CAREER: A collaboration coach with effective intervention strategies to optimize group performance.

许多员工质疑工作场所会议的有效性，尽管它们对协作决策很重要。 有时与会者很难保持专注，或者一个人主导了谈话;在这两种情况下，生产力都会下降。 召开会议和促进所有人有效参与的能力受到主观和不可量化因素的影响，如关系动态、性别偏见和接受批评的意愿。 这项研究将探讨是否有可能通过使用非个人实体（计算机）来避免这些并发症，以进行小组会议，并提供现场和会后反馈，使参与者能够保持主题，平等参与，并密切倾听对方，同时生成有关过程的分析。 将在本研究中开发的框架可以作为提高会议效率和有效性的工具，同时开辟了设计干预措施的可能性，为那些难以在群体环境中维护自己的人设计干预措施。 在会议期间提供实时反馈需要实时识别和分析所感测的数据，但只有当其解释不会对参与者造成认知过载时，实时反馈才有价值。本研究将有助于设计有效而不分散注意力的实时反馈。 项目的研究结果也将适用于在线学习的背景下，其中计算机服务员可以平等地参与每一个学生。 除了标准化的考试成绩外，计算机还可以对学生提出问题、有效参与和保持积极态度的能力进行客观分析。 承认学生的努力可能会对他们的成绩产生积极影响。 项目发现可能有助于虚拟助理（如Alexa或Google Home）通过适当和尊重的干预策略调解对话，此外，它们可能会深入了解性别和种族多样性在提高团队绩效方面所发挥的作用。 人类行为的相互作用（例如，面部表情、语调、语言、打断、参与率和话轮转换）被认为是微妙的，有时是矛盾的，并且常常是令人困惑的。 这些行为可能是高度个体特定的，如果要自动利用它们进行有效的会议调解，可能需要具有实时性能的时间建模。 虽然在开发算法基准时原始感测的数字是有用的，但它们对用户的价值很少。 这项研究将使用以人为中心的计算原理来可视化，解释和揭示原始行为数据的见解。 特别是，以下研究问题将在在线视频会议的背景下使用以人为本的方法来解决：1）存在哪些可能的调解策略，以避免对人类参与者造成破坏和不尊重; 2）哪种最有帮助：现场反馈，会后反馈，两者结合，或者根本没有反馈; 3）我们能否实施自动化流程来提高会议效率？4）反馈是否以任何可衡量的方式提高了团队绩效？该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Many employees question the effectiveness of workplace meetings, despite their importance to collaborative decision-making. Sometimes attendees have trouble staying focused, or else one individual dominates the conversation; in both cases, productivity is down. The ability to conduct a meeting and foster effective participation by all is influenced by subjective and unquantifiable factors such as relationship dynamics, gender biases, and willingness to accept criticism. This research will explore whether it may be possible to avoid these complications by using an impersonal entity - the computer - to conduct group meetings and provide both live and post-meeting feedback that enables participants to stay on topic, take part equally, and listen closely to one another, all while generating analytics about the process. The framework that will be developed in this research may serve as a tool for improving meeting efficiency and effectiveness, while opening up the possibility of designing interventions for individuals with Asperger syndrome or social phobia who find it difficult to assert themselves in group settings. Providing live feedback during a meeting will require real-time recognition and analysis of the sensed data, but live feedback is only valuable when its interpretation does not impose a cognitive overload on the participants. This research will make contributions on designing live feedback that is effective yet not distractive. Project findings will also be applicable in the context of online learning, where a computer facilitator could engage every student equally. In addition to standardized test scores, computers can also create objective analytics on, for example, students' ability to ask questions, participate effectively and maintain a positive attitude. Recognizing students for their effort may positively impact their scores. Project findings may help virtual assistants (such as Alexa or Google Home) mediate conversations with appropriate and respectful intervention strategies, and in addition they may yield insights into the role played by gender and racial diversity in improving team performance. The interplay of human behaviors (e.g., facial expression, tone of voice, language, interruptions, participation rates, and turn-taking) is considered subtle, sometimes contradictory, and often confusing. These behaviors can be highly individual-specific, and may require temporal modeling with real-time performance if they are to be harnessed automatically for effective meeting mediation. While the raw sensed numbers are useful when developing algorithm benchmarks, they add very little value for users. This research will use principles of human centric computing to visualize, interpret and reveal insights from raw behavioral data. In particular, the following research questions will be addressed using human-centric approaches in the context of online video conferencing: 1) What possible mediation strategies exist that avoid being disruptive and disrespectful to human participants; 2) Which is most helpful: live feedback, post-meeting feedback, a combination of both, or no feedback at all; 3) Can we implement an automated process to facilitate meeting productivity; and 4) Does feedback improve group performance in any measurable way?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.