Keynote Speakers

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  Alexander Repenning

  
  

  University of Colorado at Boulder

  
  

  Social Computational Thinking Tools: Reinventing Computation Education in Public Schools

  
  
  Abstract:
  

  For the last 15 years we have been exploring notions of design and social media as means to foster highly engaging as well as effective educational environments. We have created what we call social computational thinking tools with the goal to synthesize human abilities with computer affordances. This presentation will outline three social computational thinking tools and discuss how they have combined notions of design and social media to create unique learning experiences in the classroom: 1) Mr. Vetro is a Collective Simulation teaching students about human physiology through technologically enhanced role play of interacting organs, 2) Scalable Game Design teaches students computational thinking through game design. They learn about computational thinking patterns in the context of game design and later apply these patterns to scientific simulation building. 3) CyberCollage is a Collective Programming environment enabling students to work on game and simulation projects collaboratively in real time.

  
  
  Bio:
  

  Alexander Repenning is a computer science professor at the University of Colorado, a member of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design at the University of Colorado and the founder of AgentSheets Inc. Repenning's research interests include education, end-user programmable agents, and artificial intelligence. He has worked in research and development at Asea Brown Boveri, Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, and Hewlett Packard. Repenning is the creator of the AgentSheets simulation and game-authoring tool. He has offered game design workshops nationally at Stanford, the MIT Media Lab, and University of Colorado as well as internationally in Europe and Japan. His work has received numerous awards including the Gold Medal from the mayor of Paris for 'most innovative application in education of the World Wide Web', and 'best of the best innovators' by ACM.Repenning has been a Telluride Tech Festival honoree for contributions to computer science. Repenning is an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, The Japanese Ministry of Education and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

• 

  Jesus FAVELA

  
  

  CICESE

  
  

  First, do no harm: User Studies in Pervasive Healthcare Research

  
  
  Abstract:

  Pervasive Computing can help address some of the critical healthcare issues facing modern society, such as an aging population, increased obesity and escalating costs. While interaction concerns are of primary importance in pervasive computing, patient safety and the complexity of the domain demand special attention to these issues when designing and evaluating healthcare applications. Several pervasive healthcare solutions advanced at CICESE's Laboratory for Mobile and Ubiquitous Healthcare will be presented, for a variety of application scenarios such as supporting hospital work, caring for elders with cognitive disabilities or motivating patients with a chronic disease to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The approaches used to understand user needs and concerns of other stakeholders will be discussed, as well as the techniques used to evaluate these novel technologies. Issues that affect user acceptance of pervasive healthcare solutions, such as privacy and uncertainty, will also be discussed.

  
  
  Bio:

  Jesus Favela is a professor of computer science at CICESE, Mexico, where he leads the Mobile and Ubiquitous Healthcare Laboratory. His research interests include Ubiquitous Computing, Human-Computer Interaction and Medical Informatics. Much of his research efforts have focused on the design and evaluation of ambient computing environments for healthcare. In collaboration with public and private Mexican hospitals his research team has conducted fieldwork studies to gain a better understanding of current work practices and envision scenarios for the use of pervasive computing technology in such complex environments. Usability evaluations and adoption studies have also been conducted to assess their acceptance. Dr. Favela holds a BSc from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) and MSc and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the ACM and the Mexican Computer Science Society, of which he was president in the period 2003-2005.