The other day, I received this one line email: “I’ve had two of the best Ph.D. days ever!” It was from iSchool doctoral student, Greg Walsh. He had just finished two days of being in the CHI2011 Doctoral Consortium. I knew when I suggested to Greg he apply months ago, he would love meeting students and faculty from around the world thinking about Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) issues. But what I didn’t expect was how much Greg would take away from his two days of mentorship at this Doctoral Consortium.
During this consortium, each doctoral student got a chance to present their in-progress dissertation research and then received feedback from a small group of culturally diverse, multi-disciplinary HCI graduate students and faculty. They suggested which research methods and design might be of use, how to best focus and present the work, and strategies to move the research forward. As Greg explained to me a few days ago, “It was awesome being able to see how far I’d come and how my work related to other doctoral students’ research. Maryland really prepared me in ways I wouldn’t have guessed with my research.” When we talked further, Greg explained, “Not a lot of people are thinking about design methods for creating new technologies. People may mention it as a part of their research in developing new technologies, but not as much about how to change design methods. I was psyched to see how different but useful my research is.”
Greg also explained to me that lately he’d not been feeling very excited about his research, but the doctoral consortium energized him in so many ways. The suggestions he received and the good interest in his work were extremely motivating. He also pointed out that meeting these graduate students and faculty made him feel much more connected to CHI conference community. It’s not every day that a graduate student can walk into an international conference of 2700 people and feel comfortable and welcomed.
The CHI2011 Conference (photo by: articpenguin)
The doctoral consortium is one of several CHI venues in which students can connect with colleagues. The CHI Student Design and Student Research Competitions afford undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to present their work to senior researchers as well as their peers. Beth Bonsignore, one of our iSchool doctoral students earned a spot in the Student Research Competition. Reflecting on her experience she shared: “All of the students in our competition received the undivided attention of experienced researchers for almost 3 hours. I learned a great deal about how to frame a compelling story about my work and had some great discussions about how I might extend it. I also had a chance to hear about the work of other students from all over the world, and share my thoughts about the worldwide use of mobile storytelling application designed for children. Where else can you get such an opportunity to connect with future collaborators?”
Beth Bonsignore & Jes Koepfler at the CHI2011 Conference (photo by: articpenguin)
This excitement and connectedness could also be found with our doctoral students who were “student volunteers” or as they’re affectionately called, “SVs.” This year three of our doctoral students were a part of this CHI conference program: Beth Bonsignore, Jes Koepfler, and Jason Yip. In exchange for 20 hours of volunteer time they were given free conference registration, all meals, and reduced hotel costs. While the conference could not exist without the 150 students that do this each year, the students get so much more out of the deal. They get a chance to network with HCI students from around the world, meet and help HCI researchers from companies, universities, and non-profit organizations they might never otherwise get a chance to.
For example, during one SV lunch, when Beth Bonsignore and Jes Koepfler learned about the “cooking competencies” research being done by a fellow SV at Michigan, they connected him with Jason Yip, who has been designing a “kitchen chemistry” curriculum. Jason discussed the potential for future collaboration with his new-found colleague and me. Through the SV network, a new research area in chemistry education, human-computer interaction, and social media was born. Jason was so excited, he shared, “This has been an amazing experience because of how I get a chance to interact, not only with educators in my field, but with programmers, technology designers, and other people that have a vested interest in education.” At least 5 fellow SVs told Jason, Jes, and Beth how they published papers with student colleagues they met at past conferences.
Jes Koepfler also an iSchool SV at CHI met people who broadened her thinking in exciting ways. Jes’s doctoral research is at the intersection of marginalized populations and social media. As a result of attending CHI she was able to attend the session on "Homeless Users" and introduce herself and her work to some of the leading thinkers in the HCI community on this topic (Jill Palzkill Woelfer of the University of Washington, and Chris Le Dantec of Georgia Tech).
The yearly CHI conference is not the only professional conference that can offer these important experiences for our students. But all too often when we think about what graduate students should be doing, conferences seem to fall to the bottom of the list. The CHI conference reminded us this past week that conferences should be on the top of our list when it comes to growing our research energy.
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