UCLIC Seminar, 09 April 2025. Enrico Costanza (UCL)

Title: Designing Interactions around AI/ML, from Smart Energy to Digital Health

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are applied to an ever-increasing number of fields, significantly impacting our societies and everyday life. However, the technical complexity, numerous parameters and vast amounts of data involved in training these systems pose challenges in designing user interfaces and interactions that make AI systems intelligible and usable, especially for people who may not be experts in AI/ML. In this talk, I will present a collection of projects addressing these challenges and exploring the inherent tension between making AI/ML operations legible and not overwhelming users with the technical complexity of their underlying algorithms. A considerable part of my work is related to energy and environmental sustainability, and more recently, digital health. Field trials on "smart energy” enabled by a novel experimental methodology demonstrated the importance of lightweight monitoring mechanisms for AI systems. Additionally, lab and online studies revealed how the display of different types of information around AI/ML algorithms, including deep learning "AI explanations," positively affect user behaviour and understanding, but also uncovered novel human cognitive biases around these systems.

Bio: Enrico Costanza is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at UCL Interaction Centre. His research lies at the intersection of design and technology, and it is influenced by behavioural and social sciences. He works and supervises researchers and students on the design, implementation and user evaluation of novel interactive systems. Beyond the topic of this seminar, he also researches human interaction with IoT (Internet of Things) data, and interactive data visualization, which he also teaches. Previously, he worked on visual marker recognition, low-cost tangible user interfaces, and interaction with wearable devices.
Before joining UCLIC in September 2016, Enrico was a Lecturer in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He also gained research experience at the EPFL Media and Design Lab (Switzerland), MIT Media Lab (USA), MIT Media Lab Europe (Ireland) and the University of York (UK). Enrico holds a PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from EPFL, an MS in Media Art and Science from MIT and an MEng in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of York.