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<font face="Palatino">CS WEDNESDAY NOON TALK, February 5 in the ASH
Lobby at Noon<br>
<br>
Tony McCaffrey, Ph.D., Innovation Accelerator, Inc.<br>
<br>
"Long Division with Roman Numerals? The Quest for Intuitive
Notations and Data Visualizations"<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
In The ASH Lobby <br>
A light lunch will be available at noon</font><br>
<br>
<br>
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Paula Harmon, Administrative Assistant <br>
<div class="moz-signature"><small> School of Cognitive Science <br>
Hampshire College<br>
893 West Street Amherst, MA 01002 <br>
phone: 413.559.5502 <br>
fax: 413.559.5438 <br>
<a href="http://cs.hampshire.edu">http://cs.hampshire.edu</a></small>
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