Abstract: Despite decades of computing advances, some human problems and core human values have remained difficult to solve or promote at scale. Instead of advancing individual technologies, I focus our attention on making major leaps in system-level thinking and orchestration. Specifically, I describe our efforts to design, build, and study computational ecosystems that interweave community process, social structures, and intelligent systems to form new, integrative solutions. Computational ecosystems emphasize (1) computational thinking to decompose and distribute problem solving to diverse people or machines most able to address them; and (2) ecological thinking to create sustainable processes and interactions that foreground the value of human engagement.
In the first half of my talk, I will share examples of computational ecosystems designed to advance community-based planning and research training, that respectively engages thousands of people in planning an event and empowers a single faculty member to provide authentic research training to 20+ students. The second half of my talk will share our more recent efforts to support human practices and human experiences computationally. I will close with a few thoughts on why we need computational ecosystems, especially if we intend to not only meet our consequentialist aims but also deepen our engagement in intrinsically valuable human activities.
Bio: Haoqi Zhang is an associate professor in Computer Science and Design at Northwestern University. His work advances the design of integrated socio-technical models that solve complex problems and advance human values. His research work bridges across Computer Science, Design, Learning Science, Psychology, and Philosophy, and is generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs, and the Center for Advancing Safety in Machine Intelligence.
Haoqi received his PhD in Computer Science and BA in Computer Science and Economics from Harvard University. At Northwestern he founded and directs the Design, Technology, and Research (DTR) program, which provides an original model for learning and growing through research for over 170 students (read the DTR annual letters, available at dtr.northwestern.edu/letters; and watch the DTR documentary, Forward, at http://forward.movie). With Matt Easterday, Liz Gerber, and Nell O’Rourke, Haoqi co-directs the Delta Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab and design studio across computer science, learning science, and design.