Dr. Gregory D. Abowd, ACM Distinguished Speaker
Regents’ and Distinguished Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
October 20, 2015
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Education 113
“Beyond Ubiquitous Computing: Technology Advances and Applications”
Abstract: In the late 1980’s, Mark Weiser defined ubiquitous computing as the third generation of computing, and much of his vision of computing technology has been realized. Nearly three decades later, it is appropriate to reflect on Weiser’s definition of the third generation and ask what the next generation of computing might be. Interestingly, a fourth generation of computing technologies has already arrived and has been with us for nearly a decade. This fourth generation of computing is marked by the emergence of three important technologies —the cloud, the crowd, and the shroud of devices that envelop the physical world and connect it to the digital world. This new era, which I currently refer to as “collective computing” represents a more seamless amalgamation of machine-run algorithms and the collective intelligence of humans. I will provide an example of an application of collective computing with the cloud/crowd/shroud technologies. This application represents a template for 4th generation applications, and I will end by reflecting on how some of those might be new ways to think about harnessing social interaction. I will end with a speculation on what the 5th generation of computing will entail.
Speaker Bio: Gregory D. Abowd is a Regents’ and Distinguished Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, where he has been on the faculty since 1994. His research interests concern how the advanced information technologies of ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) impact our everyday lives when they are seamlessly integrated into our living spaces. Dr. Abowd’s work has involved schools (Classroom 2000) and homes (The Aware Home), with a recent focus on health and particularly autism. 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 as a Rhodes Scholar, earning the degrees of M.Sc. (1987) and D.Phil. (1991) in Computation. 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. He has graduated 23 PhD students who have gone on to a variety of successful careers in academia and industry. He is an ACM Fellow, a member of the CHI Academy and recipient of the SIGCHI Social Impact Award and ACM Eugene Lawler Humanitarian Award. He is also the founding President of the Atlanta Autism Consortium, a non-profit dedicated to enhancing communication and understanding across the varied stakeholder communities connected to autism.