Peter Scupelli
PhD Student
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh PA. , 15213
USA

Previously trained in architecture and interaction design, my research focuses on physical and digital environments that support inter-team collaboration in critical environments. I am studying how anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses in emergency environments coordinate emergency induced schedule changes. I am also interested in the role of team member awareness on individual attention allocation choices on multi-project, multi-team collaboration. I am working with Sara Kiesler and Sue Fussell at Carnegie Mellon University .

Conference Publications

Scupelli, P., Kiesler, S., Fussell, S. R., Chen, C.,(2005). Project View IM: A Tool for Juggling Multiple Projects and Teams. to appear in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 05), Portland , OR , April 2-7.

Fussell, S. R., Kiesler, S., Setlock, L. D., Scupelli, P., & Weisband, S. (2004). Effects of Instant Messaging on the management of multiple projects. CHI 2004 (pp. 191-198). NY: ACM Press.

Tan, D.S., Gergle, D., Scupelli, P., Pausch, R. (2004). Physically Large Displays Improve Path Integration in 3D Virtual Navigation Tasks. CHI 2004 (pp. 439-446). NY: ACM Press.

Tan, D.S., Gergle, D., Scupelli, P.G., Pausch, R. (2003). With Similar Visual Angles, Larger Displays Improve Performance on Spatial Tasks. CHI 2003 (pp. 217-224).NY: ACM Press.

Long term goals

I came to the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University with professional experience in Architecture from Italy and a master’s in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University . In the HCII, I chose to concentrate on the behavioral track because I want to use behavioral and social sciences in my research to study workplace artifacts and contexts that support groups. I would like to become proficient in translating empirical findings from the social sciences into design prototypes that can be tested with social science methodologies.

For example, in 2003, we developed a new IM interface called Project-View IM. P-VIM provides a list of team members and projects within an IM interface. We ran an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of this interface when people are working on multiple tasks with different teams. Earlier results from a multitasking study led to the Project-View IM idea. Our evaluation of PVIM will help us explain our earlier results and could lead to an even better IM interface design. In this way, we combine design and social science to create better HCI research.

Additionally, I am exploring shared displays in the Operating Room environment that support inter-team collaboration and coordination. To ground my work, I am surveying literature in the areas of social science (eg. proxemics, territoriality etc.), architecture, and human factors. The goal is to find existing frameworks that describe the relationship between physical space, information technology and inter-group dynamics that support collaboration and coordination between teams. This type of framework will be useful for the design and evaluation of collaborative team environments.