COGS 234 - Fall 2023

In this course, we will go through some seminal works in major areas of HCI. The goal of the course is to broaden your knowledge of HCI research, practice presenting HCI research, and develop skills in writing research proposals.

Lectures

 Thursday 9:30 - 11:50 am.  Design and Innovation Building (DIB) 306

Instructor

Haijun Xia is an Assistant Professor of the Cognitive Science and Design Lab at UC San Diego, and he directs the Creativity Lab. His research area is Human-Computer Interaction, in which he focuses on augmenting our productivity and creativity by innovating on fundamental user interface paradigms and interaction techniques.

Course Logistics and Grading

This course involves the following elements and deliverables with associated weighted grading percentages: 

• Research Presentation and Discussion          30%

• Paper Commentaries                                                 30%

• Research Proposal             30%

• Participation                                   10%

Course grades will be assigned according to the following scale: ≥ 97%: A+; ≥ 93%: A; ≥ 90%: A-; ≥ 87%: B+ etc. We will uphold UCSD’s commitment to academic integrity.

Research Presentation and Discussion (30%)  Understanding literature and communicating your thoughts on a topic is an essential part of doing research. Once during the quarter, you will act as a research scientist and give your fellow class a lecture about a topic.  See the research presentation page to learn more details.

Paper Commentaries (30%)  We read 2-4 papers per class. The goal of paper commentaries is to get you to think critically about the research that the papers present and why that research is important. The goal is not to summarize the papers — everyone will have already read the papers! 

Research Proposal  (30%)  The goal of the research proposal is to let you practice how to frame a research paper or a research direction. Imagine you are writing it to apply for a fellowship. We will start to work on this research proposal from mid-quarter with an iterative process. We will dedicate a few lectures across several weeks to exchange, discuss, and iterate your proposals. 

Participation (10%)  Participation includes a wide range of activities including participation in discussion, Q&A, and any other activities that contribute to the lively intellectual environment.

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