Decision, Control and Optimization Seminar

Decision and Control Laboratory, Coordinated Science Laboratory

Experiments and Modeling to Study Technologies Aimed at Behavior Change

Professor Joan Walker

University of California, Berkeley

Friday, April 27, 2012

9:00 AM to 10:00 AM

B02 CSL

Abstract:

There are a growing number of persuasive technology apps and systems that aim to make individuals (and therefore society) healthier, greener, more financially sound, smarter, happier, and so on. Analysis of such technologies often focuses on the aggregate results, for example the total percentage of residential electricity saved across households. However, an aggregate focus misses important aspects of the behavioral responses at an individual level. This talk focuses on experiments and models that examine behavior at the level of the individual, and demonstrates how such analyses could guide the effective design of behavior change technologies and better predict their impacts on different users' segments. Four transportation applications will be presented:

·     
  - The first tracks individual travel via smartphone and feeds back information to individuals on their time, money, calories and CO2 spent traveling.

·      - The second examines how providing emissions information to people impacts their travel choices, and quantifies the trade-off individuals make between emissions, costs and time.

·      - The third demonstrates how different market segments can be uncovered, in this case segmenting travelers into auto-oriented, “green”, and multimodal.

·        - The last examines the relative effectiveness of different incentive programs (from direct payments, to lotteries, to coupons, to status) in getting people to change their driving habits.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR COOKIES AND COFFEE PRIOR TO THE SEMINAR

IN ROOM 154 CSL AT 8:40AM