| Start Date: | 10/7/2015 | Start Time: | 3:30 PM |
| End Date: | 10/7/2015 | End Time: | 5:00 PM |
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Event Description
Janet Vertesi, PhD, sociologist of science and technology, Princeton University
Seeing Like a Rover: Visualization, Embodiment and Teamwork on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
How do scientists work with robots millions of miles away to make scientific discoveries on a planet they have never set foot on?A snapshot of life on board one of NASA's most famous mission teams, this talk explores the relationship between representation, embodiment, and social organizations in scientific practice. Drawing on two years of ethnography with the Mars Exploration Rover mission team, I show how science team members learn to "see like a Rover” while working with Spirit and Opportunity. On the one hand, this requires a particular visual fluency with the hundreds of thousands of images that return from the Martian surface, and producing new representations with image processing software to inform each sequence of robot interactions. On the other hand, this visual connection to the Rovers' "eyes" on another planet produces a deeper connection to the robots too: one that ascribes human characteristics to machines, teaches humans to see, move and feel like their robots do, and develops an intimate and embodied understanding of the rovers' experiences on Mars.
Janet Vertesi, PhD, is a sociologist of science and technology at Princeton University, where she is assistant professor in the Sociology Department. She teaches classes on the Sciology of Technology; Sociology of Science; Work, Technology and Organizations; and Human-Computer Interaction. Visit http://janet.vertesi.com for more information about Vertesi.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for STS and the Department of Sociology.
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Location:
Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, Room 106, 3245 Chestnut Street, Philadlephia, PA 19104 |
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