Professional Experience
Senior Manager & Principal Research Staff Member, AI Interaction
IBM T.J. Watson Research, Cambridge, MA
2017 – present
Recruiting Lead for Global AI Research Organization
IBM Research AI, Global
2017 – present
Manager & Principal Research Staff Member, Cognitive User Experience Lab
IBM T.J. Watson Research, Cambridge, MA
2015 – 2017
Manager, Data Science User Experience
IBM T.J. Watson Research, Cambridge, MA
2011 – 2015
Research Staff Member, Social Software Group
IBM T.J. Watson Research, Cambridge, MA
2002 – 2010
Post-Doc, Collaboration Architecture Team
IBM T.J. Watson Research, Hawthorne, NY
2000 – 2001
Research Scientist
Department for Applied Computer Science IV
University of Mannheim, Germany
1995 – 2000
Summer Intern
Institut Eurécom, Sophia-Antipolis, France
1994
Research Assistant
Department for Applied Computer Science IV
University of Mannheim, Germany
1993 – 1994
Summer Intern
F. Deininger GmbH, Mannheim, Germany,
1991
Contract Programmer
Computer Center GmbH, Mannheim, Germany
1989 – 1993
Financial Consultant
BfG Bank AG, Mannheim, Germany
1989
Education
Ph.D. Computer Science
University of Mannheim, Germany
1995 – 1999
Dissertation (in German): “The digital lecture board – Concept, Design, and Implementation of a Whiteboard for Synchronous Teleteaching”
M.S. Computer Science & Business Administration (IT)
University of Mannheim, Germany, Top 1%
1990 – 1995
Master’s Thesis at Institut Eurécom, France: “Stream Synchronization in a Scalable Video Server Array“
Bank Trainee Program
BfG Bank AG, Mannheim, Germany
1987 – 1989
High School Diploma
Lieselotte-Gymnasium, Mannheim, Germany
1978 – 1987
Skills
Management
- Hiring, mentoring, and managing technical teams
- Cross-division management of funding programs and research agendas
- Project management from concept brainstorming through technical deployment
- Strategy and idea generation
Technical Skills
- Web App Dev : Python, Java, J2EE, HTML, HTTP, Javascript, jquery, CSS, XML, SQL, Hibernate, MyBatis, Postgres, DB2
- Desktop App Dev : Java, SWT, JFACE, Swing, Eclipse-based Applications
- Design: Fireworks, Photoshop, PowerPoint
- Data Analysis: Excel, SQL, Statistical Inference, Machine Learning
- Less recent experience (alphabetic order): Basic, C / C++, COBOL, Estelle, Gauss, Pascal, IP Multicast, RTP / RTCP, SIP, SPSS, Tcl/Tk, TCP, UDP, Visual Studio
Design
- Concept generation
- Storyboarding, Personas
- Wireframes, Rapid prototyping
User Research
- Qualitative and quantitative research
- Experimental design (A-B testing)
- Semi-structured interviewing
Foreign Languages
- German: native
- English: fluent written and spoken
- French: good knowledge
- Italian: basic knowledge
Selected Invited Talks
- “Human-Centered AI – Automation Versus Collaboration,” Expo Talk, NeurIPS 2020, Dec 2020
- “Cognitive User Experience Research,” Invited Talk, Bell Labs, May 2017
- “Cognitive Computing Research,” Invited Talk, MIT Sloan Cognitive Hackathon, Sep 2016
- “The Social Workforce at IBM – A Research Perspective on Building a Social Business,” Guest Lecture, University of Maryland, November 2013
- “Social Business 2.0 – From a Social to a Smarter Workforce”
Panelist, IBM Research Colloquium, Madrid, Spain, Oct 2013 - “Exploring the Future at the IBM research Center for Social Business,” Keynote, DNUG Spring Conference Jun 2012, Dortmund, Germany
- “Social Recommender Systems – An HCI Perspective,” Keynote, ACM RecSys Workshop on Recommender Systems and the Social Web, Oct 2011
- “Fuelling the Social Web with Recommender Systems,” Invited Seminar, University College Dublin, Oct 2009
Selected Popular Press
My projects have been covered in popular press, including BusinessWeek, CNN Money, and Discover Magazine.
- CNN Money (12/04/2013): How IBM bypasses bureaucratic purgatory
- Harvard Business Review (09/30/2013): Can Internal Crowdfunding Help Companies Surface Their Best Ideas?
- Business Week (06/01/2009 print edition only): What’s a friend worth?
- CNN (05/12/2008): ‘Virtual water cooler’ makes workplace more fun
- eWeek (Feb 14, 2005): IBM, Microsoft Collide on Collaboration
Publications
I am author / coauthor of 80+ scholary articles with more than 6,400 citations on Google Scholar. For details, check out my publications page.
Patents
I am author / coauthor of 36 patents. For details, check out my patents page.
