Social Sensing: Mobile Sensing meets Social Science

Location: Coleridge room, Jesus College Cambridge CB5 8BL, UK Date: 17th of March, 2011

Topic

For decades, behavioural scientists have struggled to understand the myriad factors that influence behaviour. Observational and self-report methods have shed some light on those factors, but the nature of such methods can elicit responses that are not always entirely accurate. Furthermore, such methods usually capture behaviour as it occurs in a laboratory as opposed to behaviour as it naturally occurs in everyday life. Recent advances in computer science provide some extremely powerful tools for overcoming these obstacles.

Indeed, mobile phones represent an ideal platform for studying behaviour in real-life contexts. One reason is because mobile phones are ubiquitous: there are billions of mobile phone users and the market has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. Another reason is that mobile phones are unobtrusive: because of their ubiquity, users are not generally aware of the presence of mobile phones, unlike behavioural monitoring in laboratories or through purpose-built devices that depend on self-reports. Finally, mobile phones are powerful and sensor rich platforms: modern mobile phones have many sensors embedded in them (e.g. accelerometer, Bluetooth, GPS, and magnetometer) that can accurately capture user behaviour, and they are also equipped with powerful processors (e.g., HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S are equipped with 1GHz processors), which allows applications exploiting computationally intensive algorithms to run locally on the phones. However, there are many challenges of computer science in designing such systems: since mobile phones are battery powered the systems should be energy-efficient, efficient classifiers have to be developed to derive accurate inferences from sensor data, and cloud resources have to be utilised efficiently.

This workshop is intended to bring together computer scientists with backgrounds in mobile and sensing technologies, and behavioural scientists interested in studying behaviour in real world contexts. The workshop also aims to build potential collaborations between social scientists and computer scientists. To facilitate discussions and collaborations among participants, there will be an even balance of paper presentations and open forum discussion.

Programme

• 09.30     Opening
• 09.45     Talk by Sam Gosling
• 10.15     Questions
• 10.30     Coffee Break

Presentation Session 1


• 11.00     Talk by Eamonn O'Neill
• 11.15     Talk by Felix Naughton
• 11.30     Talk by Francesco Calabrese
• 11.45     Talk by Giusy Di Lorenzo
• 12.00     Talk by Harry Reis
• 12.15     Talk by Jan Blom


• 12.30     Lunch


• 14.00     Talk by Andrew Campbell
• 14.30     Questions
• 14.45     Coffee Break

Presentation Session 2


• 15.15     Talk by David Good
• 15.30     Talk by Dana Pavel
• 15.45     Talk by Mirco Musolesi
• 16.00     Talk by Santi Phithakkitnukoon
• 16.15     Talk by Ulrika Alm Bergvall
• 16.30     Talk by Wiebke Bleidorn


• 16.45     Open Forum
• 17.15     Drinks
• 18.30     Close
• 18.45     Informal Dinner

Organizers

Web Chair

Participants

• Alan Blackwell, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
• Andrew Campbell, Computer Science, Dartmouth
• Andrew Matthews, Nokia Research Centre
• Cecilia Mascolo, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
• Chris Harris, Nokia Research Centre
• Dana Pavel, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex
• Daniele Quercia, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
• David Coyle, Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Trinity College Dublin
• David Good, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge
• David Pollington, Vodafone
• David Stillwell, The Psychometrics Centre, University of Cambridge
• Eamonn O’Neill, Department of Computer Science, University of Bath
• Eddie Wilson, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton
• Felix Naughton, General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, University of Cambridge
• Francesco Calabrese, SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT, and IBM Research
• George Roussos, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College, University of London
• Giusy Di Lorenzo, IBM Research
• Harry Reis, Department of Clinical and Social Psychology, University of Rochester
• Ilias Leontiadis, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
• Jan Blom, Nokia Research Centre, Lausanne
• Jason Rentfrow, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge
• Jeremy Schiff, Trumpet Technologies
• John Scott, Qualcomm
• Kiran Rachuri, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
• Mirco Musolesi, School of Computer Science, University of St. Andrews
• Patrick Olivier, School of Computing Science, Newcastle University
• Sam Gosling, Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin
• Santi Phithakkitnukoon, School of Computing Science, Newcastle University
• Simone Schnall, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge
• Ulrika Alm Bergvall, Department of Ecology, The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
• Wiebke Bleidorn, Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld

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