Abstract:

There is a new framework of computing emerging that focuses on computing systems 
interacting with the physical and human world. Classical theories of computation 
reflect models where machines are in well defined states and there are operations 
on those states. The notion of an algorithm which one can loosely consider as a 
sequence of operations provably guaranteed to land in some set of states with some 
frequency is well defined. But once a computing system becomes situated in the 
physical or human world, the notion of state is much more difficult to characterize 
and computing theory and science shifts to being more experimental. 
Interactive computation is the discipline of computing science that attempts to 
model computation in such environments. At Georgia Tech, research in the School of 
Interactive Computing develops theories and technologies that enable the creation of 
computing systems that successfully engage the human and physical worlds. 
I will present our current approach to this paradigm of computation, some of the 
core problems that need to be addressed, and how our computing environment will 
continue to evolve in deep ways that will challenge our notions of what is computing science.