The following research group descriptions are archived because they are no longer offered, the faculty member is on sabbatical, or the group is taking a break. Please contact the faculty member or an advisor to learn more about these groups.

• Operational Evaluation of a Virtual Coordination Environment
• Understanding Stakeholder Negotiation of Socio-Ethical Requirements within Humanitarian ICTs.
• Mobility for Community Resilience: How can increased coordination of Seattle area transportation stakeholders produce improved disaster preparedness?
• Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM
• Cloud-based Design and Prototyping for Collaborative Management of Regional Mobility
• Reading Group: Changing commuter behavior to address traffic congestion
• Enhancing Community Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Capacities
• Qualitative Analysis of Information Sharing Observations collected during a Major Regional Disaster Exercise
• Earthquake Field Research DRG with Cascadia Rising 
• CoSSaR Directed Research Group: Visual analytics and interface design for hyper-dimensional regional disaster resilience data
• Entertainment trends, learning curves and improving the online game user experience
• Improving Information, Communication, and Coordination Systems for Emergency Response and Management
• Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making in Health Care
• Human Centered Safety and Security Systems
• Systems Studies of Humanitarian Response and Logistics
• Enabling Operational Stakeholders to Drive the Design of Information Sharing Solutions

Summer 2023

Operational Evaluation of a Virtual Coordination Environment

Work with a project team to evaluate the operational benefits (e.g., coordination, safety, mobility, etc.), costs, and effectiveness of the deployment of a virtual coordination center for agencies engaged in managing the Seattle I-5 transportation corridor. Also help develop lessons learned and recommendations for future deployment to other regions.

Prerequisite: HCDE 520 or the equivalent. To receive an add code, email Professor Mark Haselkorn at markh@uw.edu, and Senior Research Scientist Sonia Savelli at ssavelli@uw.edu.

Winter 2021

Understanding Stakeholder Negotiation of Socio-Ethical Requirements within Humanitarian ICTs.

In this DRG we will aim to perform qualitative analysis for forming an understanding of how technology designers/developers and humanitarian practitioners negotiate the ethical requirements of humanitarian missions in the design & development HICTs. Our study builds on a long-term collaboration between the Global Disaster Preparedness Center of the Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies and UW/HCDE.

We are looking for 3-4 students who want to use human-centered methods in qualitative coding, are open to challenging traditional user-centered development & design approaches, and interested in bottom-up approaches for addressing socio-ethical environments. Multi-quarter commitments are welcome and preferred, but not required.

We will plan to meet for 1- 2 hours each week via Zoom for learning, project coordination and collaboration. Approximately 4-6 additional hours of participation each week will be expected outside of our meeting time. A group meeting time will be decided based on schedules and interest.

Specifically, this quarter it is expected that we will be: transcribing interviews, executing iterative qualitative coding (individual and joint) within a shared software platform, and begin to record observations as memos. Spring quarter will further thematic analysis with the iteration of memos into themes. We will initially orient ourselves for this qualitative analysis with key academic and operational (gray literature) reading and reflection exercises on our personal assumptions.

Research Description:

This research is part of a 3-year study on ethics & technology. Even as humanitarian agencies are seeking to create more formal guidance to consider ethical impacts in HICT design, the accountability of HICT efforts to the humanitarian ethical mission currently resides primarily in informal negotiations between individual humanitarian practitioners and STEM experts. The focus of our learning this quarter is on interactions between technology creators and RC/RC practitioners to resolve tensions that emerge within the humanitarian socio-technical gap (HSTG). The HSTG demonstrates a clear space where STEM and humanitarian cultures are negotiated and shifted. It is in this informal space that humanitarians working with technology creators are pushing technology creators to adapt their methods. In our analysis we will ask questions such as:

How are humanitarian ethical imperatives addressed in the development, design, implementation and use of HICT?
What interactions, methods and strategies are being used?
What is working? Why?
What is not working? Why?

Summer 2020

Mobility for Community Resilience: How can increased coordination of Seattle area transportation stakeholders produce improved disaster preparedness?

We are looking for students to join our summer 2020 quarter Directed Research Group (research for credit) to investigate solutions for improving regional coordination for increased resilience. In particular, we will explore how the design and use of a shared cloud-based environment can lead to enhanced mobility for community preparedness and disaster management.

Questions we will consider include:

1. Who are the relevant stakeholder groups and what do they bring to the discussion?
2. What is known thus far about Seattle-area resilience, particularly as it pertains to mobility?
3. How does the Seattle community define resilience in the face of a significant disaster?
4. What mobility enhancements should be in place to help manage a significant disaster?
5. How can enhanced shared awareness and coordinated planning/action achieve increased regional resilience?
6. How do different types of disasters impact resilience strategies?

