Week 13 Activity: Colloquium talk @ Mudd
This week, Harvey Mudd College hosts a talk by Evan Peck, from University of Colorado Boulder. The talk begins at 4:15 PM on Thursday, but a reception with refreshments will be held outside at 4:00 PM.
For students enrolled in CS Colloquium (CS 195):
- If you’re in Section 1, we expect you to attend the event when it occurs (synchronously).
- If you’re in Section 2, we hope to record the event and post it for you to watch asynchronously.
Good for Scientists, Bad for Society: Why won’t data change our minds?
Abstract
Despite incredible scientific and technological advances, our data is not convincing people to change their behavior at a scale needed to overcome pressing societal challenges, whether that involves responding to pandemics or our changing climate. I’ll trace how my work in data visualization has shifted to address the deeply socio-technical nature of these problems, from running large-scale technical interventions to conducting interviews in rural Pennsylvania about data. My current research explores how we can redesign the way we communicate information to meet communities where they are now, and examines how our implicit beliefs about their location, access to technology, and experiences undermine our collective ability to respond to data. I’ll share a new framing of human-data interaction - one that creates friction with visualization’s historic emphasis on efficiency, universality, and objectivity, and one that resonates with calls-to-action in responsible computing and AI.
About Evan Peck
Evan Peck is an Associate Professor of Information Science at CU Boulder . Evan’s research spans Information Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction, and focuses on reimagining the processes and tools we use to share data with more diverse communities. Prior to joining CU 2023, Evan was an Associate Professor of CS at Bucknell University where he was (and still is!) an advocate for primarily undergraduate institutions, and advanced the integration of responsible computing into core programming curriculum. He was a Visiting Scientist at MIT (2021-2022), and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tufts University (2014). For a recent article on Evan’s work, see #TechEthics, by CU’s CMCI Now Magazine
When and How to Attend
- Thursday, April 18
- Location: Galileo McAlister, Harvey Mudd College
- Talk runs from 4:15–5:30 PM
- Optional reception begins at 4:00 PM
Recording for Section 2
(You must be logged in to view this video.)
This video is provided for students in Section 2 of CS 195 (and students in Section 1 who had to miss the talk due to extenuating circumstances). This is a private video, so please do not share it with others.
Required Assessment
To receive full credit for attending this colloquium, complete the assessment:
Please do so at your soonest convenience, within 24 hours of seeing the talk.
(When logged in, completion status appears here.)