Janet Davis

Courses

• TUT-100-11: Technology and Place: Transportation, Communication, Computation
• CSC-151-01: Functional Problem Solving
• Past Courses

Student research

Last summer, I worked with students Tim Miller and Pat Rich on participatory design of technology to promote resource conservation on the Grinnell campus.

In summer 2007, I worked with Sam Rebelsky and students Lorelei Kelly, Max Kuipers, and Tim Miller on implementing the media computation approach in CSC151. 

Interests

Scholarship

My chief scholarly interests lie in the area of human-computer interaction HCI).  I see this area as broadly addressing a scientific question and a design question: How do people interact with computers? And how can we design computer systems to enhance rather than detract from the human experience?  My work as a computer scientist emphasizes the latter.

In my dissertation at the University of Washington, I engaged in Value Sensitive Design of user interfaces for UrbanSim, a large scale urban planning simulator, with an eye to transparency, fairness, and democracy to support the legitimacy of using UrbanSim as part of the political process.  I considered documentation for technical uses, a platform to allow advocacy groups to prsent their views on using simulation data, and new interfaces to enable citizens to interact directly with simulation results.

In my current work, I am exploring methods for the design of ethical persuasive technology, and in particular, information systems to promote resource conservation.

Teaching

My teaching interests span introductory computer science, computer systems, design, and the social influences and implications of computing and other technology.  In my time at Grinnell, I've taught Functional Problem Solving (CSC 151), Operating Systems (CSC 213), Computer Networks (CSC 364), Software Design (CSC 223), Human-Computer Interaction (CSC 295), Evolution of Technology (TEC 154), and a Tutorial on technology and place.

I have been working with Sam Rebelsky (CS) and Matt Kluber (Art) to introduce a media computation focus in the introductory computer science course.

I like to create a conversational atmosphere in my classes, and I especially enjoy talking about problems for which there is not one right answer.

Personal

My personal interests and pleasures include beadwork and other crafts, walking, backpacking, yoga, gardening, cooking, reading, talking with cats, and collecting computer science jokes. You can look at my increasingly out-of-date personal web site.

I had way too much fun with my new Mac. You can see a photo tour of my garden in Seattle or my first office at Grinnell.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, August 2006.  Advisors: Alan Borning and Batya Friedman. Dissertation: Value Sensitive Design of interactions with UrbanSim indicators [PDF].
• M.S. in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, May 2001.
• B.S. in Computer Science, Harvey Mudd College, May 1999.

Selected Publications

• Janet Davis. Towards Participatory Design of Ambient Persuasive Technology. Presented at Persuasive Pervasive Technology and Environmental Sustainability, Workshop at the Sixth International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2008), Sydney, May 19–22, 2008.
• Batya Friedman, Alan Borning, Janet Davis, Brian Gill, Peter Kahn, Travis Kriplean, and Peyina Lin. Laying the Foundations for Public Participation and Value Advocacy: Interaction Design for a Large Scale Urban Simulation. Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, Montréal, Canada, May 2008.
• Janet Davis. Engaging and informing citizens with household indicators. In Proceedings of the Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-41), January 2008, Waikoloa, Hawaii.
• Janet Davis and Samuel A. Rebelsky. Food-first CS: Starting the first course right with PB&J. SIGCSE 2007.
• Janet Davis, Peyina Lin, Alan Borning, Batya Friedman, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., and Paul Waddell, Simulations for Urban Planning: Design for Human Values. IEEE Computer 39(9): 66-72, September 2006.
• Janet Davis and Tammy VanDeGrift. The Journey to a Teaching-Oriented Faculty Career: A Handbook of Advice for Graduate Students.  In Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 2006.
• Janet Davis. Household Indicators: Design to Inform and Engage Citizens. ACM CHI 2006 Extended Abstracts, April 2006.
• Alan Borning, Batya Friedman, Janet Davis, and Peyina Lin. Informing Public Deliberation: Value Sensitive Design of Indicators for a Large-Scale Urban Simulation.  Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Paris, September 2005.
• A.J. Brush, Morgan Ames, and Janet Davis. A Comparison of Synchronous Remote and Local Usability Studies for an Expert Interface. In Extended Abstracts of CHI 2004, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1179-1182. ACM Press, April 2004.
• Robert Grimm, Janet Davis, Eric Lemar, Adam MacBeth, Steven Swanson, Thomas Anderson, Brian Bershad, Gaetano Borriello, Steven Gribble, and David Wetherall. System support for pervasive applications (PDF, 1,777 KB). ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 22(4):421-486, November 2004.
• Janet Davis. REP: A communication mechanism for pervasive computing (PDF, 218 KB). Technical report, May 2001.
• B. Barden, J. Davis, R. Libeskind-Hadas, and W. Williams. On Edge-Disjoint Spanning Trees in Hypercubes. Information Processing Letters, 70(1):13-16, April 16, 1999.

Created August 14, 2006
Last modified August 23, 2008