As a part of the research process, we will be working with researchers and developers who are designing and developing a regional Virtual Coordination Center (VCC) in cooperation with State, County and City agencies.

What makes you a desirable candidate?

• Knowledge of disaster preparedness and management strategies
• Experience with ethnographic and user research
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative analysis tools
• Looking to register for 2-3 credits (i.e. 4-6 hours of weekly work)

The group will be facilitated by Dr. Sonia Savelli, HCDE Senior Research Scientist, and Prof. Mark Haselkorn. Meeting time is TBD.

Winter 2020

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM

This research group will be facilitated by Asst. Prof. Robin Mays (HCDE Alumni) with Asst Prof Bas Linjse (Radboud University, Netherlands) and supported by Prof Mark Haselkorn (HCDE). It is part of a three-year research grant from the National Science Foundation’s program on Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM. The grant research project is aimed at aligning information technology development with the socio-ethical humanitarian culture. 

This DRG will focus on compiling and analyzing literature on relevant ICT development processes (including architecture, design and engineering activities) that may contribute to or hinder socio-ethical system behavior within the humanitarian domain. Students will be provided a brief orientation into ongoing humanitarian and technology topics and then participate in a) the refining of the group’s research activities in alignment with our research questions, b) conducting corpus compilation, and c) the analysis and critique of the corpus. This group will extend across two quarters and students are encouraged to participate in both quarters. 

This course is especially good for those who might have interest in complex systems; mission/value/purpose-driven design of ICT; or in developing and designing technology within public service or non-profit domains.

For further information, please contact Dr. Mays as rmays@uw.edu. 

Cloud-based Design and Prototyping for Collaborative Management of Regional Mobility

Spring 2019

Weekly Expectations: 2 hour meeting and 3-4 hours outside of class
Prerequisites: Preference will be given to graduate students. No cloud-based development experience needed, DRG will include training in cloud-based capabilities
Credits: Minimum of 2 credits
Meeting Time: TBD based on group availability
Instructors: DRG will be facilitated by Mark Haselkorn and Sonia Savelli with cloud-based expertise provided by Pariveda Solutions and Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Seattle commuters spend approximately 40 extra minutes per day (152 hours per year) sitting in traffic congestion. Nationally, roughly 25% of total congestion is due to traffic incidents. On a regular basis, incident-related congestion contributes to travel delays, secondary collisions, increased fuel consumption, and air pollution. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that the U.S. loses 1.3 billion vehicle hours of delay due to incident-related congestion each year, at a cost of almost $10 billion annually.

Since March 2017, we have been working with agencies responsible for the Seattle freeway corridor to develop new capabilities to support collaborative regional management of complex traffic incidents and other challenges to maintaining regional mobility. The focus of this DRG is to design and prototype cloud-based solutions for collaborative management of regional mobility. DRG members will have the opportunity to:

Engage with regional transportation stakeholders to reduce the negative impacts of major freeway incidents on the Seattle I-5 corridor.
Get training and experience in designing and prototyping in the AWS cloud
Work with and learn from a local provider of innovative cloud-based solutions (Pariveda Solutions)

Reading Group: Changing commuter behavior to address traffic congestion

Spring 2018

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures, between July 2015 to July 2016, Seattle was the fastest growing city in the U.S., with a net gain of nearly 21,000 people or 57 per day, on average. With this considerable influx of residents comes an increased volume of vehicular traffic, further exacerbated by a geographically restricted mobility infrastructure.  Rush hour times have become extended, with Seattle ranked fourth among U.S. cities for the worst overall congestion levels.  Seattle commuters spend approximately 40 extra minutes per day (152 hours per year) sitting in traffic congestion.

In this reading seminar-style group, we will explore research that investigates methods of motivating people to change their commuting behavior as a way to reduce congestion levels. The research discussed in class will be used to guide the design of a next generation traffic communication app. Students will be responsible for reading approximately a dozen scholarly articles during the quarter as well as leading the discussion for one or two of these articles. For an example reading, see here. The anticipated workload is 3-5 hours of reading and one hour of in seminar discussion.  Please contact Sonia Savelli (ssavelli@uw.edu), Sarah Yancey (syancey@uw.edu) or Mark Haselkorn (markh@uw.edu) if interested in participating.

