Maithilee Kunda
Research Scientist,School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech

Title:

Visual Thinking in the Data-to-Action Pipeline

Abstract:

Visual thinking can be a powerful mechanism for understanding and reasoning about complex information.  Despite the pervasiveness of this idea in disciplines ranging from education to information visualization, the cognitive processes that make up visual thinking are not well understood.  In this talk, I will describe how computational cognitive models can provide insight into the specific processes that underlie visual thinking.  My talk also explores questions related to individual variations in the recruitment of visual thinking and the effects these variations have on task performance.  My research is motivated by the recognition that, in the data-to-knowledge-to-action pipeline, "knowledge" includes the tangible representations displayed by computational tools as well as the mental representations constructed by people who use these tools.  In line with this view, I will discuss how my research supports the design of computational systems that reason about data visually, as humans do, as well as systems that explicitly take into account the cognitive abilities of their users.

Bio:

Maithilee Kunda is a research scientist in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.  Her work in artificial intelligence (AI), specifically in the area of computational cognitive systems, examines the role that visual thinking plays in learning and intelligent behavior, with a special focus on applications for individuals on the autism spectrum.  She holds a B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.