IBM TJ Watson Research Center
19 Skyline Drive
Hawthorne, NY 10532
(914) 784-7712
alee@webcollab.com
http://www.webcollab.com/alee/
Alison Lee Home
245 East 93rd St. #15B
New York, NY 10128
(212) 369-9420
Canadian Citizen with US Green Card
Portfolio


Career Objectives

Work in an inter-disciplinary group within an R&D organization interested in:

Highlights

IBM TJ Watson Research Center (Sept 1997 - Now)

I have been involved in both customer-oriented and research-related projects. My role has been to design, implement, and evaluate solutions and systems that productively combine usability, social and computational elements. My research activities are creating systems that leverage accessibility and social relations, introducing the systems to end users for evaluation and feedback, and using these systems as vehicles for exploring and building socio-technical components. My contributions have been enhancing Web accessibility, identifying new paradigms for Web-based collaboration, creating several social tools to promote awareness and interaction in online spaces, characterizing the value of social environments. The broader research agenda is the design of large-scale social interfaces for online communities and/or information cities and the development of novel social, technical, and accessible UI elements.

NYNEX Science and Technology (May 1992 - Aug 1997)

I was involved in a mix of exploratory and project-related work that have focused on applying research ideas to real-world problems and transferring our research to the field. Whether it was for telephone operators, software developers, or members of electronic communities, my approach was to understand the nature of the users' tasks and problems using appropriate exploratory means and crafting state-of-the-art solutions to address their needs. As a consequence, my contributions were along two fronts. The first was developing interesting vehicles to solicit, explore, and communicate user needs and problems. The second was developing tools and applications to support and enhance interactions among individuals and groups.

General

20 years of research and application development experience in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information and Communication Management Systems. Implemented systems using a variety of programming languages and involved in behavioral analyses and evaluations of systems.

30 research publications; 2 patent applications; 10+ tutorials and university courses; 10+ invited and workshop presentations.

Skills

ResearchComputer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), human-computer interaction (HCI), virtual communities, social visualization, mobile/handhelds, accessibility, multi-media/multi-modal interfaces, user interface management systems.
TeachingComputer Science: introductory computer science, applications, graphics application, computer organization, data processing, human-computer interaction, and system analysis and design.
Applied Mathematics: Calculus and differential equations.
ComputingSelected Languages: AWK, C, C++, Java, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Perl, sh, csh, XML, XSLT, InterLisp.
Selected Software Packages: Allaire JRun, Apache HTTP, Apache Tomcat, MySQL and DB2, Eclipse, Web application development, GUI & video packages, and statistics.
Selected Computing Platforms: Unix/Linux (PCs, Sun, SGI); Microsoft Windows (PCs); Macintosh.
Selected Applications: system administration, multi-media information systems, user support, data collection and data analysis, video awareness, group and social collaboration, Web applications.
Design & Usability Selected Design Techniques: Scenario-based design, Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop, Macromedia Director (limited)
Selected Data Collection/Analyses: Log analyses (keystrokes and Web server), survey data, basic experimental design, statistical analyses, regression analyses and multi-dimensional scaling, S-Plus.

Education

1984 - 1992Ph.D. in Computer Science (May 1992), University of Toronto
1981 - 1983M.Sc. in Computer Science (May 1983), University of Toronto
1976 - 1981B.Sc. with Specialist in Computer Science (May 1981), University of Toronto

Employment

1997 - NowResearch Staff Member (full-time), IBM TJ Watson Research Center
2000Lecturer (sessional), Computer Science, Columbia University, Topics in CSCW (grad/undergrad)
1992 - 1997Member of Technical Staff (full-time), NYNEX Science and Technology
1989System Administrator (part-time), Database & OIS Group, University of Toronto
1985, 1986Research Intern (summer), Xerox PARC
1984, 1989Lecturer (sessional), Dept of Computer Science, University of Toronto,
Data Processing (second-year undergraduate) and HCI (fourth-year undergraduate/graduate).
1983 - 1984Research Associate (full-time), Database & OIS Group, University of Toronto
1981Research Intern (summer), Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
1980Programmer (summer), General Foods
1979 - 1990Teaching Assistant (sessional), Computer Science and Mathematics Depts., University of Toronto

Summary of Employment Experience

IBM TJ Watson Research Center (Selected Projects)