Enhancing Community Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Capacities

Winter 2018

This Directed Research Group will engage in research that will be conducted in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).  For over two decades, the IFRC has conducted Vulnerabilities and Capacities Assessments (VCAs) to identify community risks and strengths in the planning of programs to enhance community resilience and well-being.  The DRG research will contribute to the design of digital enhancements to the VCA “toolkit” (VCA 2.0) that meet community needs and IFRC missions in the context of humanitarian values and goals.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Mark Haselkorn (markh@uw.edu).

 Qualitative Analysis of Information Sharing Observations collected during a Major Regional Disaster Exercise

In June 2016, the nation’s largest emergency management exercise took place along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ).  A CSZ earthquake and tsunami is one of the most complex disaster scenarios that emergency management and public safety officials face in the Pacific Northwest.  Exercise activities centered on the states of Washington and Oregon, and involved all levels of government and private entities from USNORTHCOM and FEMA to local firefighters and tribal sheriffs. University of Washington CoSSaR-trained students conducted fieldwork studies of emergency operations and coordination centers (EOC/ECCs) as they activated to coordinate simulated field response operations both within their jurisdictions and also with neighboring communities, state EOCs, FEMA and major military commands.

This Directed Research Group provides training and experience in conducting qualitative analysis of a rich real-world text database.  We are looking for 6 – 8 students to conduct analyses on the large set of observations that were collected during Cascadia Rising. Students will be involved all aspects of the qualitative data analysis process. Our results will be used in future CoSSaR projects aimed at understanding information sharing during emergent events. One weekly meeting and three hours of work per credit hour is required. Minimum 2 credit hours.

If you are interested, please send an email to Mark Haselkorn (markh@uw.edu) or Sonia Savelli (ssavelli@uw.edu) describing your interest in the project, your level in the program (e.g., BS, MS, PhD) and why you want to participate in this research group.

CoSSaR Directed Research Group: Visual analytics and interface design for hyper-dimensional regional disaster resilience data

Building the capacity for regional resilience requires synthesis and understanding of a vast number of economic, social, ecological, and built environment indicators that each vary across space and time. To provide decision support to disaster and crisis stakeholders (e.g., utilities, emergency and business continuity managers) the hyper-dimensionality, complexity and uncertainty of regional resilience must be logically and visually represented in a manageable, comprehendible, and meaningful way. Visualization and the development of geo-visual user interfaces is one of the most under-developed areas of work for guiding restoration, reconstruction and recovery after extreme events, such as a Cascadia earthquake. 

For this DRG, students will help to advance the state of the art of visual analytics and user interface design for regional disaster resilience. A large number of alternative mockup visualization artifacts and user interface designs have been developed as part of a National Science Foundation resilience project on disaster recovery. The will provide students a starting point to develop a user requirements in collaboration with local emergency managers, utilities managers, and other disaster stakeholders, mockup a lightweight interactive user interface (e.g., using javascript and D3), and solicit feedback from potential users of an eventual web-based disaster resilience decision support tool. The DRG will be offered Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters to facilitate multiple iterations of design, development, and user feedback.

If you are interested, please send an email to Scott Miles (milessb@uw.edu) and Mark Haselkorn (markh@uw.edu) describing your interest in the project, your level in the program (e.g., BS, MS, PhD), and why you want to participate in the DRG.

Human-Centered Field Research DRG With Cascadia Rising—the Largest Emergency Management Exercise in the United States

Supported by the Center for Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety and Regional Resilience (CoSSaR)

In three months’ time, the nation’s largest ever emergency management exercise, Cascadia Rising, will take place along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). A CSZ earthquake and tsunami would be one of the most complex disaster scenarios that emergency management and public safety officials face in the Pacific Northwest. Exercise activities will center on the States of Washington and Oregon, and involve all levels of government and private entities from USNORTHCOM and FEMA to local firefighters and tribal sheriffs. Emergency Operations and Coordination Centers (EOC/ECCs) at all levels of government and the private sector will activate to coordinate simulated field response operations both within their jurisdictions and also with neighboring communities, state EOCs, FEMA, and major military commands.

This DRG is a one-time opportunity to conduct fieldwork studies of this region-wide effort to implement the National Incident Management System in a post-disaster scenario. Students will observe and record exercise activities being performed by exercise participants across the State. This work will contribute to an existing CoSSaR project to understand information sharing during the exercise, as well provide valuable evaluation for the Washington State Emergency Management Division.

Improving Information, Communication and Coordinate Systems for Emergency Response and Management

• Need and resistance to EHR adoption
• The role of information in care processes
• Major user-centered design approaches
• The role of user-centered design in achieving process improvements
• Integrating user-centered with software development