Seminar Series: Robert Hubal, Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)

Join the School of Data Science and Society for a seminar featuring Robert Hubal, research scientist at Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

Talk title:
Serious dialog systems in an age of LLMs and KGs: Rethinking architecture but not design of studies engaging little kids, surly teenagers, subject-matter experts, survey respondents, persons living with schizophrenia, clinic patients, precepted students, impatient customers and other regular people

Abstract:
Technology underlying dialog-based applications has greatly advanced over the past 25 years—for capturing users’ natural language responses and their sentiment, generating realistic characters and scenes, modeling of knowledge, and rendering using increasingly capable graphics. However, though architectural elements have changed, design elements remain much the same—and appropriately so. This presentation will delve into reasons why design for these ‘serious’ applications is critical, and present lessons learned that are relevant even with new and exciting capabilities.

Bio:
Robert Hubal, a research scientist at Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), has interests centering on the intelligent use of technology to better train and assess knowledge and skills. He has experience in broad areas covering technology-assisted learning, intelligent virtual humans, healthcare simulation, visual analytics and representation, and leadership and change. He has applied research results to such everyday and specialized domains as medical informed consent, clinical assessment of social and interpersonal skills, consumer decision making, law enforcement interactions, and survey nonresponse. On all projects he oversees design, development and testing of interactive tools and techniques, keeping in mind the intended audience, to ensure reliability, functionality, engagement and usability. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in computer science from North Carolina State University, and a doctorate in cognitive psychology from Duke.