Research Interests

• Information Visualization

• Computational Aesthetics

•  Interaction Design for Sustainability

• Perception and Design

About

Lyn is an assistant professor in the School of Interactive Art and Technology at SFU, where she is a co-founder and Director of the HVILab. Her theoretical research interests span perception, computational aesthetics and design principles - all applied to  information visualization and human-computer interaction. In particular she is interested in how the rich visual modality of motion and animation can be used in information visualization and affective interfaces.  

 Her practical focus applies these to a number of issues in visualization, most recently how to design and deploy distributed visual environments to help people monitor their energy and resource use in the home.   Together with Rob Woodbury, she is the co-lead of the SFU Team for North house, a fully net-zero solar house entered into the US International Solar Decathlon. Officially a computer scientist, she is equally immersed in perceptual psychology and usability practices. .

Lyn is affiliated with IRMACS (the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences) and is the SFU representative to the WestGrid steering group on advanced collaboration and visualization, which is responsible for initiating and coordinating cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary research for scientific and mathematical high-performance computing. Her background includes both academic and industrial experience, and she consults to industry on an ongoing basis in the areas of usability and user experience. While in industry her work produced five patents pending in interactive systems for mobile collaboration.

Lyn holds a PhD in computing science from Simon Fraser University (SFU), a M.Math. in computer science from the University of Waterloo, and a BA in political science from University of British Columbia.

Website: www.sfu.ca/~lyn