Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) is a joint Ph.D. program in Computer Science and Communication that draws on Northwestern's strong support for interdisciplinary research, benefits from talented faculty who contribute to a tradition of collaboration, and attracts unique students who are eager for academic experiences that cross traditional departmental boundaries.
Our students come from a variety of backgrounds and receive rigorous training in human-computer interaction, drawing on computer science and social sciences methodologies. The combined degree benefits students by providing: training in a diverse set of quantitative and qualitative methods, experience designing and implementing new technologies, practice incorporating the results of empirical research into these technologies, and preparation for the widest range of academic and industrial jobs.
TSB Research Spotlight: "Empowering Female Agents of Change"
Emily Harburg, TSB Ph.D. student and co-founder of Brave Initiatives, has been working with a group of Northwestern students and alumni to build programs that increase female participation in large-scale design projects. Their programs introduces female high school students to design thinking, coding, and leadership training that are used on real-world projects. Participants then use these skills for projects in areas like health, education, and social infrasturcture.
Featured Lab: ATLAS Lab
The Advancing Teams, Leaders, & Systems (ATLAS) Lab, lead by Professor Leslie DeChurch, uncovers the inner workings of teams and enables the design of large, diverse, digitally-connected teams on Earth and beyond. Researchers in the ATLAS Lab study teams that work in scientific innovation, space exploration, healthcare, and the military.
TSB Research Examples
Life on Earth: Professor Michael Horn and collaborators created Life on Earth to teach the public about evolution and the history of life through interactive visualizations and collaborative games on multi-touch displays.
See more here.
SocialEQ: Professor Bryan Pardo's research group has developed a new tool that learns the meaning of adjectives describing sound from people on the web. Try it out here.
We are also examining the digital divide from sociological, policy and engineering perspectives; exploring ways to use crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding to support creativity and innovation; developing new ways to mine cultural diversity and develop culturally-aware technologies; studying and designing new technologies for health; and designing natural user interfaces for collaboration, learning, and accessibility.
News and Announcements
Welcome new students: We are delighted to welcome Jack Bandy, Henry Dambanemuya, Kapil Garg, Abir Saha, Nicole Tilly, and Dongping Zhang as our newest TSB students!
Congratulations to TSB doctoral students Colin Fitzpatrick, who has joined Facebook as a User Experience Researcher, Robin Brewer who is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan's iSchool, and Pei-Yi Kuo who is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan.
NU at CHI: Northwestern faculty and students were authors on 18 papers that were presented at the CHI 2018 conference, 3 of which won Best Paper Awards.
NU at CSCW: Northwestern faculty and students were authors on 11 papers that were presented at the CSCW 2017 conference.
TSB Speaker Series
The TSB Distinguished Colloquium take place on Thursdays @ 4pm. Check out our list of previous and upcoming speakers for the 2018-2019 series.
Awards and Publications
Congratulations to Prof. Anne Marie Piper and Prof. Matthew Easterday on their recent tenure promotions!
TSB Student Spotlight
Congratulations to TSB students: Sarah D'Angelo on receiving a Google Fellowship, Marlon Twyman on receiving the Donald H. and Carolyn E. Ecroyd Fellowship, Yixue Wang on receiving a Data Science Fellowship, and Jim Maddock and Emily Wang on receiving NSF fellowships!