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Tricia Ngoon

Tricia Ngoon, UCSD & Design Lab PhD Graduate, Discusses “Adaptive Conceptual Guidance”

Tricia Ngoon, UCSD & Design Lab PhD Graduate, Discusses “Adaptive Conceptual Guidance”

Tricia Ngoon, UCSD & Design Lab PhD Graduate, Discusses “Adaptive Conceptual Guidance”

Graduate student and Design Lab member, Tricia Ngoon has always been interested in the science of learning. “It was always kind of born in me that I would do some sort of higher education, academic, STEM route,” she says as she reflects on the heavy influence of education, science, and math in her youth. “My parents always encouraged me to explore different fields… I think when I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer at some point, then a marine biologist at another point, and then all these different things. My parents were always very supportive of that.”  It wasn’t until high school that her aspirations gained specificity–a community college course in psychology solidified her interest in both psychology and neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she studied psychology and then worked at a neuroscience lab at Stanford. While exploring what she wanted to do for grad school, she came across Scott Klemmer’s work with The Design Lab and was inspired to apply. Her eventual involvement with the Lab opened up many new doors and introduced exciting possibilities as the focus of her research pivoted onto creativity and human-computer-interaction.

Tricia Ngoon, PhD, UC San Diego, Design Lab member

While acting as a teaching assistant for design courses at UC San Diego, Ngoon was inspired to start thinking about creativity specifically. She realized that the relationship between creativity and problem-solving is complex. “Creativity is really hard to define and really hard to assess,” she notes. “You need to be able to quantify something… that is inherently not quantifiable.” Another challenge in creativity-based research, she adds, is the general ambiguity of the term and the fact that “creativity means different things to different people.” Regardless, she is excited to continue answering the question of how researchers can define and measure creativity. To expand on this question, she notes that “with the advancements in [artificial intelligence] and machine learning… there’s the question of how does AI help with creativity, or can AI be creative?” According to Ngoon, AI can’t be creative on its own, “but it can push people to be more creative.” Ngoon is passionate about shifting the question from how do researchers help “computers themselves [be] ‘creative’?” to “how do [researchers] help computers or technology help people be more creative?”

Currently, in the spotlight of Ngoon’s research and involvement with The Design Lab is her recently accepted paper, Shöwn: Adaptive Conceptual Guidance Aids Example Use in Creative Tasks, which will appear in the Designing Interactive Systems virtual conference this summer, 2021. Her research hypothesizes that providing “adaptive conceptual guidance” will improve a person’s implementation of examples within creative work, as opposed to providing a static example. Using the domain of web comics, “[researchers in the study] present concepts to people alongside examples as they work.” Ngoon adds that “It’s essentially a step towards coaching. For example, if [a person is] working on a comic you might present a concept to consider the framing or kind of the composition of the panel and then [show] examples of different types of framing and composition.” Ultimately, her research concluded that “these adaptive suggestions as a person is working in context really help with making a clear and more unique story. It kind of changes the way they look at their ideas because they are more likely to explore different [ones].” 

Beyond these research achievements, The Design Lab has opened new doors for Ngoon, both personally and professionally. The Design Lab facilitates a supportive and diverse community of researchers and practitioners in fields ranging from automation to healthcare. “I think that it has been really important seeing how different design research touches different fields,” she adds. “That, I think, is what is most possible in being part of The Design Lab.” Similarly, as someone who has been affiliated with The Design Lab for nearly six years, Ngoon reflects on the exponential growth of The Design Lab community over the years as it’s been “exciting to see.” On a more personal level, involvement with The Design Lab and UCSD has introduced Ngoon to the many exciting leisure activities that San Diego offers–from surfing at La Jolla shores and hiking in the neighboring mountains, to trivia night at a craft brewery. “I think that being here has been great for discovering all these different sorts of activities that I don’t think I would normally be able to do anywhere else, and I think that’s what makes The Design Lab within UCSD really special. As well as just being able to be in an environment where you have a good work-life balance just because there’s so many things around you.”

