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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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GA Tech's "C3: Creativity, Cognition and Computation" series presents:
Mary Lou Maher, National Science Foundation
Understanding Creativity Through Computation
Abstract:
Can computers be creative? Do computers enhance human creativity? Creativity is a fundamentally human activity from the ability to be creative, through the recognition and acknowledgment of creative work. Like the word intelligence, creativity is an elusive term that requires both a generator, that is a person or system that exhibits intelligent or creative behavior, and an evaluator, typically a person or society that determines when a certain behavior is intelligent or creative. Computation provides an approach to understanding creativity in two ways: (1) studying how computational systems enhance human creativity, and (2) developing computational models of creativity to simulate or generate creative behaviors or artifacts. The first approach appeals to an area of study called Human Centered Computing. The second appeals to Artificial Intelligence. This presentation will describe two projects as an example of each: enhancing creativity using tangible user interfaces and curious learning agents. The results of the these projects lead to a set of research directions that articulate how studying creativity through computation can improve our understanding of creativity and the changing role of computation.
Bio:
Mary Lou Maher is a Senior Research Scientist in the iSchool at the University of Maryland and Honorary Professor of Design Computing at the University of Sydney. She was recently a Program Director in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division at NSF where she initiated a funding emphasis called CreativeIT. Her research includes the development of cognitive and computational models of design and their evaluation through empirical studies of new technologies to support design and enhance creativity of individuals, teams, and large-scale collective intelligence.
Faculty Host: Brian Magerko
Student Host: Bryan Wiltgen
