 |
 |
|
|
My research program is centered on the processes of information system design, the usability of systems, broadly defined, and the evaluation of systems that have been implemented in the field. I increasingly see myself as a researcher engaged in design science, a vibrant and rapidly growing discipline spanning information systems, software engineering, and human-computer interaction. The perspective, methods, and tools from design rationale are particularly central to my program. In my view, they provide an explanatory bridge between the attributes of technologies for managing information, the people who design and develop them, and the social and psychological characteristics of the people (and organizations) who adopt and use them. My theoretical orientation revolves around different network-centric theories such as distributed cognition, actor-network theory, and activity theory. I gravitate to these because I believe them to be most effective in helping to integrate the broadest range of socio-technical factors into an understanding of complex information systems design and use. At a very general level I am a functionalist interested in the reasons why people and organizations choose to build or adopt technology, the benefits accrued from adoption, and the obstacles that prevent full realization of these benefits. Therefore, I often use utility theory to help make sense of results obtained from design and evaluation studies. My work is also informed by more technical theoretical perspectives, including general systems theory, and perspectives from social psychology especially attribution theory. My methodological approach has so far been centered on field work including ethnography and other more structured techniques such as cognitive and guided walkthroughs that can be applied in situ. I am increasingly interested in combining more controlled, laboratory experiments with these field methods to help isolate the causes of phenomena observed in ecologically valid, but uncontrolled and often chaotic settings. This move is largely driven by scientific interest, but also by the pragmatic advantages of carrying out laboratory studies with their shorter publication lead times. I increasingly use scenario-based design and evaluation methods to build trails between the system implementation and use context, and corresponding design processes and activities. Ultimately, I am interested in developing an approach to design science and design research that is epistemologically grounded and informs practice. I believe that field research is the most effective means to achieve this objective, but it is time consuming. Domains I am working in include a project with the United States Marine Corps involving design, development, and evaluation of an advanced cognitive support system for use by anti-terrorism planners. This work involves extensive interaction with prospective system users and other stakeholders in the field. The project received considerable attention in the press and we have had requests from over 20 government agencies for more information and access to the software. I am actively working with some of these contacts to develop opportunities for further research in this area. An extension of this project, the decision model and cognitive support system Rampart, was funded with a seed grant from the Penn State Office of Strategic Programs, and has since received major funding from the Office of Naval Research. In the future I want to do more with this technology and am actively pursuing an opportunity to use it to help Pennsylvania Homeland Security develop vulnerability assessments and mitigation strategies for the State's critical infrastructure. With Professors Jack Carroll of IST and Joseph Pitt of Virginia Tech I received (as PI) an NSF award in the Science of Design program for our work on Explanations of Software-Intensive Systems: A Foundation for Design Science. This work is central to the future of my research program as it involves an investigation into how design research contributes to scientific understanding. This question is, in my view, central to the IST vision, as it explicitly incorporates multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives and considers directly the question of how our research at the intersection of technology, people, and information contributes both to scientific knowledge and to the practice of information technology design and use. Another ongoing project involves helping to architect and evaluate a very large-scale Sense & Respond system for the Marine Corps Program Manager, Light Armored Vehicles (PM LAV). This project has challenged established system architecture and evaluation methods and has driven us to innovate new ways to understand how such complex systems actually contribute to the mission and priorities of their organization. This project was first funded in 2002, was recently extended, and the sponsor has expressed an interest in maintaining a long-term program of large-scale system architecture and evaluation research. I am also working
with the Office of Naval Research on how to create simulations that
are more inclusive of the contextual factors trainees face when
they employ tactics and doctrine in the field. Our approach to this
involves using design rationale as the basis for explaining how
and why intelligent agents behave the way they do in these simulations.
This is a collaborative project with Dr. Ritter. Our first three-year
funding increment for this project was extended by the ONR for another
three years. I have had success
with obtaining both initial and follow-on funding for my research.
I am grateful to the College of IST and the reputation of the University
for the former, and very proud personally of the latter. The College
and University have given me opportunities to direct my research
into some of the most important issues facing Pennsylvania and the
United States. I have built a long-term partnership with the Marine
Corps to provide research access and funding for projects in large-scale
integrated system design and evaluation. Though over the last year
I have delayed accepting new funded research from the Marines, I
expect to continue this partnership over the course of my career.
My more recent NSF grant has led to opportunities to leverage this
applied work in more purely scientific ways. Moving forward I will
continue to seek this kind of paired funding to support the different
aspects of my research program. |