Dr. Justine Cassell This is Me

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1. 1. Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Dr. Justine Cassell

   lifeboat.com/ex/bios.justine.c - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/16/2008   Last Visited: 7/16/2008

   Justine Cassell, Ph.D.Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Dr. Justine Cassell
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   DR. JUSTINE CASSELL
   
   The ScienceDaily article Children With Autism May Learn From "Virtual Peers" said Using "virtual peers" — animated life-sized children that simulate the behaviors and conversation of typically developing children — Northwestern University researchers are developing interventions designed to prepare children with autism for interactions with real-life children.
   
   Justine Cassell, professor of communication studies and electrical engineering and computer science, recently presented a preliminary study on the work at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
   
   "Children with high-functioning autism may be able to give you a lecture on a topic of great interest to them but they can't carry on a 'contingent' — or two-way — conversation," said Cassell, director of Northwestern's Center for Technology and Social Behavior.Justine Cassell, Ph.D. is the director of the new Center for Technology & Social Behavior, and a full professor in the departments of Communication Studies and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Northwestern University.She is also the graduate director of the new Technology and Social Behavior joint PhD in Communication and Computer Science.She previously held a tenured appointment at the MIT Media Lab where she directed the Gesture and Narrative Language Research Group.
   
   She earned a master's degree in Literature from the Université de Besançon (France), a master's degree in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and a double Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, in Psychology and in Linguistics.
   
   Justine's research interests originated in the study of human-human conversation and storytelling.Progressively she became interested in allowing computational systems to participate in these activities.This new technological focus led her to deconstruct the linguistic elements of conversation and storytelling in such a way as to embody machines with conversational, social and narrative intelligence so that they could interact with humans in human-like ways.Increasingly, however, her research has come to address the impact and benefits of technologies such as these on learning and communication.
   
   In particular, Justine is credited with developing the Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA), a virtual human capable of interacting with humans using both language and nonverbal behavior.More recently she has investigated the role that the ECA can play in children's lives, as a Story Listening System (SLS): peer support for learning language and literacy skills.And she has also employed linguistic and psychological analyses to look at the effects of online conversation among a particularly diverse group of young people on their self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of community.
   
   Once machines have human-like capabilities, can they be used to evoke the best communicative skills that humans are capable of, the richest learning?This is the goal of her research: to develop technologies that evoke from humans the most human and humane of our capabilities, and to study their effects on our evolving world.
   
   Justine coedited Embodied Conversational Agents, From Barbie® to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, and Gesture and the Dynamic Dimension of Language: Essays in Honor of David McNeill, and coauthored From Quake Grrls to Desperate Housewives: A Decade of Gender and Computer Games, Playing with Virtual Peers: Bootstrapping Contingent Discourse in Children with Autism, Is it Self-Administration if the Computer Gives you Encouraging Looks?, "Hi Tech or High Risk?
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   Read GirlGeek of the Week and Frontiers Profile: Justine Cassell.Read some Justine quotes.

2. 2. biz.yahoo.com

   biz.yahoo.com/bw/080515/200805 - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/15/2008   Last Visited: 5/15/2008

   Justine Cassell, Helen Greiner, and Susan Landau Lauded for Outstanding Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact
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   PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) hosted its third annual Women of Vision Awards banquet on May 8 to honor three leaders in technology: Justine Cassell, professor, Northwestern University; Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairman, iRobot; and Susan Landau, distinguished engineer, Sun Microsystems.
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   Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award winners Susan Landau, Justine Cassell and Helen Greiner (Photo: Business Wire).
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   Leadership winner Justine Cassell spoke about the importance of passion.Although she has earned multiple educational degrees, Cassell believes "passion is an essential ingredient for accomplishing your goals."
   
   The 2008 Women of Awards banquet was supported by two gold sponsors: Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems.Additional sponsors were Cisco, CBS 5, SAP, Adobe, Career Action Center, eBay, Google, Intuit, and Symantec.Increased sponsorship over last year marks an increase in both financial support and a recognition of the importance of ABI's mission.
   
   "We are very pleased to honor Justine, Helen, and Susan as this year's Women of Vision Awards winners; they are truly role models for all generations of women technologists," said ABI CEO Dr. Telle Whitney.
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   Justine Cassell, Professor, Northwestern University
   
   The award winner in the Leadership category, Cassell is recognized in the field of computer science for her development of the Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA), a virtual human capable of interacting with humans using both verbal and non-verbal behavior.Cassell has investigated the role that the ECA can play in children's lives as a Story Listening System (SLS) providing peer support for learning language and literacy skills.She has also employed linguistic and psychological analyses to look at the effects of online conversation on the self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of community among a particularly diverse group of young people.The goal of Cassell's research is to develop technologies that evoke the most human and humane of our capabilities, and to study their effects on our evolving world.Cassell's research addressing real issues in different types of learning and education make her a leader and a woman of vision.

3. 3. Women of Vision » Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

   www.iwt.org/initiatives/women- - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/17/2008   Last Visited: 5/17/2008

   Leadership Award Winner: Justine Cassell, Professor, Northwestern University