Looking Backwards to Surge Forwards: What 40 years as a researcher has taught me.

Abstract: I have been an applied computer science researcher for four decades. During that time, I have been inspired by a few "visions of the future," most notably that of Mark Weiser. I have often reflected on those visions many years later, and that reflection has helped to reinvigorate my own research agenda. In this talk, I will start with an example from 2015, when I had an opportunity to reflect on Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing in the context of advances in manufacturing. The next ten years resulted in rethinking what kinds of computational devices we can and should create, with an ultimate focus on sustainable electronics. I will then reflect on some other areas where reflecting on the past can help to define future agendas in other areas of interest, specifically the impact of technology on education and on the experience of autistic individuals.

Bio: Gregory D. Abowd is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. From March 2021-June 2026, he was the Dean of Engineering at Northeastern, where he oversaw the global growth of the college and launched several curricular and research initiatives. Prior to joining Northeastern in March 2021, he was on the faculty in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology for 26.5 years. In his time at Georgia Tech, Dr. Abowd initiated bold and innovative research efforts, such as Classroom 2000 and the Aware Home, as well as pioneering innovations in autism and technology, health systems, and a joint initiative with engineering in computational materials and sustainable electronics. He was on the founding editorial board of IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine, and was founding Editor-in-Chief of Foundations and Trends in HCI and The Proceedings of the ACM in Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT). He also founded the non-profit Atlanta Autism Consortium in 2008 to serve and unite the various stakeholder communities in Atlanta connected to autism research and services. Dean Abowd’s contributions to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing have been recognized through numerous awards from ACM and ACM SIGCHI, including the 2023 Lifetime Research Award from ACM SIGCGHI. In 2025, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2026 he was elected into the National Academy of Inventors. He has graduated 39 Ph.D. students, the majority of whom have gone on to successful careers at top universities around the world. Dr. Abowd received the degree of B.S. in Honors Mathematics in 1986 from the University of Notre Dame. He then attended the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning the degrees of M.Sc. (1987) and D.Phil. (1991) in Computation.

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IPaT: GVU Lunch Lecture Series