Cecilia Aragon |
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Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering
at the University of Washington |
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Keynote: The Rigorous and Human Life of Data
Very often, the words “rigorous” and “human-centered” have been used as opposites in technical fields, with the implication that a focus on human aspects makes science “soft” or “insufficiently technical.” This is a false dichotomy that Cecilia will argue in this talk.
While extraordinary advances in our ability to collect, analyze, and interpret vast amounts of data have been transforming the fundamental nature of data science, the human aspects of data science, including how to support scientific creativity and human insight, how to address ethical concerns, and the consideration of societal impacts, have been less studied. Yet these human issues are becoming increasingly vital to the future of data science. Cecilia will reflect on a 30-year career in data science in industry, government, and academia, discuss what it means for data science to be both rigorous and human-centered, and speculate upon future directions for data science. |
Biography
Cecilia is Professor and Director of the Human-Centered Data Science Lab at the University of Washington (UW) where she
and her team use both quantitative (statistical and computational) and qualitative (ethnographic, human-centered design)
methods to study how people make sense out of large data sets. They build visualizations, games, and other software to
enable these interactions. This emerging field, known as human-centered data science, is situated at the intersection of
human-computer interaction and data science.
In 2016, Cecilia became the first Latina named to the rank of Full Professor in the College of Engineering at UW in its hundred-
year history. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and her B.S. in Mathematics from Caltech. She’s
received numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the
Fulbright, and Top 25 Women of 2009 (Hispanic Business Magazine). Her most recent book is Human-Centered Data Science:
An Introduction (MIT, 2022).
and her team use both quantitative (statistical and computational) and qualitative (ethnographic, human-centered design)
methods to study how people make sense out of large data sets. They build visualizations, games, and other software to
enable these interactions. This emerging field, known as human-centered data science, is situated at the intersection of
human-computer interaction and data science.
In 2016, Cecilia became the first Latina named to the rank of Full Professor in the College of Engineering at UW in its hundred-
year history. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and her B.S. in Mathematics from Caltech. She’s
received numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the
Fulbright, and Top 25 Women of 2009 (Hispanic Business Magazine). Her most recent book is Human-Centered Data Science:
An Introduction (MIT, 2022).
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