Faculty Directory

Candace L. Sidner

Research Professor

Office: Fuller Laboratories, B21
Phone: +1-508-831-4997
Fax: +1-508-831-5776
sidner@wpi.edu

Related Information

• Personal page
• Publications

Educational Background

• Ph.D. Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979.
• M.S. Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1975.
• B.A. cum laude Mathematics, Kalamazoo College, 1971

Research & Teaching Interests

artificial intelligence; discourse processing, collaboration; intelligent user interfaces; human-robot interaction, natural language processing

IQP Advising Interests

effect of technology on social systems; philosophy; visual arts

Research

My research concerns human communication and collaboration, and their application to agents, and interfaces, especially those using gesture, social behavior, speech, and natural language. Most recently my work has focused on collaboration and dialogue with humanoid robots about simple hosting tasks, and with on-screen agents for health behavior change.

Recent Publications

• C. Rich and C. Sidner, Robots and Avatars as Hosts, Advisors, Companions, and Jesters, AI magazine, Winter, 2009.

• Rich, C. and Sidner, C. "DiamondHelp: A generic collaborative task guidance system." AI Magazine: Special Issue on Mixed-Initiative Assistants. AI Magazine, pp. 33-46, Summer, 2007.

• Morency, L.P, Sidner, C. Christopher Lee, C. and Darrell, T. "Head Gestures for Perceptual Interfaces: The Role of Context in Improving Recognition," Artificial Intelligence, 171 (8-9): 568-585. June, 2007.

• Rich, C. and Sidner, C. "From the Programmer's Apprentice to Human-Robot Interaction: Thirty Years of Research on Human-Computer Collaboration," Proceedings of AAAI 2006, July, 2006.

• Bickmore, T.W. and Sidner, C.L. Towards plan-based health behavior change counseling systems, Argumentation for Consumers of Healthcare , AAAI Spring Symposium Series, April 2006.

View detailed list

Collaborations

• Prof. Tim Bickmore, Northeastern University, Behavior Change Dialogue Tools
• Prof. Louis-Philippe Morency, Univ of Southern California, Prediction Models of Non Verbal Communication

Honors & Awards

• Fellow, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 1991

Years of Service at WPI

• 2009- present: Research Professor

Professional Experience & Activities

• 2007-present, Division Scientist, BAE Systems AIT;
• 2000-2007, Senior Research Scientist, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories
• 1993-2000, Senior Research Scientist, Lotus Development Corporation
• 1989--1993, Member of Technical Staff, Cambridge Research Lab, Digital Equipment Corp.
• 1990--1991, Research Affiliate, Spoken Language Group, Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT
• 1988--1989, Visiting Scholar, Harvard University.
• 1988--1989, Division Scientist, BBN Laboratories Inc.
• 1983--1988, Senior Scientist, BBN Laboratories Inc.
• 1979--1983, Scientist, Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.

Professional Societies/Memberships

• Member, Association for Computational Linguistics since 1977
• Member, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, since 1983
• Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, since 2004