Having just defended her PhD, Ngoon’s future research will be at Carnegie Mellon University, where she will be a postdoctoral researcher working on a project with educational technologist, Amy Ogan. Their study will use data collected from various sensors inside the classroom to help teachers improve teaching methods. This project will “follow on some of [Ngoon’s] research on feedback and critique that [she] did in grad school,” and marks an exciting new endeavor for her eminent future. The future beyond Carnegie Mellon, however, is less clear. Regardless, Ngoon is certain that she would like to “continue doing research that is in creativity and in creativity support tools, and to be part of a lab or work environment that’s similar to The Design Lab in terms of its collegiately and interdisciplinarity.” Ngoon is grateful for her advisor, Scott Klemmer, for pushing her to be not just a better researcher, but a “better thinker,” and she is inspired to continue pursuing the question of what it means to be a creative coach.

Graduate student and Design Lab member, Tricia Ngoon has always been interested in the science of learning. “It was always kind of born in me that I would do some sort of higher education, academic, STEM route,” she says as she reflects on the heavy influence of education, science, and math in her youth. “My parents always encouraged me to explore different fields… I think when I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer at some point, then a marine biologist at another point, and then all these different things. My parents were always very supportive of that.”  It wasn’t until high school that her aspirations gained specificity–a community college course in psychology solidified her interest in both psychology and neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she studied psychology and then worked at a neuroscience lab at Stanford. While exploring what she wanted to do for grad school, she came across Scott Klemmer’s work with The Design Lab and was inspired to apply. Her eventual involvement with the Lab opened up many new doors and introduced exciting possibilities as the focus of her research pivoted onto creativity and human-computer-interaction.

Tricia Ngoon, PhD, UC San Diego, Design Lab member

While acting as a teaching assistant for design courses at UC San Diego, Ngoon was inspired to start thinking about creativity specifically. She realized that the relationship between creativity and problem-solving is complex. “Creativity is really hard to define and really hard to assess,” she notes. “You need to be able to quantify something… that is inherently not quantifiable.” Another challenge in creativity-based research, she adds, is the general ambiguity of the term and the fact that “creativity means different things to different people.” Regardless, she is excited to continue answering the question of how researchers can define and measure creativity. To expand on this question, she notes that “with the advancements in [artificial intelligence] and machine learning… there’s the question of how does AI help with creativity, or can AI be creative?” According to Ngoon, AI can’t be creative on its own, “but it can push people to be more creative.” Ngoon is passionate about shifting the question from how do researchers help “computers themselves [be] ‘creative’?” to “how do [researchers] help computers or technology help people be more creative?”

Currently, in the spotlight of Ngoon’s research and involvement with The Design Lab is her recently accepted paper, Shöwn: Adaptive Conceptual Guidance Aids Example Use in Creative Tasks, which will appear in the Designing Interactive Systems virtual conference this summer, 2021. Her research hypothesizes that providing “adaptive conceptual guidance” will improve a person’s implementation of examples within creative work, as opposed to providing a static example. Using the domain of web comics, “[researchers in the study] present concepts to people alongside examples as they work.” Ngoon adds that “It’s essentially a step towards coaching. For example, if [a person is] working on a comic you might present a concept to consider the framing or kind of the composition of the panel and then [show] examples of different types of framing and composition.” Ultimately, her research concluded that “these adaptive suggestions as a person is working in context really help with making a clear and more unique story. It kind of changes the way they look at their ideas because they are more likely to explore different [ones].” 

Beyond these research achievements, The Design Lab has opened new doors for Ngoon, both personally and professionally. The Design Lab facilitates a supportive and diverse community of researchers and practitioners in fields ranging from automation to healthcare. “I think that it has been really important seeing how different design research touches different fields,” she adds. “That, I think, is what is most possible in being part of The Design Lab.” Similarly, as someone who has been affiliated with The Design Lab for nearly six years, Ngoon reflects on the exponential growth of The Design Lab community over the years as it’s been “exciting to see.” On a more personal level, involvement with The Design Lab and UCSD has introduced Ngoon to the many exciting leisure activities that San Diego offers–from surfing at La Jolla shores and hiking in the neighboring mountains, to trivia night at a craft brewery. “I think that being here has been great for discovering all these different sorts of activities that I don’t think I would normally be able to do anywhere else, and I think that’s what makes The Design Lab within UCSD really special. As well as just being able to be in an environment where you have a good work-life balance just because there’s so many things around you.”

