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Office Changes

As you may have read in a newspaper, the math department's Kober-Cogan outpost was forced to relocate because of a sudden change in corporate policy. Space available in the Reiss Science Building is insufficient for my office needs so I decided to seek additional space.

I am glad to report that my new office is open for business! Location: Preclinical Sciences Building, LR3, room 26.

It is my particular hope that this unusual combination of a mathematician with offices in the proximity of people working on physiology, string search algorithms, and protein databases will lead to some unusual synergies.

I would like to be helpful to my colleagues, and I hope to contribute to a better understanding of the mathematical aspects of medicine.

I am currently available on Thursday afternoons and am interested to hear about problems involving combinatorics, algorithms/heuristics, quantitative control of parameters, topological aspects of system design, and especially the user interface.

What's wrong with modern user interfaces?

1. Requires minute precisioning for frequent and trivial tasks
2. Takes no advantage of the extreme speed of current video processors
3. Places dominant intelligence on the desktop rather than in the net
4. Inadequate privacy protection and poor environmental control
5. Often makes the user wait ... and wait and ...
6. Does not allow efficient access to information
7. Cannot adapt to both novice and expert
8. Makes little use of coordinated visual-auditory feedback for action
9. Does not allow smooth and seamless operation including upgrades
10. Can fail to operate for trivial reasons

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Oct. 23, 2003; pck