Stacey Scott

Instrumentation

Dr. Scott’s research laboratory uses a wide variety of custom-built or purpose-built integration of emerging technologies and rapid prototypes to explore next generation user interactions with future technologies, like public displays with proximity and user tracking sensors to entice user engagement with interactive displays or multi-display environments that enable mobile tablets to be used in conjunction with interactive tabletops to support collaborative data analysis.

Specific interactive large-format display equipment include a large custom-built 4K resolution interactive touch table (3840x2160 pixels, 121x67 cm screen size) flat-panel LED display fitted with a PQLabs infrared cross-touch frame) and a 4K interactive wall display (164cm-diagonal, multi-touch display - SMART1 Kapp iQ 6065i) on mobile stand. A variety of mobile touch-based tablets (multiple sizes and technology generations) are also used to create connected, multi-display environments to support prototypes for military command and control, collaborative data analysis, social gaming, and others. Digital projectors are used to create projected displays and 3-dimensional depth sensors are used for wide area or small area user tracking.

Audio / visual equipment and specialized qualitative and quantitative data analysis software is also used for data collection and analysis related to user studies conducted by Dr. Scott and her research team.

Capabilities

Research equipment is typically custom built or adapted to project needs to allow exploration of potential use cases for emerging technologies across a wide variety of application domains.

Education and Employment Background

Dr. Stacey Scott received her PhD from the University of Calgary in 2005 and completed her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2005-2007. Her background is in human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaboration, and computer science. Scott spent nine years as a professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, before joining the University of Guelph in 2016. She is now an Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the School of Computer Science at Guelph. Scott is also the Director of the Collaborative Systems Laboratory and a founding Member of University of Waterloo’s Games Institute.

Research Themes

Interactions with digital information and media are part of everyday life in today’s modern digital information society. Understanding people’s needs and their collaborative and social practices are essential for designing effective interactive computer systems. Scott’s research employs user-centred design practices that draw from interdisciplinary theories and methods to design novel interactive computer systems.

Scott’s past projects have largely focused on designing technologies that support small groups of people collaborating or engaging in social activities involving digital information in face-to-face environments. Example projects have involved the design of interactive large displays, such as digital tabletops and walls, and multi-display environment. However, she is also interested in designing novel interfaces and ways of interacting with many types of technologies, including interactive large public displays and interfaces to enable interaction and collaboration with automation (e.g., interfaces for drones, interfaces to artificial intelligence systems). Since joining Guelph, she has also combined her expertise in emerging technology design with her passion for animal welfare and has been pursing projects exploring emerging technologies for livestock farming in the field of precision livestock farming.

Key research areas of focus include:

1. User-centric emerging technology design and computer-supported collaboration. Scott has a strong interest in developing technologies that enhance human-human interaction, especially in face-to-face environments. Her particular area of specialization is in the design and development of large-format touch-based computer systems, such as interactive walls and tabletop systems, for supporting various collaborative and social endeavours, including both serious pursuits such as military command and control and emergency response, and more playful pursuits such as board gaming. Scott’s recent projects in this area have explored the integration of large-format interactive displays with mobile personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to enable more flexible collaborative activities in face-to-face environments, and the design of interfaces for interactive public displays that increase user engagement.
2. Precision livestock farming technologies. Scott is also interested in the design of emerging “precision” farming technologies that monitor the health and welfare of individual farm animals. Recent projects include investigations into the adoption of, and experiences with, commercial precision livestock farming technologies in the Canadian beef and dairy industries to help identify the opportunities and gaps between farmer’s needs and current technology and deployment models. Other research has focused on the use of computer vision and artificial intelligence for automated livestock monitoring in outdoor grazing environments.

Highlights

• Lasting Impact Award for “Territoriality in Collaborative Tabletop Workspaces” from the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) in 2020
• CFI Leader’s Opportunity Fund for “Interactive Data Exploration and Analysis (IDEA) System, 2017-2018
• NSERC Discovery Grant and NSERC Accelerator Supplement Award for “Improving the Effectiveness of Co-located Collaboration Technologies,” 2016
• Saskatchewan-Waterloo Games User Research (SWaGUR) NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE), 2016
• Profiled in the Chair for Women in Science and Engineering’s 30-in-30: 30 Women in 30 Days, 2014
• NSERC University Faculty Award, 2008-2009

Media Coverage

• CEPS News: Attention Grabbing Displays