Awards and Scholarships
- IBM Research Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for Analytics and Services for Employee Engagement, 2019
- IBM Research Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for Contributions to Conversational Systems with IBM HR and Learning Team, 2019
- IBM Research Division Award on Research Contributions to GBS’ Cognitive Talent Platform, 2019
- 10th IBM Patent Plateau Award, 2019
- IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award on Social Recommender Systems, 2017
- IBM Research Division Award on Contributions to Kenexa Survey Analytics, 2016
- ACM Recognition of Service Award, 2016
- IBM Research Division Award on Collective Intelligence for Ideation and Decision-Making in the Enterprise, 2015
- ACM CHI Honorable Mention Best Paper Award, 2015
- IBM Outstanding Innovation Award on Social Recommender Systems, 2013
- ACM RecSys Best Paper Award, 2010
- IBM Performance Award, 2009
- IBM Research Accomplishment Award (Lotus Connections), 2010
- IBM Outstanding Innovation Award for Activity-Centric Computing, 2007
- IBM Leadership Excellence Program, 2005
- IBM Performance Award, 2005
- AACE Best Paper Award, World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 1998
- IEEE Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems 1996
- Research scholarship granted by IBM Research Heidelberg, Germany, and the German Ministry of Science and Education of Baden Württemberg, 1996 – 1998
- Met the requirements for high school scholarships for gifted students funded by the German Ministry of Science and Education, 1985
Teaching and Tutoring
Summer Intern Mentor
IBM Research, USA
2000 – present
-
-
- Mikhil Masli,
University of Minnesota, now with IBM CHQ Workforce Analytics - Hyungil Ahn
MIT Media Lab, now with Noodle.ai, before GE & IBM Research Almaden - Jilin Chen
University of Minnesota, now with Google Research, before with IBM Research - Pavan Vatturi
Oregon State University, now with Mentor Graphics - Lida Li
Oregon State University, now with Pinterest, before with Microsoft - Jianqiang Shen
Oregon State University, now with Turn, before with PARC - Shilad Sen
University of Minnesota, now professor at Macalester College - Roberto Silva Filho
University of California Irvine, now with GE Global Research - Andrew Witt
Harvard University School of Design, now Founder and Director of Geometry Lab @ Harvard GSD, before Director of Research at Gehry Technologies, Los Angeles - Juergen Vogel
University of Mannheim, Germany, now professor at Bern University of Applied Sciences - Heather Richter
Georgia Institute of Technology, now professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Mikhil Masli,
-
Student Supervisor – Master’s Thesis and Undergraduate Papers Department for Applied Computer Science IV
University of Mannheim, Germany
1996 – 1999
-
-
- Michael Grundel
- Tino von Roden
- Jochen Müller
- Jürgen Vogel
- Martin Grumann
- Volker Hilt
-
Teaching Assistant
Department for Applied Computer Science IV
University of Mannheim, Germany
1996 – 1999
Instructor
Continuing Education Department
University of Mannheim, Germany
1994 – 1995
Teaching Assistant
Department for Applied Mathematics
University of Mannheim, Germany
1992 – 1993
Service and Volunteer Activities
Organizing Committee
-
-
- Co-Chair ACM IUI Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creation with Generative Models (HAI-GEN 2021), https://hai-gen2021.github.io/
- Co-Chair ACM IUI Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creation with Generative Models (HAI-GEN 2020), https://hai-gen2020.github.io/
- General Chair for ACM RecSys 2016 (hosted conference in Boston with ~600 participants)
- Area Chair for Social Track at UMAP 2014
- Organizer ACM RecSys’13 Workshop on Recommender Systems and the Social Web
- Organizer ICWSM’13 Workshop on Social Computing for Workforce 2.0
- IBM HCI PIC Chair (Professional Interest Community)
2010 – 2012 - Tutorial Chair, ACM RecSys’12, Dublin, Ireland
- Organizer ACM RecSys’12 Workshop on Recommender Systems and the Social Web
- Workshop Chair, ACM RecSys’11, Chicago, IL
- Organizer ACM RecSys’10 Workshop on Recommender Systems and the Social Web
- Organizer ACM RecSys’09 Workshop on Recommender Systems and the Social Web
- Organzier ACM CSCW’08 Workshop on Social Networking in Organizations
-
Program Committee
-
-
- Senior Program Committee, ACM Recommender Systems RecSys 2021
- Program Committee, ACM Recommender Systems RecSys 2008 – 2020
- Associate Chair CHI 2012
- International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM), 2009, 2011, 2012
- International Workshop on Groupware CRIWG, 2005 – 2011
- IW3C2 International World Wide Web conference WWW, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2010
- Autonomous Agent 2001 Workshop on Agent Supported Cooperative Work (WASCW’2001)
-
Reviewer
-
-
- ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2003 – 2021
- ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work CSCW 2002 -2021
- International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, IUI 2010 – 2021
- NSF Grant Proposal Reviewer, 2011
- UMAP User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization, 2011
- Interact IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2011
- IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo ICME, 2008 – 2009
- ACM Conference on Groupware Group, 2005
- Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal (MTAP), Springer, 2003 – 2008
- IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications PerCom, 2003
-
Memberships
-
-
- Member of the RecSys Steering Committee (2016 – now)
- Member of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
- Member of the editorial board of Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal, Springer (2003 – 2008)
- Member of the alumni organization of the University of Mannheim, AbsolventUM e.V., Germany
- Member of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), VA, USA (June 1997 – July 1999)
-