NSF Workshop on HCS: Workshop Description

Workshop on Human-Centered Systems: Information, Interactivity, and Intelligence (HCS)




I. Motivation

We are interested in Human-Centered Intelligent Systems that deal with Information: The acquisition, storage, transmission, management, analysis, understanding, visualization, and utilization of Information. The most important issue is: How to achieve synergism between man and machine. The term "Human-Centered" is used to emphasize the fact that although all existing information systems were designed with human users in mind, many of them are far from being user-centered. What can the scientific/engineering community do to effect a change for the better? We are looking for not just incremental improvement but a quantum leap.

Information systems are ubiquitous in all human endeavors including scientific, medical, military, transportation, and consumer. Individual users use them for learning, searching for information (including data mining), doing research (including visual computing), and authoring. Multiple users (groups of users, and groups of groups of users) use them for communication and collaboration. And either single or multiple users use them for entertainment.

An information system consists of two components: Computer (data/knowledge base, and information processing engine - both the databases and the processing engines can be distributed), and humans. It is the intelligent interaction between the two that this Workshop is addressing. We aim to identify the important research issues, and to ascertain potentially fruitful future research directions. Furthermore, we shall discuss how an environment can be created which is conducive to carrying out such research. The components of this environment include: Modes of research funding, infrastructures, and rewarding systems.


II. Dates and Venue

February 17-19, 1997
Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, VA


III. Organization

The Workshop will have around 40 active participants from academia, industry, and government laboratories, and a number of observers from government agencies.

Co-Chairs:

Steering Committee:
(See separate list)

Plenary Talks:
(See separate list)

Breakout Groups:
(See separate list)

BOG1
Information Organization and Context
(How to make sense in a data rich world)
Leaders: Gio Wiederhold, Michael Lesk

BOG2
Communication and Collaboration
Leaders: Patty Jones, Simon Kasif

BOG3
Human-Centered Design
Leaders: David Woods, Terry Winograd

BOG4
Organizational and Social Analysis: Social Informatics
Leaders: Rob Kling, Leigh Star


IV. Expected Contributions of Workshop

By ascertaining the future research directions of the important and exciting emerging field of Human-Centered Intelligent Systems, the proposed Workshop aims to highlight the fact that all computer systems are ultimately user centered and that without human computer intelligent interaction the vast power of future supercomputers, high-speed networks, and large multimedia repositories cannot be tapped efficiently and to the fullest extent.

HCIS is a highly interdisciplinary research field. By bringing leading researchers in the relevant areas (computer vision, speech and language understanding, artificial intelligence, human performance, cognitive science, etc.) together, the Workshop will provide a forum for intensive cross fertilization. It is anticipated that links will be formed between these researchers which may lead to future fruitful collaborations.

A Report of the Workshop, summarizing the state-of-the-art of HCIS and the recommend future research directions, will be published and widely distributed. It is hoped that this Report will have a positive and significant impact on the future of HCIS.