A1- Hauck Orin Pitts

Human Computer Interaction

http://research.microsoft.com/hci2020/downloads/beinghuman_a3.pdf

Human-Computer interaction has to do with how people interact with computers. This article goes back to the room size computers of the late 70's to personal computers of the eighties to computers now which as laptops or desktops are often accessed by multiple users. Computer interaction also has to do with how humans physically interact with computers, from mice to touch screens, to the possibility of the thought controlled cursor. The possibilities within this field are endless and could easily provide new ways for different kinds of people to access and interact with computers.

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

This is the topic that we went into more detail with...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSCW

Computer supported cooperative work refers to any group or team work which is supported by a computer environment. #bubblec('I find it interesting because I am in the lab right now', 'as this is a group work (as you say yourself) you should not use I without saying who I is') with my group working on this wiki on three different computers and yet we are all working together on the same document. Hence, computer supported cooperative work! Thus, since I am in the Digital and Social systems track in computer science I find this sort of work environment very cohesive with my major.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Supported_Collaborative_Learning

Computer supported collaborative learning is a methodology which allows people to learn together via a computer platform. Often this can be web based. An example is internet classes which have gained much popularity in the last few years.

Design of Interactive Systems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_design http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/teaching/isd/course.html#Users

This touches back upon human computer interaction (as that is what makes a system interactive) and being able to meet the needs of the client based upon the design created. This often means consistent design reviews to ensure the compatibility of the system with the client's needs.

Participatory Design

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=nj2Y50nWjyAC&dq=participatory+design&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=RNjFfdl7vb&sig=EOoE9df4VpS-rqdO8RaRhpukj1c&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA90,M1

Participatory Design is a process in which developers of a system enlist help from the end-users of the system in the design phase of the system implementation. This often takes the form of discussion of ideas and possible solutions to be used in the system as well as users testing and evaluating initial versions of the software.

User Modeling

http://www.otal.umd.edu/uuguide/wmk/

A well designed user interface is one that is easy to use while providing flexible and efficient use of the application's features. A user model is a profile of a user's history on a computer system and is used by the application to tailor the user interface to suit that particular user's familiarity with the program and their preferences.

Custom-Choice: Bioinformatics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics#Web_services_in_bioinformatics

Bioinformatics most commonly refers to using computers to solve biological problems. The most well known of these is probably the human genome project. In the digital and social systems area bioinformatics more commonly refers to multi-computer or web based bioinformatics processors or databases which serve communities in the bioinformatics field.