Humans and computers connect in Discovery Room

Chia Shen is thinking about you … and your computer.

Shen, director of the Scientists Discovery Room Lab at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), is helping develop a new angle to Harvard’s computer science research.

Together with Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science Hanspeter Pfister, Shen for the past year has been devising new ways for people — whether researchers or the general public — to interact with and explore the enormous data sets that are increasingly being created and made available on computers.

“Human-computer interaction and visual computing, scientific visualization, and information visualization have not been part of the focus at SEAS,” Shen said. “I’m always focused on how people can collaborate, how they can interact [with their data].”

Read the full story in the Harvard Gazette