Johanna Brewer is a developer, designer,

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

and professor at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

. Brewer was a co-founder and CEO of Frestyl. In 2014, they started work on a tracking toolkit for home automation systems with a special focus on user privacy. In 2016, they founded a research and design studio called Neta Snook, focusing on the creation of technology that works towards a diverse society. In spring 2019, they started as a research associate and postdoctoral researcher at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. Their research areas include

ubiquitous computing Ubiquitous computing (or "ubicomp") is a concept in software engineering, hardware engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear seamlessly anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing imp ...

and human-computer interaction, social connectivity and how technology functions in society.

Education

Johanna Brewer graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science and Philosophy and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. They then acquired a PhD in Informatics and Computer Science at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

where they also worked as a staff researcher. One area of their research in this time focused on

urban computing Urban computing is an interdisciplinary field which pertains to the study and application of computing technology in urban areas. This involves the application of wireless networks, sensors, computational power, and data to improve the quality of de ...

and mobility in urban spaces. They did ethnographic studies on inclusivity and diversity in the online gaming scene, as well as on public transportation, and helped create a new interface for a molecular simulator on the Swiss National Supercomputer. They also developed a real-time tracking system for radiation therapy at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

Publications

* Brewer, Johanna, Dourish, Paul (2008): Storied spaces: Cultural accounts of mobility, technology, and environmental knowing. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 20 (12) pp. 963–976. * Bassoli, Arianna, Brewer, Johanna, Martin, Karen, Dourish, Paul, Mainwaring, Scott D. (2007): Underground Aesthetics: Rethinking Urban Computing. In IEEE Pervasive Computing, 6 (3) pp. 39–45. * Dourish, Paul, Brewer, Johanna, Bell, Genevieve (2005): Information as a cultural category. In Interactions, 12 (4) pp. 31–33. * Brewer, Johanna, Williams, Amanda, Dourish, Paul (2007): A handle on what\'s going on: combining tangible interfaces and ambient displays for colla. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, 2007, pp. 3–10. * Brewer, Johanna, Mainwaring, Scott, Dourish, Paul (2008): Aesthetic journeys. In: Proceedings of DIS08 Designing Interactive Systems, 2008, pp. 333–341. * Brewer, Johanna, Williams, Amanda, Dourish, Paul (2007): A handle on what's going on: combining tangible interfaces and ambient displays for collab. In: Ullmer, Brygg, Schmidt, Albrecht (eds.) Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, February 15–17, 2007, 2007, pp. 3–10.

Reference list

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewer, Johanna American computer scientists American women academics American women computer scientists University of California alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women scientists Boston University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology staff