the fall of 2022, when he joined the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently, his research focuses on the equity-driven design and the development of multi-modal sensing systems to simultaneously assess mental and physical health to enable a new class of mobile health technologies.

    aadams322@gatech.edu

    7044671939

    Office Location:
    237 TSRB

    https://www.uncommonsenselabs.com

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biotechnology
    • Diagnostics
    • Health & Life Sciences
    • Healthcare
    • Machine Learning
    • Medical Device Design, Development and Delivery
    • Optics & Photonics
    • Public Health
    • Robotics
    • Soft Robotics

    IRI Connections: