Events
Past Event
The Car as a Vehicle for Understanding Interaction at Scale
Segal Design Institute
3:00 PM
Details
In much of the human world, cars are a part of everyday life. While many researchers study people in cars to understand driving performance, or, more recently, trust or supervisory control of automation, the car can also be a way for better understanding a wider array of human-machine interaction issues. Cars are relatively easy to come by, easy to instrument, and enable relatively simple collection of longitudinal data across a diverse population of participants.
In my research group, we use the car to better understand human interaction at scale. For example, we address interruption, error recognition and recovery and multi-party interaction by using the car as a on-road laboratory to develop generalizable understandings of task, communication and social context. Additionally, we use driving simulation as a way to explore contingent interaction between multiple parties, and to explore how those interaction patterns differ across different geographical contexts. Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been using the car to gather large datasets of public activity, to better understand differences and patterns for example in social-distancing behavior. In this talk, I will survey my lab's research activity and detail novel methods we are developing to tackle the challenge of understanding interaction at large.
Wendy Ju is an Associate Professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion and in the Information Science field at Cornell University. Her work in the areas of human-robot interaction and automated vehicle interfaces highlights the ways that interactive devices can be designed to be safer, more predictable, and more socially appropriate. Professor Ju has innovated numerous methods for early-stage prototyping of automated systems to understand how people will respond to systems before the systems are built. She has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, and a Master’s in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.
Time
Monday, November 1, 2021 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Segal Design Institute
Center for Synthetic Biology presents: Dario Robleto | Ancient Beacons Long for Notice
Block Museum of Art
3:00 PM
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Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh
Details
The Center for Synthetic Biology, in collaboration with the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern, is pleased to welcome Dario Robleto, award-winning multi-media artist, for a screening of his film Ancient Beacons Long for Notice. This third part of Robleto’s trilogy explores the legacy of the “Golden Record”—a gold disc representing Earth's diverse life and cultures, sent beyond our solar system on NASA’s Voyager space probes. The film asks a core question:“ is our moral obligation to fully account for our actions—the good and the bad—in perpetuity, off-planet, and to beings we have yet to confirm exist?” A community conversation after the screening will explore this question in the context of synthetic biology’s history, encouraging us to consider its ethical implications as we forecast the future.
Dario Robleto’s work has been widely exhibited and is held in prominent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. A portfolio of the artists prints titled The First Time, The Heart (A Portrait of Life 1854–1913) was acquired by the Block in 2018 with support of Northwestern Engineering. His work has also been featured in numerous media outlets, including Krista Tippett’s On Being and The New York Times. Robleto has held numerous artist-in-residence positions at prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. In 2025, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Middlebury College.
From 2018 to 2023, Robleto Served as Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and the Block Museum of Art, where he developed and screened the first two parts of his trilogy about the history of the heart and the Golden Record. The residency culminated in the exhibition The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto, as well as a publication of the same name. During his time at Northwestern, Robleto built strong ties with the Center for Synthetic Biology and explored the intersection of art, technology, and ethics in society.
This event leads up to the Center for Synthetic Biology’s 10-year Anniversary, where Robleto is leading the development of a time capsule representing the future of synthetic biology at Northwestern and in the world.
Event Details - Northwestern University, Evanston Campus
📅 Wednesday, April 15, 2026
🕒 3:00–5:00 PM | Film Screening & Discussion
📍 The Block Museum of Art
Time
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh Map
Contact
Calendar
Block Museum of Art