CV

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (October 2008)
  Committee: Brian P. Bailey (advisor), Karrie Karahalios, Michael Twidale, Klara Nahrstedt, and Carl Gutwin
  Dissertation: An Interaction Framework for Managing Applications and Input in Multiple Device Environments

• M.S., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (December 2004)
  Advisor: Brian P. Bailey
  Thesis: Comparing a Textual Interface, Virtual Paths Interface, and Iconic Map Interface for Effective Interaction in an Interactive Workspace

• B.S., Statistics and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (May 2002)
  Graduated with High Distinction Honors

Professional Experience

• School of Computing and Information
  University of Pittsburgh
  Associate Professor (August 2019 - current)
  Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship (home)
  Department of Computer Science (joint)

• FX Palo Alto Laboratory, Inc. (FXPAL)
  Research Scientist (August 2008 – April 2013)
  Senior Research Scientist (April 2013 – April 2019)
  Principal Research Scientist (April 2019 - July 2019)
  Leader, Ambient Computing Research Group (April 2014 – June 2019)

  • Created LocoVisit. Towards a vision of self-service workplaces, LocoVisit is a smartphone application and related cloud services that automate check-in and routing of corporate visitors. Powered by our indoor location framework, LocoVisit monitors the movement and activities of visitors and their hosts. The application provides real-time schedule updates, notifications to relevant parties, and real-time routing to meeting locations. The service also provides corporate security functions, alerting stakeholders when visitors enter spaces not approved for access.
  • Co-created LocoJourney with Fuji Xerox business development team. Working with a major US health care provider, we developed a smartphone application and related cloud services that track patient movement in a women’s health clinic. The application assists in routing patients to correct locations and provides health care workers with awareness of patient progress and wait time. Care providers and patients are also linking through direct communication tools within the app. The application produces long-term statistics on patient flow and client performance.
  • Created Loco and LocoSecure, a trusted location sensing framework. The Loco Framework utilizes common BLE beacons and machine learning classification techniques to provide highly-accurate indoor positioning on everyday devices (e.g. iPhone, Android devices). Further, cryptographic techniques are incorporated to prevent device and application level spoofing of location. This enables more secure application use cases that can’t be supported by standard BLE beacon deployments. The Loco technology is currently deployed as a customer trial with a Fuji Xerox customer in the global banking sector.
  • Created Jarvis, a Robotic Telepresence Device for supporting small group creative work. This device, designed to be placed at a small work table, allows a single remote worker to participate in small team meetings. Evaluations comparing the use of Jarvis to traditional telepresence tools (e.g. Skype) show Jarvis creates a more balanced interaction across remote and local workers. The current prototype of Jarvis is on display at the Fuji Xerox Innovation Center in Singapore and at the Fuji Xerox R&D Square, Yokohama, Japan.
  • Created MyUnity, a workplace awareness framework. MyUnity is a workplace tool to assist workers in finding and communicating with colleagues. It provides presence information and availability across several different communication paths, both virtual and physical. MyUnity employs as a host of in-environment sensors, applications, and network-level monitoring, to summarize communication state of an employee and provides recommendations for channels of, and time for communication.

• Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois
  Research Assistant (August 2004 – July 2008)
  Computer Human Interaction Design Group (ORCHID)

  • Created a new interaction framework to support collaboration in multi-device environments. The framework, IMPROMPTU, supports natural and effective use of digital information artifacts when collaborating within MDEs. Features of the framework include the ability to share a variety of task information across devices via off-the-shelf applications, to enable joint interaction with information for focused problem solving, and to allow different users to place information on shared displays for joint reflection and discussion. The framework was developed using a user-centered design process that included leveraging lessons learned from my prior MDE work, applying known principles of group-work theory, and incorporating user feedback gained through a series of surveys, interviews, and iterative prototyping.
  • Studied how software developers utilize multi-device environments and supporting software to perform their work. Designed and executed a field study with software developers in a major, U.S.-based software company. This study was one of the first to look at multi-device environment use in an authentic setting. The study contributed one of the first evidence-based understandings of how MDEs are used in practice and provided lessons to guide the design of future MDE collaborative software.
  • Designed and evaluated new interaction metaphors for managing information artifacts in multi-device environments. Designed and implemented two new interfaces that utilize a world-in-miniature metaphor. These interfaces, SEAPort and ARIS, enable users to leverage their spatial reasoning abilities when organizing information across devices. Laboratory studies comparing these interfaces against existing interfaces showed users were able to complete management tasks faster and with fewer errors. Our world-in-minute metaphor has influenced other research projects investigating the collaborative use of multiple displays.
  • Developed new and adapted methods for low-fidelity prototyping in multi-device environments. Worked to develop practices for creating and evaluating low-fidelity prototypes for multi-device environments. New techniques can be used to produce higher quality prototypes and lead to better evaluation results.

