Rebecca "Beki" Grinter is a Professor of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing and (by courtesy) the Scheller College of Business.  Her research focuses on improving the experience of computing by understanding the human experience in the building and using of technologies.  Beki is serving as the faculty co-director for SLS' Spring 2017 Smart Cities, Connected Communities Fellows Program.

This spring, SLS launches its Fellows Program, focused on Smart Cities, Connected Communities (SCCC), with 29 fellows representing all 6 colleges, GTRI, and various other units on campus, and including faculty, research scientists, graduate students, a post doc, and staff.

Over the course of the semester, the SCCC Fellows will have a number of gatherings including the fellows and public, private, and non profit sector partners, on campus and also at least once off campus at a local organization working on Smart Cities, Connected Communities issues.  The fellows will also meet in smaller groups to produce a collaborative artifact on a mutually shared topic of interest.  In keeping with the SLS theme of "creating sustainable communities," these gatherings will examine interdisciplinary and experiential, hands-on approaches to creating smart, connected cities that advance sustainability and equity.  

In particular, fellows will explore questions of how smart, connected cities:

• use big data in coordination with localized, and sometimes qualitative, data;
• identify and build on already existing areas of intelligence; 
• combine technical and non-technical solutions to address problems;
• open up new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration at Tech that combines social and technological expertise and approaches;

The SLS SCCC Fellows Program will also look for opportunities to leverage and connect to national efforts in this space, such as the NSF's Smart Cities Initiative. 

Towards the end of the semester, we'll be inviting fellows to write short blog posts about what they collaborated on during the course of the Spring, to share lessons learned via the SLS blog.  More soon!

SCCC Fellows: Dan Amsterdam, History and Sociology; Jennifer Clark, Public Policy; Russell Clark, Computer Science; Lizanne DeStefano, Psychology; Betsy DiSalvo, Interactive Computing; Ameet Doshi, Library; Scott Duncan, Aerospace Engineering; Ceyhun Eksin, Biological Sciences; Emma French, Public Policy/City & Regional Planning; Mary Hallisey Hunt, Strategic Energy Institute; Roger Jiao, Mechanical Engineering; Alex Karner, City & Regional Planning; Neha Kumar, Interactive Computing/International Affairs; Yanni Loukissas, Literature, Media, & Communication; Ben Mason, Facilities Management; Todd Michney, History & Sociology; Molly Nadolski, GTRI; Usha Nair-Reichert, Economics; Pardis Pishdad-Bogorzi, Building Construction; Juan Rodriguez, Modern Languages; Robert Rosenberger, Public Policy; Jon Sanford, Industrial Design; Martin Short, Mathematics; Andy Sun, Industrial Systems & Engineering; John Taylor, Civil & Environmental Engineering; Iris Tien, Civil & Environmental Engineering; Linda Wills, Electrical & Computer Engineering; Jesse Woo, Scheller College of Business; Yao Xie, Industrial & Systems Engineering.  Faculty Co-Directors: Carl DiSalvo, Literature, Media, & Communication; Beki Grinter, Interactive Computing.