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Professor Elaine Toms discusses Adapting Technology for Effective Knowledge Work: Where does/should the Human Stop and the Machine Start


Dr Tom's research focuses on understanding why information systems fail users and designing systems for optimum human use. This involves understanding how people work and use information and how people use existing systems to accomplish their work, it also includes evaluating novel tools that facilitate access to and use of information.

As a result her research lies at the intersection of human computer interaction, information retrieval and the representation and presentation of information. Elaine’s current research includes improving search systems to support real-life work tasks (rather than bags of words), new approaches to evaluating search systems, understanding serendipity and how systems can deliver on serendipity and the relationship between human curiosity and browsing, her work has been funded by NSERC, SSHRC, OCLC, Heritage Canada, Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs Program.  She was an investigator with three Canadian national research networks: a) TAPoR, the Text Analysis Portal for Research; b) NECTAR, the Network for Effective Collaboration Through Advanced Research; and c) National Centres of Excellence project, GRAND, which involves graphics, animation and new media.

This talk is open to all and will take place in Meeting Rooms 1 & 2 at Sheffield University Management School. A light lunch will be provided from 12.30pm with a seminar start time of 1pm.
 
 Please register your attendance using the link here.

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