Having just defended her PhD, Ngoon’s future research will be at Carnegie Mellon University, where she will be a postdoctoral researcher working on a project with educational technologist, Amy Ogan. Their study will use data collected from various sensors inside the classroom to help teachers improve teaching methods. This project will “follow on some of [Ngoon’s] research on feedback and critique that [she] did in grad school,” and marks an exciting new endeavor for her eminent future. The future beyond Carnegie Mellon, however, is less clear. Regardless, Ngoon is certain that she would like to “continue doing research that is in creativity and in creativity support tools, and to be part of a lab or work environment that’s similar to The Design Lab in terms of its collegiately and interdisciplinarity.” Ngoon is grateful for her advisor, Scott Klemmer, for pushing her to be not just a better researcher, but a “better thinker,” and she is inspired to continue pursuing the question of what it means to be a creative coach.

Graduate student and Design Lab member, Tricia Ngoon has always been interested in the science of learning. “It was always kind of born in me that I would do some sort of higher education, academic, STEM route,” she says as she reflects on the heavy influence of education, science, and math in her youth. “My parents always encouraged me to explore different fields… I think when I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer at some point, then a marine biologist at another point, and then all these different things. My parents were always very supportive of that.”  It wasn’t until high school that her aspirations gained specificity–a community college course in psychology solidified her interest in both psychology and neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she studied psychology and then worked at a neuroscience lab at Stanford. While exploring what she wanted to do for grad school, she came across Scott Klemmer’s work with The Design Lab and was inspired to apply. Her eventual involvement with the Lab opened up many new doors and introduced exciting possibilities as the focus of her research pivoted onto creativity and human-computer-interaction.

Tricia Ngoon, PhD, UC San Diego, Design Lab member

While acting as a teaching assistant for design courses at UC San Diego, Ngoon was inspired to start thinking about creativity specifically. She realized that the relationship between creativity and problem-solving is complex. “Creativity is really hard to define and really hard to assess,” she notes. “You need to be able to quantify something… that is inherently not quantifiable.” Another challenge in creativity-based research, she adds, is the general ambiguity of the term and the fact that “creativity means different things to different people.” Regardless, she is excited to continue answering the question of how researchers can define and measure creativity. To expand on this question, she notes that “with the advancements in [artificial intelligence] and machine learning… there’s the question of how does AI help with creativity, or can AI be creative?” According to Ngoon, AI can’t be creative on its own, “but it can push people to be more creative.” Ngoon is passionate about shifting the question from how do researchers help “computers themselves [be] ‘creative’?” to “how do [researchers] help computers or technology help people be more creative?”

Currently, in the spotlight of Ngoon’s research and involvement with The Design Lab is her recently accepted paper, Shöwn: Adaptive Conceptual Guidance Aids Example Use in Creative Tasks, which will appear in the Designing Interactive Systems virtual conference this summer, 2021. Her research hypothesizes that providing “adaptive conceptual guidance” will improve a person’s implementation of examples within creative work, as opposed to providing a static example. Using the domain of web comics, “[researchers in the study] present concepts to people alongside examples as they work.” Ngoon adds that “It’s essentially a step towards coaching. For example, if [a person is] working on a comic you might present a concept to consider the framing or kind of the composition of the panel and then [show] examples of different types of framing and composition.” Ultimately, her research concluded that “these adaptive suggestions as a person is working in context really help with making a clear and more unique story. It kind of changes the way they look at their ideas because they are more likely to explore different [ones].” 

Beyond these research achievements, The Design Lab has opened new doors for Ngoon, both personally and professionally. The Design Lab facilitates a supportive and diverse community of researchers and practitioners in fields ranging from automation to healthcare. “I think that it has been really important seeing how different design research touches different fields,” she adds. “That, I think, is what is most possible in being part of The Design Lab.” Similarly, as someone who has been affiliated with The Design Lab for nearly six years, Ngoon reflects on the exponential growth of The Design Lab community over the years as it’s been “exciting to see.” On a more personal level, involvement with The Design Lab and UCSD has introduced Ngoon to the many exciting leisure activities that San Diego offers–from surfing at La Jolla shores and hiking in the neighboring mountains, to trivia night at a craft brewery. “I think that being here has been great for discovering all these different sorts of activities that I don’t think I would normally be able to do anywhere else, and I think that’s what makes The Design Lab within UCSD really special. As well as just being able to be in an environment where you have a good work-life balance just because there’s so many things around you.”

