justine at northwestern dot edu
Justine Cassell (Ph.D., University of Chicago) has joined the
department of Communication Studies and the department of Computer Science as professor. Cassell comes to Northwestern
from the MIT Media Lab, where she headed the Gesture and Narrative
Language research group. Cassell's research focuses on understanding
natural forms of communication, and then creating technological tools
for those forms of communication and linguistic expression to flourish
in the digital world. In particular, she is credited with developing
the Embodied Conversational Agent, a virtual human capable of
interacting with humans using both language and nonverbal behavior.
More recently Cassell has investigated the role that the ECA can play
in children's lives, as a part of a Story Listening System, an interactive support for learning language and literacy
skills.
Justine is the graduate director of the
Technology and Social Behavior joint PhD in Communication and
Computer Science. She is also the director of the Center for Technology and Social Behavior.
More information is available on Justine's personal website and official School of Communication website.
Ph.D. Students
Joaquin (Kino) Aguilar
kino at northwestern dot edu
Kino is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) program. His research interests focus on the areas of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. He is currently interested in studying rapport and grounding over time. In 2007 he graduated from The University of Texas at El Paso with a B.S. in computer science. More information can be found here.
Rachel Baker
r-baker2 at northwestern dot edu
Rachel is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Linguistics department. She is currently studying how speakers use redundancy when giving directions. Ultimately, this research will be used to improve directions given by the embodied conversational agent NUMACK. Other interests include the prosody-meaning interface and the effects of a word's probability on hypo- and hyper-articulation. In 2003 she received an M.Sc. in Speech and Language Processing at the University of Edinburgh, writing a dissertation on improving prosody in speech synthesizers. In 2001 she graduated from Vassar College with a major in Cognitive Science, focusing in Linguistics. More information can be found here.
Brooke Foucault
b-foucault at northwestern dot edu
Brooke Foucault is a Ph.D. student in the Media, Technology, and Society program. She received M.S. and B.S. degrees from Cornell University where she was a member of the Human Computer Interaction lab. Her research interests include studying religious uses of technology by elders and adolescents. Specifically, she is interested in how the Internet and online communities are being used to explore and (re)define religious beliefs and practices.
Francisco Iacobelli
f-iacobelli at northwestern dot edu
Francisco is a Ph.D. student at the Computer Science department. He got his undergraduate degree in Systems Engineer and Informatics at Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile . He got his Masters in Computer Science at DePaul University with a concentration in AI. His interests of research include Virtual Peers, intelligent tutoring systems and other aspects of AI applied to the education of children. For more, visit fid punto cl.
Andrea Tartaro
andrea at cs dot northwestern dot edu
Andrea Tartaro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Technology and Social Behavior program, the joint Ph.D. in computer science and communication studies. Her research explores developing innovative technology tools for children with special needs to help them access social and learning opportunities. In particular, her dissertation research involves designing, building and evaluating a new kind of "authorable" virtual peer that will allow children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to learn about social interaction with peers by building their own virtual humans and observing how they interact with people. A virtual peer is a life-sized, computer-animated character that looks like a child and interacts with children using both speech and gestures. The authorable virtual peer will offer children with ASD a space to play with social communication, social interaction and imagination - skills that come naturally to typically-developing children, but are the most challenging for children with autism. This research employs new methods in Human-Computer Interaction for designing and implementing interactive virtual characters, and improves our understanding of the educational and communciation needs of children with ASD. For more information visit http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/andrea/.
Paul Tepper
ptepper at northwestern dot edu
Paul Tepper is a PhD student in the Media, Technology & Society program in the Dept. of Communication Studies. Paul's current research is looking at the coordinated generation of language and novel iconic gestures in a direction giving scenario, for the NUMACK embodied conversational agent project. For this work he is also investigating the presence of systematicity in the form and meaning of iconic gestures through empirical investigation, along with doctors Justine Cassell and Stefan Kopp. In 2003, Paul completed an MSc in Artificial Intelligence, specializing in Human Language Technology at University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics. Previous to this, he graduated from Rutgers College, Rutgers University, with a triple major in Computer Science, Cognitive Science and Linguistics, participating in research at the Rutgers U. Center for Cognitive Science and the Village Lab. Paul's previous research includes work in computational linguistics, natural language generation, knowledge representation and psycholinguistics. For more information see his personal homepage.
Post Doctoral Researchers
Miri Arie
miri-arie at northwestern dot edu
Miri Arie is a post-doctoral fellow working with Justine Cassell. Miri comes to Northwestern from Tel-Aviv University, where she completed a PhD program in clinical child psychology. In addition, she worked as an intern in clinical child psychology at Schneider Children medical center of Isreael, where she acquired a broad experience in psychopathologies and treatment methods.
