Stanford CS547 HCI Seminar | Winter 2026 | Computational Ecosystems

Fundamental limitations of current approaches

Despite decades of computing advances, persistent human problems like effective student mentoring remain unsolved because the socio-technical practices themselves are broken, not just the supporting tools.

Redesign ecosystems, not just artifacts

True innovation requires reimagining entire socio-technical configurations and workflows rather than simply building better optimizers or interfaces.

Reflection as methodology

Drawing on Philip Agre's concept of "critical technical practice," designers must engage in ongoing reflection on their values and the inherent limitations of how they currently work.

Community-informed event planning

By engaging over 1,500 community members to source preferences and constraints, a new mixed-initiative approach reduced academic conference planning time by more than an order of magnitude while resolving hundreds of hidden conflicts.

Flexible crowd coordination

The "Hit or Wait" system applies decision theory to ping volunteers opportunistically based on their location and convenience, achieving near-optimal outcomes for local services like lost-and-found without rigid directives or chaotic volunteerism.

Listening for opportunities

Effective coordination requires listening for when contributions align with both individual convenience and collective goals rather than enforcing predetermined workflows.

Opportunistic Collective Experiences

OCEs replace passive social media scrolling with context-aware shared activities, proving as connecting as direct messaging but with lower initiation barriers and enabling novel experiences like synchronized sunset watching across time zones.

Learning from professional code

The Isopleth tool transforms complex professional websites into interactive learning resources, allowing novice developers to learn directly from production code rather than simplified tutorials.

Technology as expression of care

These redesigned ecosystems empower users to express care—whether shaping conferences, helping neighbors, or maintaining distant friendships—by creating new human practices rather than merely adding features.