• Microsoft Research
  Research Intern (Summer 2006)
  Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment Research Group (VIBE)

  Created a new visualization for acquiring and maintaining workspace awareness for software teams. The new visualization and supporting infrastructure, called FASTDash, allows developers to quickly and easily understand where activity is occurring in the shared software code base, what that activity is, and who is performing that activity. A field study was performed which showed FASTDash increased project-related communication, improved aspects of workspace awareness, and reduced reliance on other methods for acquiring and maintaining awareness.

• National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA)
  Research Assistant (Summer 2003)
  Automated Learning Group

  Developed and implemented interface and interaction techniques in REVEAL, a system for visually exploring search results. I was responsible for performing a formal evaluation of the interface using standard metrics of interface evaluation. Evaluation was used to make usability modifications to the system’s design.

Publications

ARIS: An Interface for Application Relocation in an Interactive Space

Biehl, J.T., & Bailey, B.P.. 2004. "ARIS: An Interface for Application Relocation in an Interactive Space." In Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2004 (GI '04). Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society, School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. pp. 107-116.

A Toolset for Creating Iconic Interfaces for Interactive Workspaces

Biehl J.T. & Bailey B.P. 2005. "A Toolset for Creating Iconic Interfaces for Interactive Workspaces." In: Costabile M.F., Paternò F. (eds) IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT 2005). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3585. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Improving Interfaces for Collaborative Work in Multiple-Device Environments

Biehl, J.T. and Bailey, B.P. 2006. "Improving Interfaces for Collaborative Work in Multiple-Device Environments." In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 35-42.

Achieving Accurate Room-Level Indoor Location Estimation with Emerging IoT Networks

Biehl, J.T. and Bailey, B.P. 2006. "Improving Scalability and Awareness in Iconic Interfaces for Multiple-Device Environments." In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 91-94.

Comparing an Iconic Interface to a Text-based and Virtual Paths Interface for Effective Interaction in an Interactive Workspace

Biehl, J. & Bailey, B. 2006. "Comparing an Iconic Interface to a Text-based and Virtual Paths Interface for Effective Interaction in an Interactive Workspace." In E. Pearson & P. Bohman (Eds.), In Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (EdMedia'06). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC pp. 581-586.

Adapting Paper Prototyping for Designing User Interfaces for Multiple Display Environments

Bailey, B.P., Biehl, J.T., Cook, D.J., & Metcalf, H.E. "Adapting Paper Prototyping for Designing User Interfaces for Multiple Display Environments;. Pers Ubiquit Comput (2008) 12: 269.

FASTDash: A Visual Dashboard for Fostering Awareness in Software Teams

Biehl, J.T., M. Czerwinski, G. Smith & Robertson, G.G. "FASTDash: A Visual Dashboard for Fostering Awareness in Software Teams." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '07). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 1313-1322.

IMPROMPTU: A New Interaction Framework for Supporting Collaboration in Multiple Display Environments and Its Field Evaluation for Co-located Software Development

Biehl, J.T., W.T. Baker, B.P. Bailey, D.S. Tan, K. Inkpen & Czerwinski, M. 2008. "IMPROMPTU: A New Interaction Framework for Supporting Collaboration in Multiple Display Environments and Its Field Evaluation for Co-located Software Development." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 939-948.

Understanding the Benefits of Gaze Enhanced Visual Search

Qvarfordt, P., Biehl, J.T., Golovchinsky, G., & Dunningan, T. 2010. "Understanding the Benefits of Gaze Enhanced Visual Search." In Proceedings of the 2010 Symposium on Eye-Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 283-290.

Let’s Go From The Whiteboard: Supporting Transitions in Work Through Whiteboard Capture and Reuse

Branham, S., Golovchinsky, G., Carter, S. Biehl, J.T. 2010. "Let's Go From The Whiteboard: Supporting Transitions in Work Through Whiteboard Capture and Reuse." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 75-84.