7/02 - NowAccessibility: I am developing extensions to our groups Web adaptation technology that enables users with varying degrees of visual, cognitive, and motor disabilities to apply one or more Web page adaptations in an effort to improve their access to Web page content. I am creating a variety of visual and aural scaffolding aids that unpack the complex and cluttered page structure for the users and enable users with limited hand use to navigate and scroll Web pages. The aids exploit a multi-modal interface design with a novel page segmentation technique. Read more.
10/01 - 06/02Patterns and Composition of Social Applications: This project seeks to codify our collective knowledge about the design of socially-aware systems into design patterns, to examine the viability of using patterns to compose such systems and to explore how a pattern-based paradigm can have significant impact in the composition of systems. I am contributing to defining and shaping the projects focus and its activities. I am developing patterns related to the design and development of socio-technical systems and a social interaction Web site to enable pattern practitioners to share patterns, experiences, and applications of pattern approach in design and software development.
1/00 - 4/02Socially-Supportive Systems: We developed two Web-based social interaction environments (CHIplace and Portkey) based on the design principles and collaborative framework that I have been formulating about collaborative user interfaces. They were built on a Web-based infrastructure consisting of social, computational, and content and data management tiers and used Java, Servlets, JSP and JDBC to build the socio-technical components. These sites were used by two real groups. I also developed two social visualizations that enable users to formulate a mental image of the social environment. See this example.
11/98 - 2/00New Paradigms for Web-based Collaboration: ePlace was an internal exploration to identify new paradigms for collaboration on the Web in the realm of electronic marketplaces. It explored ways in which social groups can enrich e-commerce experiences and how social visualizations could promote awareness and interaction at electronic marketplaces. I identified components of social interaction environments and developed a variety of concept sketches including a novel, spatially organized, interactive site map that provides visibility of people, activities, and interactions at a Web site along with mechanisms for social interactions. A proof of concept for the ShopIBM Web site was developed. See Jung and Lee 2000, and Lee et al. 2001, and http://eplace.watson.ibm.com/.
09/97 - 11/98CLIVE/mbanx FOAK: This First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) explored the business uses of collaborative customer care and the composition of shared voice and data solution. I worked with the Bank of Montreal business team to formulate the uses and social interface design of the system for sales and marketing, leads generation, customer support, and customer service. I also worked with mbanx marketing team to develop an user evaluation of the solution which ultimately concluded after we demonstrated the technical workability of the actual CLIVE/mbanx solution. See Wolf et al. 1999.

NYNEX Science and Technology (Selected Projects)

3/95 - 08/97NYNEX Portholes: We developed a Web-based version of the Xerox Portholes (video-based background awareness application) enabled us to take the system beyond the one-of, laboratory installation and into several workplaces for exploration and evaluation. We gained an understanding of the user expectations of private and public places that helped us to identify critical properties (e.g., reciprocity, awareness of audience, privacy, and control and feedback mechanisms) that such tools must support for widespread acceptance. I led the project and also worked actively on the research, evaluation and development facets of the project. See Lee and Girgensohn 2002.
5/96 - 11/96Web-based Dynamic Forms: We developed a forms abstraction called Dynamic Forms that addressed many of the limitations with existing Web-based forms technologies based on our experiences in developing several Web applications (e.g., dynamic visibility of fields, field values derived from formulae and procedures, sections to organize fields by task entry order). It enables developers to design and implement complex, domain-specific, form systems by describing the form components using a form description language. I recognized the value that Dynamic Forms has for the Web and worked on recasting it for the Web in Java. See Girgensohn and Lee 1997.
10/94 - 1/96Design Intent: Design Intent is a concept and a system designed to provide a multi-media group memory and communication infrastructure for supporting problem understanding, mutual education, collaboration and negotiation among group members. The core of the system is a repository of work artifacts and information (e.g., design requirements) that is constructed, shared, discussed and evolved by the group. I developed two instantiations of the Design Intent concept for a development project and the TeleCommunity Project. In the latter project, I also studied the communication needs and services that virtual communities would require through my interactions with the New York New Media group and NYNEX Marketing. See Atwood et al. 1995.
4/92 - 12/93Multi-Function Operator Workstation: The goal of the project was to design and develop a new multi-function operator workstation using a state-of the-art architecture. Our group's role was to develop an efficient and improved user interface for the workstation that could support both the Directory Assistance and Call Completion tasks. I implemented pieces of the DA user interface, developed a keystroke data collection mechanism, analyzed the usability of the workstation, formulated recommendations for usability improvements to our clients, and developed test plans for unit testing of the workstation. My research activities included developing techniques to study operator performance and exploring the use of cognitive models for evaluating operator performance using the new workstation design. See Turner et al. 1995.

