mc with Vladamiro Sassone at WSRI meeting, London Sept 08
photo by Ben Shneiderman

Academic Bio

prof mc schraefel, phd,f.bcs, c.eng, cscs (lower case deliberate). Professor of Computer Science and Human Performance, Fellow, british computer society, Sr. Research Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, Chartered Engineer.
Deputy Head, Agents Interaction and Complexity Group

Research FOCUS - How to design information systems to support the brain-body connection for lifetime quality of life, including, fitness to learn, fitness to play, fitness to perform optimally, always; to understand through these paths how to enhance innovation, creativity and discovery.
Related Work - interaction design for data-driven (vs document driven) web-based systems for knowledge building.

Other Quals: I'm a certified and practicing strength and conditioning coach (CSCS), kettlebell instructor (RKC II, SFG II, KFF CKT), a certified nutrition coach (Pn1) and, particularly germaine to the research, a movement coach (CK-FMS, ZHealth Master Trainer). I *may* be the first computer scientist to draw blood - for science, of course.

Research Preview More on this in the Research Section but quickly: the work that sets my hair on fire is investigating how we might design information systems to support human performance for the specific goals of improving

• creativity
• innovation
• discovery
• towards better quality of life for all.

Creativity: Some bits that make designing for creativity through to quality of life interesting challenges is that, in science, we like to measure things. In Human-Computer Interaction / Human Factors, we like to design things to support people so we can do Meaningful Things - often with computers. How do we measure creativity (science) so that we can design and create things (engineering) that are demonstrably going to support creativity?

In other words we need models of creativity - whatever that may mean - against which we can develop and assess designs.

Proactive Health Similarly, if we want to design support for people to enhance our quality of life - whether that means eating better or moving more or connecting with real people or getting more rest - what kinds of information, when and where, do we need to provide to support this? What kinds of data do we need to capture, and how do this so as not to get in people's way such that the data is sufficient for the person and the system delivering it to the person?

If you're a prospective grad student, and this area of work sounds appealing, please see the Students FAQ page.

If you'd like a three minute overview of Human-Systems Interaction Research (and a quick tutorial on how to deadlift and swing a kettlebell):


vid: Feb 2012

other

Practical Quality of Life As part of my interest in designing systems to support & enhance Quality of Life, i've been exploring how to encourage 20-something grad student desk bound geeks to think about health and fitness. Hence the IAMGeekFit site, and my various certifications. I'm pleased to say my pull up count is above 1.

Favorite Computer Tool Besides all things Web and of course flying toasters, spell checkers. Computers can help us communicate. Spell checkers prove it.

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