May 9th, 2024: Exploring immersive meetings in the Metaverse: A conceptual model and first empirical
insights
Marvin Grabowski, PhD Candidate, University of Hamburg, Germany
Start Date: May 9th, 12:30PM
End Date: May 9th, 1:30PM
Location: In Person (HBK 2105) and Virtual, Register Here!
Abstract:
New technological developments open up new possibilities for the way teams can work together virtually. In particular, immersive extended reality (XR) meetings enable groups to represent, view, and interact with each other in a shared three-dimensional (3D) space. XR meetings take place in the highly publicized "metaverse", defined as a multi-user interaction space that merges the virtual world with the real world (e.g., Dwivedi et al., 2022). By wearing a headset that blocks off perception from their current physical environment, group members become immersed into a shared virtual environment (i.e., the metaverse). Users generate realistic embodied avatars that are qualitatively different from two-dimensional (2D) video interactions, such as Zoom (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al., 2023). We developed a conceptual framework of 3D immersive XR group meetings that integrates technological design characteristics, subjective attendee experiences, mediating mechanisms, and meeting outcomes. I am going to present our preliminary findings on meeting outcomes and individual XR experiences (i.e., group interaction characteristics, avatar perception, simulator sickness, and task load). Following the talk, you are cordially invited to discuss about opportunities and challenges of the metaverse as a platform for enabling immersive learning scenarios and conducting workplace meetings in the future.
Bio:
My research as a current PhD Candidate at University of Hamburg, Germany, highlights the future of workplace meetings. Between the interface of Industrial & Organizational Psychology and Human Computer Interaction, the immersive experience through VR glasses opens up new interdisciplinary perspectives. In particular, I am interested in underlying mechanisms of fruitful interactions in immersive meetings in the metaverse. Furthermore, I am interested in success factors of hybrid meetings with the goal of gaining new insights into how the new framework of New Work can be used practically Based on national and international academic stations, I am happy to build bridges between organizational needs and scientific findings. In addition, I am a speaker on career guidance and professional orientation after high-school and published the book “Early Life Crisis”.
May 17th, 2024: Interactive Team Cognition for Humans and Machines
Nancy J. Cooke, Professor Human Systems Engineering, Chief Scientist Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence, and Robot Teaming
Start Date: May 17th, 12PM
End Date: May 17th, 1PM
Location: Virtual, Register Here!
Abstract:
A team is a heterogeneous group of team members, each with their own roles and responsibilities who come together to achieve a common goal. Team cognition is the joint processing of information by a team that produces knowledge and actions, beyond what an individual could produce. In this talk I will report on team cognition research that I have conducted in my lab over the last 28 years leading to the theory of Interactive Team Cognition and four discoveries that include: the importance of team interaction; the use of perturbations to improve team cognition; what it takes to be a good team player; and the power of a single teammate or coordination coaching. In addition, I will suggest some future directions for this work that include a focus on team-level measurement and extension of team cognition to human, artificial intelligence, and robot teaming.
Bio:
Nancy J. Cooke is a professor in Human Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She is also Chief Scientist of the Global Security Initiative’s Center for Human, AI, and Robot Teaming. Professor Cooke’s research interests include the study of individual and team cognition and its application to the development of cognitive and knowledge engineering methodologies, remotely piloted aircraft systems, human-robot teaming, healthcare systems, and emergency response systems. She specializes in the development, application, and evaluation of methodologies to elicit and assess individual and team cognition. Ongoing projects in her group include coordination of human-autonomy teams in the face of unexpected events, Human-Robot Teaming and Situation Awareness, and Human-Machine Teaming for Next Generation Combat Vehicle, Artificial Social Intelligence. Her work is funded by DoD and has been widely published.