Xerox PARC (Summers of 1984, 1985)

In my first summer, I ported a Cedar implementation of Remote Procedure Call package to Unix/C. In my second summer, I conducted exploratory research on history tools and developed several concept prototypes in Cedar.

Selected Publications

A. Lee and V. Hanson. Enhancing Web Accessibility. In Proceedings of the 11th Annual ACM International Conference on Multimedia, Demonstration, 2003.

A. Girgensohn and A. Lee. Making Web Sites be Places for Social Interaction. To appear in Proceedings of ACM 2002 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

J.C. Thomas, A. Lee, and C. Danis. Enhancing Creative Design via Software Tools. Communications of the ACM: Special Issue on Creativity and Interface, 45(10), New York:ACM, pp. 112-115, October 2002.

A. Lee and A. Girgensohn. Design, Experiences and User Preferences for a Web-Based Awareness Tool. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 56, Academic Press:London, pp. 75-107, 2002.

A. Lee, C. Danis, T. Miller and Y. Jung. Fostering Social Interaction in Online Spaces. In Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT'01) -- Eighth IFIP TC.13 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, M. Hirose (ed.), IOS Press, pp. 59-66, 2001.

Y. Jung and A. Lee. Design of a Social Interaction Environment for Electronic Marketplaces. In Proceedings of DIS'2000 -- Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, Techniques, ACM, pp. 129-136, 2000.

C.G. Wolf, A. Lee, M. Touma, and S. Daijavad. A Case Study in the Development of Collaborative Customer Care: Concept and Solution. In Proceedings of INTERACT'99: IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, IOS Press, pp. 54-61, 1999.

A. Girgensohn, and A. Lee, Seamless Integration of Interactive Forms into the Web. In Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 29, pp. 1531-1542, 1997.

A. Girgensohn, A. Lee, and K. Schlueter, Experiences in Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web "Shell." In Proceedings of Hypertext'96: Seventh ACM Conference on Hypertext, New York: ACM, pp. 246-255, 1996.

M. E. Atwood, B. Burns, D. Gairing, A. Girgensohn, A. Lee, T. Turner, S. Alteras-Webb, and B. Zimmermann, Facilitating Communication in Software Development. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems, New York: ACM, pp. 65-73, 1995.

A. Lee, Exploring User Effort Involved in Using History Tools through MHP/GOMS: Results and Experiences. In K. Nordby, P.H. Helmersen, D.J. Gilmore and S.A. Arnesen (Eds.), Proceedings of INTERACT'95: Fifth IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, London:Chapman & Hall, pp. 109-114, 1995.

T. Turner, A. Lee and M. Atwood, Extending Usability Engineering Techniques into the Real World: A Commentary, In J. Nielsen (Ed.), Volume 5: Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, Norwood, NJ:Ablex, pp. 191-209, 1995.

A. Lee and F.H. Lochovsky, User's Command Line Reference Behaviour: Locality versus Recency. In D. Diaper, D. Gilmore, G. Cockton and B. Shackel (Eds.), Proceedings of INTERACT'90: Third IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Amsterdam:North-Holland, pp. 121-128, 1990.

A. Lee, C. Woo and F.H. Lochovsky, Officeaid: An Integrated Document Management System. In C.A. Ellis (Ed.), Proceedings of the ACM SIGOA Conference on Office Information Systems, New York: ACM, pp. 170-180, 1984.

A. Lee and F.H. Lochovsky, Enhancing the Usability of an Office Information System through Direct Manipulation, In A. Janda (Ed.), Proceedings of CHI'83 Human Factors in Computer Systems, New York: ACM, pp. 130-134, 1983.

D. Tsichritzis, S. Christodoulakis, P. Economopoulos, C. Faloutsos, A. Lee, D. Lee, J. Vandenbroek, and C. Woo, A Multimedia Office Filing System. In Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, IFIP, pp. 2-7, 1983.

W. Buxton, E. Fiume, R. Hill, A. Lee and C. Woo, Continuous Hand-Gesture Driven Input. In M. Wein (Ed.), Proceedings of Graphics Interface'83, Ottawa:National Research Council of Canada, pp. 191-195, 1983.

Professional Activities

IBM ResearchSummer intern coordinator and HCI PIC Seminar co-ordinator.
CommitteesCommittees: Committees: Paper committees as well as Co-chair of registration, videos, CHIplace and tutorials.
ReviewsVarious journal, conference paper, and book reviewing in CHI, CSCW, Office Information systems.
CoursesDeveloping Web-based Collaborative Applications: A series of successful tutorials presented since 1996 at CHI, CSCW, SE, WWW, and UCLA Extension.