Building a future where sociotechnical systems are designed for spiritual and mental health.
Written By: Jesan Ahammed Ovi (My PhD Student in Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines) As Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL·E, and GitHub Copilot rapidly enter classrooms and labs, one question looms large: How are students actually using them—and how do they feel about it? Our study at the Colorado School of …
Continue reading "GenAI on Campus: What Students Really Think—From Curiosity to Catastrophe"
Thinking about taking this survey (10-15 min.) about online spiritual care communities? Here’s some of the history that has inspired this research! Way back in 2016, Estelle Smith was a brand new Computer Science PhD student at the University of Minnesota. Coincidentally, that was the same time period when a new scientific collaboration team was …
In May 2023, I led a research team including about a dozen students, along with several professors and administrators from across campus to launch a survey of all students at the Colorado School of Mines. The goal was to understand how Generative AI had been adopted across engineering education. The survey was taken by over …
It is with a profound sense of humility and gratitude that I find myself in a position to announce my first major award as a tenure-track Computer Science professor at the Colorado School of Mines. I have received a $260,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation titled "Expanding Models of Delivery for Online Spiritual Care." …
Thanks for checking out my blog! I'll periodically update this post to add links to external blog posts as I make them. 2023 “Thoughts & Prayers” or “💗 & 🙏”: How A New Reactions Bar Reshapes Supportive Communication During Health Crises. For ACM CSCW on Medium. 2022 Introducing the GOV-BOTs psychometric scale for measuring users’ …
Before I began to use Twitter [which is equivalent to, before I became an academic], I used to hate on it. Why would I waste my time with one more endless feed of information and random chit-chat? However, if you are a scientist, then by the nature of the work you do, you must be …
With a little help from my friends, I've been running a lot of virtual events for our Graduate Student Association lately. *sigh* COVID times. But before there was COVID, we were still putting on virtual events. Why? An online community can have many benefits to support offline communities IRL. It can help organize people to …
Continue reading "Here’s How You Run a Fun & Engaging Virtual Event"
In 2019, a friend of mine thought I might enjoy being President of our department’s Graduate Student Association (GSA), so he nominated me without telling me. When I first saw my name on the ballot, my internal reaction was something like, “Awwwwwwww HELL no. Who did this?” When I was subsequently elected, my second internal …
Continue reading "10 Things You Need to Know if You’re a Computer Science Graduate Student"
Life is a dream. A thread of experiences, woven in a veil, delicate and beautiful. I would not lift it from my eyes, nor could I. Not three days ago, after ascending the fearful but glorious Incan granite that leads to the peak of Wayna Picchu, I arrive to the summit. A winded mess. There, …
[Cross-posted from CaringBridge.org, originally published June 2019. Photo Caption: My mom gave me this golden heart-shaped locket when I was child. Her photo is on the left, mine is on the right. This photo of her holding the locket was taken shortly after she passed away of uterine cancer in 2015.] You can never know …
C. Estelle Smith, Ph.D. 