Miri's interests are studying the development of social skills in children and understanding the psychopathologies related to social skill deficits. Miri's current research focuses on developing a social skills assessment for children using technologically mediated devices. Her previous research and clinical experience includes: selective mutism, high-functioning autism, Asperger's disorder, anxiety, mood-disorders and autobiographical memory.
Alastair Gill
alastair at northwestern dot edu
Alastair Gill is a Post-Doctoral Fellow working with Justine Cassell and Darren Gergle. His interests are in the social and psychological aspects of communication, especially with reference to computer-mediated technologies which minimise the availability of interpersonal cues. His research focuses on the application of data-intensive techniques to the study of these interpersonal language phenomena. Before coming to the Articulab, he was Faber Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Laboratoire d'Etude de l'Apprentissage et du Developpement (C.N.R.S), University of Burgundy, France. He received his Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Edinburgh in 2004. More information can be found at:
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/agill1/
Alex Hill
alex-hill at northwestern dot edu
Alex Hill is a post-doctoral fellow specializing in Human Computer Interaction working with Justine Cassell. He received his doctorate while working in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His dissertation topic concerned the development of an integrated development environment for VR worlds that can be used both on the desktop and within the CAVE virtual environment.
In addition to bringing extensive expertise with real-time computer graphics and non-traditional input devices to the CTSB, Alex will be looking into software architectures and markup languages used to develop and deploy virtual peers for interventions regarding Autism and African-American Vernacular English.
www.alexshill.com
Staff
John Borland
j-borland at northwestern dot edu
John graduated from Stanford
University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering.
He was awarded a Master of Science in Computer Science from the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in December 2001, where he participated
in research with Dr. Lui Sha's Quality of Service group and Dr. David Wilkins'
Knowledge Based Systems group. His professional experience includes work in
healthcare, defense, communications and gaming.
Kathleen Geraghty
k-geraghty at northwestern dot edu
Kathleen is a Research Associate in the Articulab. She received her MSc from the University of Edinburgh in 2007 and her BA in English and Global Studies from Alverno College in 2004. Kathleen's primary research interest is the role of social factors in child second language acquisition. In the Articulab, she is currently working on the study 'Bridging the Achievement Gap with Authorable Virtual Peers,' (better known to the lab as 'Alex') developing a virtual peer to promote literacy development for African American Vernacular English-speaking children.
Alberto Gonzalez
albertogonzalez at u dot northwestern dot edu
Berto González graduated from Northwestern University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. After completing two quarters of independant study under Justine Cassell, he decided to continue working at the ArticuLab as a systems adminstration & research programming intern. His interests include human computer interaction, web application development, and all things Python.
Elisa Revello
e-revello at northwestern dot edu
Elisa is the program assistant in the lab where you'll find her performing a variety of tasks. Her professional experience was in marketing, but in the (somewhat distant but) near future, she would like to pursue her master's degree in creative writing. In the lab, a certain person encourages her to start blogging.
Michelle Yamada
m-yamada at northwestern dot edu
Michelle came to CTSB from the NU Humanities Institute, where she was an administrator for seven years. She says, "Having a family of technophiles, I am constantly bombarded with the latest video game or gadget at home, as my two teenage sons work to keep me up to date." In her psychology undergrad she began to work on gesture and language acquisition, and found her interests expanded by the various research carried out through CTSB. Michelle works with CTSB's HR, finance and grant administration.
Undergraduate Students
Adia Berrya-berry at northwestern dot edu
Adia is a Senior majoring in Psychology and minoring in African-American studies.
Cathy Breen
c-breen at northwestern dot edu
Cathy is a senior majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Angela Ellington
a-ellington at northwestern dot edu
Angela is a Junior majoring in Communication Studies and minoring in Film & Media Studies.
Laura Kingsbury
l-kingsbury at northwestern dot edu
Elizabeth Kozak
ElizabethKozak2007 at u dot northwestern dot edu
Lizzy is a Senior Learning and Organizational Change major with a double major in International Studies.
Alex Markov
a-markov at northwestern dot edu
Alex is a Junior majoring in Communication Studies.
Gabriela Mendieta
g-mendieta at northwestern dot edu
Gabriela is a Sophomore majoring in Communication Studies.
Julia Merryman
juliamerryman2007 at u dot northwestern dot edu
Audrey Meshulam
a-meshulam at northwestern dot edu
Audrey is Senior Performance Studies major.
Evelyn Parks
evelynparks2009 at u dot northwestern dot edu
Evelyn is a Junior studing Psychology and African America Studies.