March 15th, 2024: Gamification for Team Science & Human-AI Teaming
Josh Strauss, ABD, University of Maryland
Abstract:
An online, multiplayer, gamified task platform was developed to elicit team processes and output detailed log data for both behaviors and outcomes. This task is currently being employed in two ongoing studies. The first study seeks to understand the role of culture on team behavior. The second study aims to deepen understanding of team cognition by assessing the relationship between mental representations’ compatibility (as opposed to similarity, overlap, or distribution) and important consequences: coordination and performance. These studies will be presented as a backdrop for a discussion about the task platform’s utility and flexibility for research on teams in general, and human-AI teaming in particular.
Bio:
Josh Strauss is currently a doctoral candidate in the Social, Decision, and Organizational Science program in UMD’s Psychology Department, and a DEI Consultant at CIDIS LLC. He also holds an MS from the same program and a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Davis in Psychology, Communication, Organizational Sociology, and Linguistics. His research employs multilevel, process-oriented theory and methods primarily related to diversity or team science. Both his work and practice converge in advancing Josh’s larger goal of empowering people to come together in compassion and cooperation.
February 23rd, 2024: The X-Culture Global Research Platform: Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned
Vas Taras, PhD, Professor of International Business, Department Chair, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Abstract:
X-Culture is a large-scale international collaboration project. Approximately 7,000 students from 150 universities in 70 countries on six continents participate in X-Culture each semester, and over 110,000 students have completed the program since it launched in 2010.
X-Culture provides a unique opportunity to study work in international teams and on global crowdsourcing platforms.
X-Culture collects immense amounts of data, tracking over 3,000 variables, many measured longitudinally, at multiple levels, and using multiple data sources. Over 800 researchers worldwide in involved in X-Culture’s research projects in various capacities.
The presentation will share details about and lessons learned from X-Culture research, as well as about applications of the findings for crowdsourcing-based international business consulting.
Bio:
Vas Taras is a Professor of International Business and a Department Chair at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the Vice President-Administration of the Academy of International Business and the founder of the X-Culture Project. He received his Ph.D. in International HR and International Business from the University of Calgary, Canada, and his Master’s in Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of HRM, Journal of International Management, the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, the European Journal of International Management, and Cross-Cultural Strategic Management. Vas has lived, worked, and studied in half a dozen countries and has experience as an academic, manager, entrepreneur, and business consultant.
January 26th, 2024: Human-Agent Team Trust Dynamics
Daniel Nguyen, Ph.D., Florida Institute of Technology
Abstract:
As human and machine collaboration become more common in this era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, some of these interactions are founded on principles of teamwork. In studying and enhancing the effectiveness of these human-agent teams (HATs), many questions come to light about the differences in which humans work with their agent team members. One focal area of research in the field centers around trust. In a three-year effort funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, this research grant seeks to apply traditional organizational theories of teaming (e.g., multilevel theory, Kozlowski & Klein, 2000; event systems theory, Morgeson et al., 2015) to understand team level trust in HATs, as well as unobtrusive methods for measuring human trust in their agent team members. This talk shares results from the first two years. In year one, a theoretical framework of multi-level trust in HATs was developed based on a systematic literature review. In year two, an experiment was conducted to validate part of the framework, focusing on the multi-level and event-based characteristics of trust violations and how they propagate the degradation of human trust in agent team members.
Bio:
Daniel Nguyen is a recent doctoral graduate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He received his B.A. in Psychology at Texas A&M University in 2017, then went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D. in I/O Psychology at Florida Tech in 2020 and 2023. His research interests and experiences are focused on work teams, with a focus on human-agent teaming (HAT) which has led him to a broader interest in related human-factors topics such as human-performance and trust in automation. During his time at Florida Tech, he served as the team lead for a research grant funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. This 3-year grant was aimed at creating and validating a multilevel framework of team-level trust in HATs and unobtrusively measuring this team-level trust. His work on this topic includes 8 conference presentations, 4 publications, and 4 invited talks. Currently, Daniel works at Aptima Inc. as an Associate Scientist, and continues to be involved in HAT research in applied settings.