Christine Toh

Biography

Christine is an Assistant Professor in IT Innovation in the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics. She obtained her PhD in Industrial Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on studying human decision-making and the antecedents of creativity in design, and developing an understanding of the larger context of creativity and innovation in engineering and design. Christine teaches classes in IT Innovation, Design, and Human-Centered Computing. Her research to date has spanned topics such as individual attributes and biases in team decision-making, perceptions and preferences for creativity during concept selection, and the visual representation of design artifacts in virtual engineering learning paradigms. Her current research interests include new technology-enabled information platforms for design, design creativity in technology startup environments, and the nature of relationships between humans and machines.

Teaching Interests

Creativity and Design;

Design Thinking and Cognition;

Human-Centered Computing;

Interaction Design

Research Interests

My research focuses on the intersection of creativity and information technology during the early stages of the design process. Specifically, I investigate the changing landscape of design, including the increased use of data analytics tools during problem formulation and idea generation, as well as a theoretical understanding of how decisions regarding innovation are made in current design practice. Since design is considered an "information-centric" enterprise, my research also explores the information flow throughout the design process and investigates the impact of the increasing volume, velocity, and variety of information available in today's design environment. In addition, I also conduct research on human perceptions of automated and robotic entities, such as home automation devices and smart computing tools. My research focuses on how human users apply traditionally human-to-human relationships and constructs to machine counterparts in a variety of domains.

Service Summary

IT Innovation Program Committee Member

IT Innovation Cup Faculty Member

College of IS&T Diversity and Inclusion Committee Member

CodeCrush Instructor

Human-Centered Computing Doctoral Concentration Committee Member

USSTRATCOMM Faculty Mentor

Bias Assessment and Response Team Faculty Member