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The Center Celebrates our Accomplishments from 2023 to 2024

Dec 23, 2024

Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design Annual Report 2023-2024

Our Vision

At the Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design, we believe that society should be collaborative, sustainable, and equitable. We bring together researchers and practitioners from across the University and globe to study, design, and develop new paradigms for interaction.  Our work spans a wide range because technology influences everything we do.

Message from the Co-Directors

It’s an honor to present our 2024 annual report. We have been deeply inspired by the commitment of the wonderful faculty, students, administrators, and supporters who work together to bring the Center’s vision to life. No single person can create a collaborative, sustainable, and equitable society; it takes a community, and that’s exactly what we are building. 

One community member we’d like to express our heartfelt thanks to is Jeremy Birnholtz, who did  exceptional service as interim co-director of the Center for HCI + Design during co-director Darren Gergle’s academic leave. Jeremy’s expertise in organizational processes, deep institutional knowledge, and strategic thinking have been invaluable this past year and we are deeply appreciative of his contributions.

We’ve done quite a bit over the course of the 2023-24 academic year. We’ve expanded cross-university collaboration between eight departments in five schools. We’ve hosted a number of original events, like our May 2024 Thought Leader Dialogue on “AI and the Future of Work.” We’ve also created unique online programming, like co-director Gerber’s highly-regarded podcast Technical Difficulties (soon to debut its 3rd season). Through events and programming like these we have steadily increased the center’s reputation as an international thought leader in HCI + Design and meaningfully contributed to the larger societal conversation around how to harness AI in a human-centered way. Through events and programming like these we have steadily increased the center’s reputation as an international thought leader in HCI + Design and meaningfully contributed to the larger societal conversation around how to harness AI in a human-centered way. As we do so, we foster a community where center members are empowered and reinforced, helping them successfully engage in new collaborations and fundraise for exciting new initiatives. On the point of new endeavors, we’d also like to note and celebrate Center affiliate Ed Colgate’s new $52 million NSF award to develop the new Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) Engineering Research Center (ERC).

To help make an environment that supports creativity and scholarship, we have renovated our space to be more inviting and usable by the HCI + Design communities within Northwestern. As a part of this, we hosted our first artist-in-residence, Abby Manock, who contributed the original mural that makes the redesigned space so unique and welcoming.

We are excited to build upon the Center foundation we have successfully laid. While we have much work to do, we are confident that, together, we can work to create new paradigms for interaction that support a collaborative, sustainable, and equitable society. As this report demonstrates, when we build on Northwestern’s pioneering leadership in HCI + Design, we can bring about much-needed change.

In the coming year, we would like to reaffirm our Center’s commitment to our core values of equity, inclusion, collaboration and justice, and we remain committed to the development of new modes of interacting that prioritize our shared values.

As a reminder to the reader, the center strives to be inclusive and forward-looking. Any faculty interested in joining the center are welcome to reach out to the center leadership to learn how they may become involved.

Liz Gerber, Darren Gergle, and Bryan Pardo

Co-Directors, Center for Human-Computer Interaction and Design

Photos by Lisa Beth Anderson (https://www.lbanderson.com/)
 
2023-2024

We now provide an expanded overview of our achievements for the AY 2023-2024 and the steps we’ve taken toward realizing these achievements. 

Achievement 1: Expanded cross university collaboration between two departments and three schools. 

The Center brings together researchers and practitioners from across the university with the mission to study, design, and develop the future of interaction at work, home and play. The creation of the Center serves to further solidify Northwestern’s position as a global leader in a research area of monumental importance at the intersection of design and computing in our society. The following presents our core efforts aimed at continuing to develop integral relationships in the community.

Expanded leadership group and welcomed new faculty affiliates

Expanded our online presence and branding

Created administrative support processes

Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson (https://www.lbanderson.com/)
 
Achievement 2: Expanded the Center as an international thought leader in HCI and Design.

The Center serves to further Northwestern’s international position as a hub for intellectual activity and forward-looking thought leadership. The following activities serve this goal: 

Built upon the “Thought Leader Lecture Series” 

With the support of McC and SoC, the series launched in the Fall 2020 with the goal of providing a forum for dialogue with both academic and industry partners. The series highlights Northwestern’s capabilities at the intersection of disciplines and aims to spawn new research initiatives both among NU faculty as well as with external organizations and institutions.

Our leadership team presented on the Center at local and international venues including:

We are planning events for the 2024-2025 academic year that are responsive to broader demand from our affiliates: 

Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson (https://www.lbanderson.com/)
 
Achievement 3: Continued to expand the Center as the HCI + Design research resource and intellectual community across the university.  

The Center also serves to further HCI and Design research activities within the University. The following activities serve this goal:    

Hosted internal research talks and community building events for Center affiliates:

Sponsored PhD reading group on Equity in HCI + Design 

Led by graduate student leaders Sachita Nishal (SoC/McC) and Matt Gaughan (SoC/TSB), the group focused on these seminal readings:

Supported the recruitment of new students and faculty to Northwestern:

Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson (https://www.lbanderson.com/)
 
Achievement 4: Provided educational experiences in HCI + Design.

The Center’s educational mission is to support the development of programs and initiatives that address the complex and interdependent problems we face in the world. Future leadership across a wide range of sectors can no longer rely exclusively upon a deep knowledge of technology, but instead must have a rich understanding of the interaction between society and technology. Our educational activities center on developing a training pipeline to address this challenge and to enable and nurture world-class programs in HCI and Design. The following activities serve this goal:

Expanded the NU HCI undergraduate certificate

Design Research Cluster Activities

NIMH T32 Postdoctoral Training Program
We continued to support the NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship, “Multidisciplinary Training Program in Digital Mental Health” led by PIs David Mohr (Feinberg) and Darren Gergle (SoC) and with the support of numerous HCI+D and CBITs affiliated faculty. (The call for new fellow trainee applications can be found here: https://cbits.northwestern.edu/training/postdoctoral-fellowship.html) 

Further Educational Engagements

Achievement 5: Further developed the space.

The Center has continued to develop and create a place where faculty and student affiliates can utilize the space for talks, workshops, and meetings.

Created a comfortable outdoor patio space:

Expanded indoor center space:

Achievement 6: Faculty affiliates accomplishments.

The Center celebrated a number of accomplishments during 2023-2024. From grants to promotions to student awards, we’d like to highlight some of the many accomplishments achieved by our Northwestern faculty affiliates and associated students.

Select Affiliate accomplishments during fiscal year 2023-24:

Grants:

Awards:

 

We look forward to more great adventures in the year to come! 

Co-Directors, Bryan, Darren, and Liz

Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson (https://www.lbanderson.com/)

 

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