Exploring the Workplace Communication Ecology

Turner, T., Qvarfordt, P., Biehl, J.T., Golovchinsky, G., & Back, M.B. 2010. "Exploring the Workplace Communication Ecology." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 841-850.

Secured Histories for Presence Systems

Rieffel, E. Biehl, J.T. van Melle, W., & Lee, A. J. "Secured Histories for Presence Systems." In Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), Philadelphia, PA, 2011, pp. 446-456.

Beyond ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’: Towards the Design of Awareness Technologies for the Contemporary Worker

Wiese, J., Biehl, J.T., Turner, T., van Melle, W., Girgensohn, A. 2011. "Beyond 'Yesterday's Tomorrow': Towards the Design of Awareness Technologies for the Contemporary Worker." In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 455-464.

When Privacy and Utility are in Harmony: Towards Better Design of Presence Technologies

Biehl, J.T., Lee, A.J. & Filby, G. "When Privacy and Utility are in Harmony: Towards Better Design of Presence Technologies". Pers Ubiquit Comput (2013) 17: 503.

Learning How to Feel Again: Towards Affective Workplace Presence and Communication Technologies

Xu, A., Biehl, J.T. Rieffel, E., Turner, T., & van Melle, W. 2012. "Learning How to Feel Again: Towards Affective Workplace Presence and Communication Technologies." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 839-848.

Understanding Screen Contents for Building a High Performance, Real Time Screen Sharing System

Chandra, S., Biehl, J.T., Boreczky, J., Carter, S., & Rowe, L.A. 2012. "Understanding Screen Contents for Building a High Performance, Real Time Screen Sharing System." In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (MM '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 389-398.

Private Aggregation for Presence Streams

Rieffel, E.G., Biehl, J.T., Lee, A.J. & van Melle, W. "Private Aggregation for Presence Streams". Future Generation Computing Systems (2014). pp. 169-181.

LoCo: A Ready-to-Deploy Framework for Efficient Room Localization Using Wi-Fi

Biehl, J.T., Cooper, M., Filby, G., & Kratz, S. 2014. "LoCo: A Ready-to-Deploy Framework for Efficient Room Localization Using Wi-Fi." In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 183-187.

Not Really There: Understanding Embodied Communication Affordances in Team Perception and Participation

Biehl, J.T., Avrahami, D., & Dunnigan, A. 2015. "Not Really There: Understanding Embodied Communication Affordances in Team Perception and Participation." In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 1567-1575.

You’re Where? Prove It!: Towards Trusted Indoor Location Estimation of Mobile Devices.

Biehl, J.T., Lee, A.J., Filby, G., & Cooper, M. 2015. "You're Where? Prove It!: Towards Trusted Indoor Location Estimation of Mobile Devices." In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 909-919.

LoCo: Boosting for Indoor Location Classification Combining Wi-Fi and BLE

Cooper, M., Biehl, J.T. , Filby, G., Kratz, S. "LoCo: Boosting for Indoor Location Classification Combining Wi-Fi and BLE". Pers Ubiquit Comput (2016) 20: 83.

Taking 5: Work-Breaks, Productivity, and Opportunities for Personal Informatics for Knowledge Workers

Epstein, D.A., Avrahami, D., & Biehl, J.T. 2016. "Taking 5: Work-Breaks, Productivity, and Opportunities for Personal Informatics for Knowledge Workers." In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 673-684.

Optimizing Placement and Number of RF Beacons to Achieve Better Indoor Localization

R. Falque, R., Patel, M., & Biehl, J. "Optimizing Placement and Number of RF Beacons to Achieve Better Indoor Localization." 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, QLD, 2018, pp. 2304-2311.

Sensing or Watching?: Balancing Utility and Privacy in Sensing Systems via Collection and Enforcement Mechanisms

Lee, A.J., Biehl, J.T. & Curry, C. 2018. "Sensing or Watching?: Balancing Utility and Privacy in Sensing Systems via Collection and Enforcement Mechanisms." In Proceedings of the 23nd ACM on Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies (SACMAT '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 105-116.

Fusing Map Information with a Probabilistic Sensor Model for Indoor Localization Using RF Beacons

Patel, M., Girgensohn, A. & and Biehl, J.T. "Fusing Map Information with a Probabilistic Sensor Model for Indoor Localization Using RF Beacons," International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN '18), Nantes, 2018, pp. 1-8.

