computer science

Rebecca Grinter

Rebecca Grinter is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rebecca Grinter rather than just read about it. In short: Rebecca Elizabeth "Beki" Grinter is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She is affiliated with the RIM@GT, the GVU Center and the Scheller College of Business.

Key takeaways

Rebecca Grinter belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rebecca Grinter to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rebecca Grinter from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rebecca Elizabeth "Beki" Grinter is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She is affiliated with the RIM@GT, the GVU Center and the Scheller College of Business. Grinter's research lies generally in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). She has chaired and published papers in top-tier academic conferences in these fields. Her research and expert opinion on technology have also been reported in major news media sources.

Early life and education Grinter was born in Norwich, England, UK, and attended the City of Norwich School and Hethersett High School. She pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1991 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science. Following this, Grinter received an EPSRC fellowship to study at the University of California, Irvine, where she earned a M.S. (1994) and a Ph.D. (1996), both in Information and Computer Science. As a graduate student, Grinter was influenced by David Parnas, whose work in software engineering spoke to Grinter's burgeoning interest in the relationship between humans and software. Grinter's dissertation, titled, "Understanding Dependencies: A Study of the Coordination Challenges in Software Development", was chaired by Jonathan Grudin.

Research career Upon receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, Grinter worked at Bell Labs in Naperville, Illinois as a Technical Staff Member from 1996 to 2000. She then left Bell Labs to accept a position as a Research Staff Member at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) from 2000 to 2004. At PARC, Grinter supervised a study of iTunes use in the workplace whose results were reported in The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other major news outlets. One of the study's contributions was to show that "playlist anxiety" occurs in the workplace and not only in collegiate settings. In 2004, Grinter transitioned from industrial to academic research and joined the faculty of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech as an associate professor. At Georgia Tech, she founded and currently directs the Work2Play Lab in the GVU Center. In 2006, Grinter served as the Research Papers Co-chair for CHI, the most prestigious academic conference in the field of HCI. Her research and expert opinion on technology have been reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MSNBC, and CNN.

Research interests Grinter's research lies generally in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Her earlier work dealt with the challenges of distributed software engineering, while her more recent work has focused on HCI, CSCW, and ubiquitous computing applications beyond the workplace, including instant messaging and SMS usage among teenagers, museum visitor behavior, technologies for religion, and domestic computing opportunities. Grinter is a proponent of qualitative and empirical research methods, often conducting interviews and ethnographic studies to understand intersections between humans and technologies. One of Grinter's best-known publications, "Instant Messaging in Teen Life", coauthored with Leysia Palen, was reported as one of the 15 most-downloaded papers on the ACM Digital Library for the year of 2006.

Awards and honors 2009: ACM Distinguished Member

References

External links Grinter's Academic Home Page Work2Play Lab Archived 2008-03-16 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rebecca Grinter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rebecca Grinter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rebecca Grinter before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rebecca Grinter ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rebecca Grinter

In research: Rebecca Grinter appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rebecca Grinter in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rebecca Grinter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American women, Alumni of the University of Leeds, American computer scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rebecca Grinter outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Rebecca Grinter in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rebecca Grinter means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rebecca Grinter out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rebecca Grinter in simple terms?

Why does Rebecca Grinter matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rebecca Grinter?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rebecca Grinter.