User Interfaces for Human-Algorithm Collaboration through Modelling

通过建模实现人机协作的用户界面

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-04401
• 负责人: NacentaSanchez, MiguelAngel
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=749882
• 关键词: User; Interfaces; Human; Algorithm; Collaboration

My research program is in the area of Human-Computer Interaction and intends to allow people who do not have mathematical or computer science backgrounds to take advantage of the large existing knowledge of algorithms when addressing their own personal problems and questions on their data. We can find computational solutions to many of the problems that people come across in their professional and personal lives. For example, consider a family who is trying to coordinate transportation for their kids' extracurricular activities (how can we minimize costs while reducing waiting times?), or a Grade 8 teacher who needs a seating arrangement for a class (how do we sit pupils with complementary strengths close to each other?). Unfortunately, it takes expertise and time to be able to formulate the specific problems in a way that the computer can solve them. People are unlikely to hire an expert or learn how to program a constraint programming language in order to find a better solution for something that is immediate and very specific to their current circumstances. Hence the problems stay unsolved, or we have to cope with mediocre solutions and, for some of us, the nagging feeling that this can be done better. This research is a quest in search of better ways for the algorithms and the people who need them to communicate with each other. In other words, I want to improve Human-Algorithm Communication (HAC). If people could, perhaps with help from the computer, formulate their problems in quick and efficient ways that are sensitive to the context where the solution can be worked out and applied in, we would not need experts or lengthy training to get better solutions. Simultaneously, if the outputs and parameters of the algorithms can be communicated to people in improved ways, people will be more likely to trust calculated solutions and to make use on the vast existing knowledge that we have on algorithms. The research program involves the study of human problems, the context in which they arise, how they are identified, and how humans conceptualize them. It also involves the design of new description languages to express those problems, and building interfaces that support good human-algorithm communication. Success will mean that more problems will get better solutions, for a potentially very large number of people who, currently, do not have ways to take advantage of this hard-won (and largely tax-payer-supported) existing knowledge. Because we will start work targeting a specific section of the professional population (administrators and administrative assistants), people in these jobs should be soon able to benefit of improved productivity and more challenging and stimulating work environments. The knowledge gained will also help build better user interfaces for sophisticated tasks, which will benefit other researchers and companies who build software tools for this populations, in the local economies and in Canada at large.

我的研究计划是在人类计算机互动领域，打算让没有数学或计算机科学背景的人在解决自己的数据上的个人问题和问题时，可以利用现有的算法知识。 我们可以找到有关人们在专业和个人生活中遇到的许多问题的计算解决方案。例如，考虑一个试图为孩子的课外活动协调运输的家庭（我们如何在减少等待时间的同时最小化成本？），或者是一个需要班级座位安排的8年级老师（我们如何坐着与互补优势彼此接近的补充优势的学生坐下来？）。 不幸的是，能够以计算机可以解决它们的方式来制定特定问题需要专业知识和时间。人们不太可能雇用专家或学习如何对约束编程语言进行编程，以便为直接且非常针对当前情况的某些东西找到更好的解决方案。因此，这些问题尚未解决，或者我们必须应付平庸的解决方案，对于我们中的某些人来说，可以做得更好的感觉。这项研究是为了寻找算法和需要它们相互交流的人们的更好方法。换句话说，我想改善人类和人类沟通（HAC）。如果人们可能会在计算机的帮助下以快速有效的方式制定问题，这些方式对可以解决和应用解决方案的环境敏感，那么我们将不需要专家或冗长的培训来获得更好的解决方案。同时，如果可以以改进的方式将算法的输出和参数传达给人们，那么人们将更有可能信任计算出的解决方案并利用我们在算法上拥有的广泛现有知识。该研究计划涉及人类问题的研究，出现的背景，如何识别它们以及人类如何概念化它们。它还涉及设计新描述语言以表达这些问题的设计，并构建支持良好人类和人类通信的界面。成功将意味着更多的问题将获得更好的解决方案，因为目前可能没有办法利用这种硬元（并且在很大程度上支持税收者支持）现有知识的人。因为我们将开始针对专业人口（管理人员和行政助理）的特定部分的工作，所以这些工作中的人们应很快能够从提高生产率以及更具挑战性和刺激工作环境中受益。获得的知识还将有助于为复杂任务建立更好的用户界面，这将使在当地经济体和整个加拿大为该人群建立软件工具的其他研究人员和公司受益。