Having just defended her PhD, Ngoon’s future research will be at Carnegie Mellon University, where she will be a postdoctoral researcher working on a project with educational technologist, Amy Ogan. Their study will use data collected from various sensors inside the classroom to help teachers improve teaching methods. This project will “follow on some of [Ngoon’s] research on feedback and critique that [she] did in grad school,” and marks an exciting new endeavor for her eminent future. The future beyond Carnegie Mellon, however, is less clear. Regardless, Ngoon is certain that she would like to “continue doing research that is in creativity and in creativity support tools, and to be part of a lab or work environment that’s similar to The Design Lab in terms of its collegiately and interdisciplinarity.” Ngoon is grateful for her advisor, Scott Klemmer, for pushing her to be not just a better researcher, but a “better thinker,” and she is inspired to continue pursuing the question of what it means to be a creative coach.

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A City Council committee on Wednesday unanimously approved two proposed ordinances geared at governing surveillance technologies in the city, an action sparked by sustained pushback from activists and others who were surprised and upset last year when it was revealed that San Diego had quietly installed cameras on streetlights throughout the city.

Lilly Irani, an associate professor at UC San Diego (and Design Lab faculty) who specializes in the ethics of technology, called the vote “a win for better governance in the long term.”

Irani helped draft the ordinances and assisted the organized opposition dubbed the TRUST San Diego coalition, which focuses on responsible surveillance in the region. The coalition was born out of concerns about one specific technology — so-called smart streetlights — and ultimately landed a seat at the table to draft the proposals.

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On behalf of UCSD Design Lab and the Center for Health Design, we’re excited to support the launch of this collaborative innovation ecosystem designing healthcare with our community. From tele-monitoring patients with diabetes to using artificial intelligence to prevent sepsis, the newly launched Center for Health Innovation at UC San Diego Health will seek to develop, test and commercialize technologies that make a real, measurable difference in the lives and wellbeing of patients.

The new Center for Health Innovation will be located on the La Jolla campus of UC San Diego. Collaborators will include the UC San Diego Design Lab, Qualcomm Institute and Jacobs School of Engineering. It is modeled after the University Health Network’s (UHN) Techna Institute, jointly located within the organization’s hospital sites and at the University of Toronto, and has designed numerous products now used in hospitals and clinics.

“Doctors, nurses and medical teams know best where there are existing technology gaps in patient care,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief information officer, UC San Diego Health. “With our proximity to the health and biotech sector as well as the cross-border region, the number of collaborative opportunities are immense.”

To learn more about the Center for Health Innovation, visit healthinnovation.ucsd.edu

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San Diego and Tijuana are throwing a party for just one man this week, and you’ve probably never heard his name.

Montreal native Bertrand Derome, managing director of the World Design Organization, is getting the red carpet treatment across two nations as the cities vie for the title of World Design Capital.

The award means a global spotlight on the region and lots of free advertising. Selected every two years, the Montreal-based World Design Organization picks a different city as its “capital.” Some previous winners have been Seoul, Helsinki, Cape Town and Mexico City. San Diego and Tijuana decided to apply together as a binational region.

The festivities started Sunday night with a jazz concert, light show and chic party for Derome at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. There were only about 200 people at the event for a venue that can hold 3,500. The $85 million shell on the San Diego Bay opened in August.

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While Seda Evis participates as a Designer-in-Residence at UC San Diego with The Design Lab, and is VP of Strategy & Growth at FreshForm Interactive—an experience design and innovation consultancy—she also claims to have what she refers to as a superpower: her hybrid mind, which she describes as the combination of two worlds: the business side and the design side.

As a Designer-in-Residence at The Design Lab,  Evis enjoys working in an interdisciplinary setting, which she says enhances her existing skillset. “Academia tends to be quite separate from how the practice is done,” she explains. “I find ways of doing interdisciplinary work, as well as cross industry work, very important for innovation because that’s how you actually get seeds from different places.” As of now, most of Evis’s work at The Design Lab has been working with the Community Team on the now winning bid for the World Design Capital 2024 (WDC) designation. Her work dovetails with her role on the Board of  Directors for the Design Forward Alliance–a non-profit organization started by the Lab in partnership with the regional design community and one of the partners co-leading the HOME 2024 WDC efforts alongside the Design Lab, Burnham Center for Community Advancement, the City of San Diego and the City of Tijuana.   The designation puts the San Diego-Tijuana region in a prestigious international cohort recognized for the “effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural and environmental development.”  Even the proposal theme is significant, Evis says. “Home” not only refers to the immense and diverse communities of San Diego and Tijuana that form one, but also serves as an acronym for Human-centered, Open, Multi-disciplinary/Multi-cultural, and Experimental. For Evis, participating in HOME2024 signifies her career “coming full circle.” 
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