[CS] CS WEDNESDAY NOON TALK, February 5, by Tony McCaffrey, Ph.D., Innovation Accelerator, Inc., "Long Division with Roman Numerals? The Quest for Intuitive Notations and Data Visualizations"

[Paula Harmon]

CS WEDNESDAY NOON TALK, February 5 in the ASH Lobby at Noon

Tony McCaffrey, Ph.D., Innovation Accelerator, Inc.

"Long Division with Roman Numerals? The Quest for Intuitive Notations 
and Data Visualizations"

Abstract:  Only the top mathematicians of the culture could perform long 
division with Roman numerals. Change the notation to Arabic numerals and 
now we teach long division to elementary school children. Today, we use 
the calculus notation created by Leibniz rather than Newton's because it 
is more intuitive. But what makes a notation intuitive? Using results 
from embodied cognition on how we naturally project meaning into spatial 
relations and bodily actions, I am developing a new sub-field called 
ergosemantics (i.e., the ergnomics of semantic representations) that 
applies beyond human computer interaction to any notation or data 
visualization. In the age of Big Data, we especially need intuitive ways 
to make sense of data and ergosemantics has the potential for some 
breakthroughs.

Bio: Dr. Tony McCaffrey's dissertation at UMass Amherst articulated the 
first successful technique to counteract functional fixedness--the most 
famous obstacle to innovation. Other innovation techniques also flow 
from his Obscure Features Hypothesis for innovation. Tony's new company, 
Innovation Accelerator, recently received an NSF SBIR grant to further 
commercialize his software that finds all the solutions to a problem 
like yours in the patent database. Tony's latest product is 
Brainswarming, a much more effective group problem solving technique 
than brainstorming.

In The ASH Lobby
A light lunch will be available at noon


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-- 
Paula Harmon, Administrative Assistant
School of Cognitive Science
Hampshire College
893 West Street Amherst, MA 01002
phone: 413.559.5502
fax: 413.559.5438
http://cs.hampshire.edu
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