Summary

Reducing our ecological footprint requires not only new energy technologies but also new and more efficient energy use. But changing the way we use energy is proving challenging. A key part of this includes the homes we live in. Our research is concerned with how we can use interactive and mobile technologies to help residents make better energy and resource use decisions. In this talk, i will introduce some of the issues and describe our work on ALIS, the interactive system we have built for use in sustainable homes. I'll briefly discuss how we applied this in two recent highly efficient houses: NOrth House, the 2009 4th place entry in the International Solar decathlon, and West House, our newest industry-academic collaboration. Recently showcased at the 2010 Olympics, West House just relocated to its permanent site as a technology research space and an occupied living lab to further prototype and study residential methods to support sustainable living. I will discuss challenges and opportunities for carrying out this kind of work in the field. Finally, I'll conclude with a report on a study of ambient artistic visualizations for in-home displays, and use the opportunity to do a dry run of ann upcoming short conference presentation.

Biography

Lyn Bartram is an assistant professor at SFU's School of Interactive Art+Technology. She has had a somewhat varied career, starting with a BA in Political Science from UBC and detouring for a number of years into the murky depths of the music business before going straight, getting a Masters at the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Computer Science with Tom Calvert at SFU. Her research interests centre around HCI, visualization and more generally how complex information systems may help or hinder peoples' lives. With Rob Woodbury, she founded and leads the Human-Centred Systems for Sustainability Research group, and occasionally undertakes overly ambitious projects.