A Radio-Inertial Localization and Tracking System with BLE Beacons Prior Maps

Jadidi, M. G., Patel, M., Miro, J. V., Dissanayake, G., Biehl, J.T. & Girgensohn, A. "A Radio-Inertial Localization and Tracking System with BLE Beacons Prior Maps," International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN '18), Nantes, 2018, pp. 206-212.

Anchor of Trust: Towards Collusion-Resistant Trusted Indoor Location for Enterprise and Industrial Use

Biehl, J.T., Lee, A.J. & Filby, G. "Anchor of Trust: Towards Collusion-Resistant Trusted Indoor Location for Enterprise and Industrial Use". Pers Ubiquit Comput (2019).

Achieving Accurate Room-Level Indoor Location Estimation with Emerging IoT Networks

Biehl, J.T., Girgensohn, A. & Patel, M. "Achieving Accurate Room-Level Indoor Location Estimation with Emerging IoT Networks," In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Internet of Things (IOT '19), Bilbao, 2019.

United States Patents

• 8,311,279. System and method for improved image analysis through gaze data feedback. Inventors: P. Quarfordt, J.T. Biehl, G. Golovchinsky. Issued: November 11, 2012.

• 8,334,902. System and method for facilitating the use of whiteboards. Inventors: G. Golovchinsky, S. Carter, J.T. Biehl, L. Denoue. Issued: December 12, 2012.

• 8,838,684. System and Method for Determining a Presence State of a Person. Inventors: J.T. Biehl, A. Turner, P. Quarfordt, A. Dunnigan, W. van Melle, G. Golovchinsky. Issued: September 16, 2014.

• 8,862,895. A System and Methods for Communication, Storage, Retrieval, and Computation of Simple Statistics and Logical Operations on Encrypted Data. Inventors: E. Rieffel, J.T. Biehl, M. Back. Issued: October 14, 2014.

• 8,949,769. Spatial Layout of Hierarchical Shared Resources. Inventors: J.T. Biehl, G.G. Robertson, G.R. Smith, and M.P. Czerwinski. Issued: February 3, 2015.

• 8,954,372. System and Methods for Using Presence Data to Estimate Affect and Communication Preference for Use in a Presence System. Inventors: J.T. Biehl, E. Rieffel, A. Turner, W. van Melle. A. Xu. Issued: February 10, 2015.

• 8,965,977. System and Method for Determining a Presence State of a Person. Inventors: J.T. Biehl, A. Turner, P. Quarfordt, A. Dunnigan, W. van Melle, G. Golovchinsky. Issued: February 24, 2015.

• 8,990,319. System and Method for Coordinating Communication Events Using Computer-Assisted Structured Interaction. Inventors: J. Wiese, J.T. Biehl, T. Turner. Issued: March 24, 2015.

• 9,385,985. Systems and methods for assisting users with contact, access, and distribution lists. Inventors: M.L. Cooper and J.T. Biehl, E. Rieffel, S. Carman. Issued: July 5, 2016.

• 9,408,040. Systems and Methods for Room-Level Location using WiFi. Inventors: M.L. Cooper and J.T. Biehl. Issued: August 2, 2016.

• 9,491,588. Systems and Methods for Mobile Device Location Verification using Beacons. Inventors: J.T. Biehl, M.L. Cooper, and G. Filby. Issued: November 8, 2016.

• 9,503,682. Systems and methods for conveying physical state of a remote device. Inventors: D. Avrahami, J.T. Biehl, and A. Dunnigan. Issued: November 22, 2016.

• 9,813,672. Systems and methods for conveying physical state of a remote device. Inventors: D. Avrahami, J.T. Biehl, and A. Dunnigan. Issued: November 7, 2017.

Teaching

CS 3570 Advanced Topics in User Interface Design

Professional Membership, Service, and Awards

• Senior Member, Association of Computing Machinery (elevated May 2016)
• First Place, Siebel Computing Habitat Design Competition (May 2007)
• Verizon Graduate Fellowship (2002 & 2003)
• Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award (2003, 2004, & 2005)
• Illinois Campus Excellent Teaching Assistant Award (as determined by students, Spring 2003 & Fall 2003)
• CSCW Associate Chair (2014, 2019)
• INTERACT Program Committee (2009)
• CHI Special Interest Group Program Committee (2009)
• CHI Notes Associate Chair (2008)
• UIST Student Volunteer Co-Chair (2006)
• Associate Editor, ACM Crossroads (2005-2007)