Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota
200 Union Street SE -- Room 4-192
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: +1 612 625-1831
Fax: +1 612 625-0572
E-mail: konstan@cs.umn.edu
URL: http://www.cs.umn.edu/~konstan
Dr. Konstan specializes in software systems for human-computer interaction, including multimedia systems. His current research projects include: The GroupLens Collaborative Filtering Research Project; Multimedia Systems for Flexible Presentations; On-Line Educational Applications; Constraint-Based Programming Tools, Paradigms, and Systems; and Visualization Applications for Scientific Exploration.
Dr. Konstan holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley along with several awards for teaching and research. He is also co-founder and consulting scientist at Net Perceptions, Inc., a company that has commercialized the GroupLens system to build personalization tools for on-line businesses.
Since 1992, the GroupLens research project has been exploring the use of collaborative filtering to ease information overload. After building several prototype systems, and conducting a public trial filtering Usenet News, we have learned a great deal both about collaborative filtering and about addressing information overload in a dynamic environment. This talk introduces collaborative filtering, discusses related approaches to the same problem, and presents results from our public trial, including an analysis of the successes and failures of collaborative filtering along with exciting results about the use of observational data to reduce the need for users to enter ratings data.
[Note: Combining these two topics into a single talk provides a broader introduction to flexible multimedia systems. Either topic can be the subject of a full hour-long talk for an audience that is already well-acquainted with issues in multimedia synchronization and authoring.]
As part of the GIMME project (Graphical Interfaces for MultiMedia Environments), we are exploring ways to support more flexible content and presentation in multimedia systems.
Nsync is a synchronization toolkit based on a temporal constraint system. It is designed to support more flexible and interactive multimedia presentations.
Its temporal constraint model allows authors to specify temporal conditions that should trigger actions. For example, a constraint could specify that an audio stream should be stopped if it gets more than five seconds ahead of a corresponding video stream unless user interaction specifies otherwise.
TclStream is a command stream designed for presentations. A command stream associates command chunks with the times at which they should execute. To support presentations, TclStream was designed to play at various speeds and with random access to any point on the timeline. We present a command chunk model for invertible, skippable commands, and present examples that use TclStream to prototype new media types and to add user interaction to applications.
[Note: These are short talks on teaching techniques and experiences that can accompany a research talk, or that can be used together as a session on computing education.]
The overnight staff is a technique for adding realism to intensive short courses on UI design and evaluation while providing real-world rapid development experience for the student "staff."
The University of Minnesota has moved towards structured laboratories as an instructional medium for introductory programming classes. I will discuss our motivation, the process and cost of the conversion, and the results.
ISAP (http://www.med.umn.edu/ISAP) is an on-line pharmacology course designed as both a supplement to classroom instruction and a continuing education resource.