The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsored a sustainability award at CHI 2013, ACM’s premiere conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The conference was held in Paris, France April 27-May 2, at the Palais de Congrès de Paris. The best sustainability paper award promotes work at the intersection of computing and sustainability, on principles and applications that address environmental, economic, and societal needs in support of a more sustainable future. This year’s winning paper was:
The Dubuque Electricity Portal: Evaluation of a City-Scale Residential Electricity Consumption Feedback System, authored by Tom Erickson (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA), M. Li, Y. Kim, A. Deshpande, S. Sahu, T. Chao, P. Sukaviriya, and M. Naphade.
CCC will provide travel awards to authors of the awarded paper. This is the second year that the CCC has sponsored the sustainability award at the CHI conference. The award enables the CHI Sustainability Community to recognize the critical contributions of human computer interaction research relating to sustainability. The community is not confined to issues of environmental sustainability, but also issues related to “the implications of our design and use of interactive technologies within and beyond HCI for climate change mitigation and adaptation, health, regional concerns especially coastal regions, food, ecosystems, water, as well as economic systems, reducing consumption, re-constructing business practices, and more.” (http://chi2013.acm.org/communities/sustainability/).
The winning paper was chosen from a selection of CHI 2013 Best Papers and Honorable Mentions that have significant links to sustainability concerns. The list of best papers and honorable mentions that were considered for the award are provided below to demonstrate the breadth of innovative, sustainability-oriented work that was showcased at this year’s conference. After the conference the papers will be available through ACM’s Digital Library.
PAPERS CONSIDERED FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
(FROM CHI’S SELECTION OF BEST PAPERS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS)
Mind the Theoretical Gap: Interpreting, Using, and Developing Behavioral Theory in HCI Research
E. Hekler (Arizona State Univ., USA), P. Klasnja, J. Froehlich, M. Buman
At Home with Agents: Exploring Attitudes Towards Future Smart Energy Infrastructures
T. Rodden (The Univ. of Nottingham, UK), J. Fischer, N. Pantidi, K. Bachour, S. Moran
Indoor Weather Stations: Investigating a Ludic Approach to Environmental HCI Through Batch Prototyping
W. Gaver (Goldsmiths, Univ. of London, UK), J. Bowers, K. Boehner, A. Boucher, D. Cameron, M. Hauenstein, N. Jarvis, S. Pennington
A Conversation Between Trees: What Data Feels Like In The Forest
R. Jacobs (The Univ. of Nottingham, UK), S. Benford, M. Selby, M. Golembewski, D. Price, G. Giannachi
Looking Past Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Using Futures Studies Methods to Extend the Research Horizon
J. Mankoff (Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA), H. Faste, J. Rode
Using Crowdsourcing to Support Pro-Environmental Community Activism
E. Massung (Univ. of Bristol, UK), D. Coyle, K. Cater, M. Jay, C. Preist
For more information, see the Best of CHI 2013 awards.
We encourage to you apply for a Challenges & Visions session at your respective computing research conference! For more information — including guidelines for conference program committees, recommendations for selecting winners, and logistics for issuing CCC-sponsored travel awards to the winners, as well as a sample call for papers for a CV session — visit http://cra.org/ccc/vct.php
(Contributed by Lisa Nathan, University of British Columbia)