Civic Media, Crowdsourcing, and the Public Good

13 December 2017
December 13, 2017

Time: 10.30 am
Location: Room Garda, Polo scientifico e tecnologico "Fabio Ferrari", Building Povo 1, via Sommarive 5, Povo (Trento)

Speaker

  • Prof. Daniel Gatica-Perez, Idiap-EPFL

Abstract

The engagement of youth in local concerns has educational, social, and economic implications.
There is an entire open agenda of civic issues that human-centered computing research, in collaboration with young people, can contribute to. I will discuss experiences with mobile crowdsourcing, in which youth make visible urban issues that matter. Integrating mobile sensing, ubicomp data analytics, and media creation. 
The goal is to enable reflection processes through which discussions to rethink and act on urban issues can emerge. 
I will argue for the need to work across disciplines, and highlight the opportunities that arise from working with communities - both to contribute to the public good and to advance socio-technical approaches involving citizens and cities.

About the Speaker

Daniel Gatica-Perez is Professeur Titulaire at EPFL and directs the Social Computing Group at Idiap.
He is a faculty member of the School of Engineering (STI) and the College of Humanities (CDH), where he is member of the Digital Humanities Institute (DHI).
He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington in 2001.
His research integrates theories and methods from ubiquitous computing, social media, machine learning, and social sciences to understand human behavior in daily life and to create applications for social good.

His current research interests include:

  • mobile crowdsourcing and social media analytics for social good
  • crowdsourcing for cities
  • social video analytics, with focus on conversational behavior 
  • ubiquitous computing in face-to-face interaction 
  • analysis of ancient Maya hieroglyphic collections

His recent research has been supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation, the European Commission, and industry partners including Nokia, NTT, and Swiss startups.

Contact Person for this Seminar: enrico.bignotti [at] unitn.it (Enrico Bignotti)