Elonna Pervos
e-pervos at northwestern dot edu
Marcus Shepard
marcusshepard2008 at u dot northwestern dot edu
Hannah Wells
hannah-wells at northwestern dot edu
Hannah is a Freshman who is interested in studying Computer Science and/or Film.
Alumni
Nathan Cantelmo
n-cantelmo at northwestern dot edu
Nathan joined the ArticuLab as a full-time software engineer after graduating from Northwestern with a BS in Computer Science in June 2005. While studying for his degree, he acquired a strong interest in the development of cross-discipline applications for new and emerging technologies. At the ArticuLab, he has been afforded the opportunity to pursue this interest while working on cutting-edge software systems. Nathan's research interests include embedded systems, mobile devices, computer graphics, and real-time systems. He is currently working for Yahoo! in San Francisco, California.
Meg Cramer
megs at northwestern dot edu
Meg Cramer was a Research Assistant at the Articulab. She has a B.S. in Sociology and Radio, Television and Film from Northwestern University('06). She is currently in Rabat, Morocco as a PBS Frontline Fellow to research women's soccer.
Dustin Derby
d-derby at northwestern dot edu
Dustin C. Derby (Ed.D., Northern Illinois University) was the Center for Technology and Social Behavior lab manager from 2006-2007. Derby came to Northwestern after working in higher education as an administrator and a research/statistical consultant. Derby's research focuses on student outcomes in higher education, and specifically understanding how students' background characteristics and college environmental contexts impact learning and enrollment management related outcomes within two- and four-year institutions. More recently, Derby has investigated the impact of self-belief, social, and institutional variables on women's adjustment to the four-year college environment.
Kim Ferriman
kferriman at northwestern dot edu
Kim was the Research Coordinator and Lab Manager for the Articulab. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Northwestern University ('03), and is currently a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University.
Lynne Horey
l-horey at northwestern dot edu
Lynne was the Lab Manager for the ArticuLab from 2007-2008. She received her Masters degree in audiology and hearing science from Northwestern University in June 2007. She now lives with her husband in Scotland.
David Huffaker
d-huffaker at northwestern dot edu
David Huffaker was a graduate research assitant in the Articulab. He is still a Ph.D. student in the Technology and Social Behavior specialization of the Media, Technology & Society program. His research focuses on leadership, collaboration, and language use in online groups and communities, focusing on special populations such as adolescents or knowledge workers. Click here for his personal site, which includes publications.
Joris Janssen
j-janssen at northwestern dot edu
Joris was a visiting scholar from University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands). He got his Bachelors degree in Computer Science and is a graduate student in Human Media Interaction.
His research interests include embodied conversational agents (ECA's),
(non) verbal behavior and multimodal interaction.
Joseph Jorgensen
josephj at northwestern dot edu
Joseph was the ArticuLab's resident systems/software engineer from 2004-2006. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Northwestern University ('04). He is currently working in new media design and development in New York City.
Stefan Kopp
skopp at techfak dot uni-bielefeld dot de
Stefan was a postdoctoral research fellow for the Articulab. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Bielefield University. See his personal website for more.
Tara Latta
t-latta at northwestern dot edu
Tara Latta was the Project Coordinator/Lab Manager for the ArticuLab. She has a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Lewis University. Currently, she is the Research Administrator at the Family Institute at Northwestern University.
Yolanda Rankin
yrankin at northwestern dot edu
Yolanda was a graduate research assistant for the Articulab. She has a B.S. in Mathematics from Tougaloo College and a M.A. in Computer Science from Kent State University. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Compuer Science at Northwestern University.
Kristina Striegnitz
kris at northwestern dot edu
Kristina was a postdoctoral researcher with the Articulab. She received a joint Ph.D. in computational linguistics from Saarland University (Saarbrücken, Germany) and University Henri Poincaré (Nance, France) in 2004. For more information see her personal homepage.
Rick Swette
r-swette at northwestern dot edu
Rick is a Senior Cognitive Science, Interdepartmental Communications major.
Rick van der Werf
r-werf at northwestern dot edu
Taranee Wangsatorntanakhun
taranee at northwestern dot edu
Taranee was the Program Assistant for the ArticuLab until June of 2007. She graduated in 2001 from Barnard College with a BA in American Literature; in 2004 she earned an MA in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she focused on posthuman notions of the body as a text in both real and virtual literature. Currently she is working towards nursing school, and finishing a plethora of knitting projects before her cat shreds them.
Debbie Zutty
d-zutty at northwestern dot edu
Debbie Zutty was the Undergraduate Coordinator for the ArticuLab. She graduated from Northwestern with a B.S. in Communication Studies in June 2006. She is interested in social networking and friendship formation among online communities, and worked on the Junior Summit project in the ArticuLab while simultaneously attempting to figure out her plans for the future.