W. Keith Edwards is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the School of Interactive Computing at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

(Georgia Tech) and Director of the GVU Center at Georgia Tech. Edwards’ research lies generally in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and

computer-supported cooperative work Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is the study of how people utilize technology collaboratively, often towards a shared goal. CSCW addresses how computer systems can support collaborative activity and coordination. More specifically, the ...

(CSCW). He has chaired and published papers in top-tier academic conferences in these fields.

Early life and education

Edwards was born in Fredericksburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

and grew up in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. After finishing High School, Edwards completed a B.S. in

Information and Computer Science Computer and information science (CIS; also known as information and computer science) is a field that emphasizes ''both'' computing and informatics, upholding the strong association between the fields of information sciences and computer scienc ...

, a

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

. During his graduate career, Edwards interned at

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

and Olivetti Research Center. As a graduate student, Edwards was influenced by

Saul Greenberg Saul Greenberg (born 1954) is a computer scientist, a Faculty Professor and Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary. He was awarded ACM Fellowship in 2012 for contributions to computer supported cooperative work and ubiquitous computing. ...

, whose work in

Computer Supported Cooperative Work Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is the study of how people utilize technology collaboratively, often towards a shared goal. CSCW addresses how computer systems can support collaborative activity and coordination. More specifically, the ...

spoke to his own interest of understanding how what is written into the infrastructure of a software systems and its services effects the human interaction possibilities. Edwards’ graduate research culminated with his dissertation, titled “Coordination Infrastructure in Collaborative Systems.”

Career

Upon receiving his Ph.D. Edwards spent nine years in the Computer Science Laboratory at

Xerox PARC Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...

, initially as a member of research staff and ending his career there as Manager of the

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 ...

group. While at PARC Edwards wrote Core Jini, an authoritative text for implementing Jini based systems. During his tenure as manager, his group conducted a study of

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

use, and the

zeroconf Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manu ...

discovery protocols it relies on, in the workplace whose results were reported in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', and other major news agencies. A key finding from this study was that discovery protocols do not just connect content, but connect people as well. Since arriving at Georgia Tech, Edwards has founded and continues to lead the Pixi Lab. Research from the Pixi lab has received honors including a

CHI __NOTOC__ Chi may refer to: __NOTOC__ Greek *Chi (letter) (Χ or χ), the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet Chinese * ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter *Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon * Chi (surname) ...

Best Paper award. Edwards also served as Technical Program Chair for the ACM

conference 2010 and is currently serving as a member of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Corporation's Trustworthy Computing Advisory Board. Keith also teaches a class on User Interface Software to undergraduate and graduate students.

References

External links

Edwards’ Academic Home Page

Pixi Laboratory Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, W. Keith Living people Georgia Tech faculty American computer scientists Georgia Tech alumni Human–computer interaction researchers Year of birth missing (living people) Ubiquitous computing researchers Scientists at PARC (company)