research-article

Friend or foe?: examining CAS use in mathematics research

Authors:

Edward LankAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '09: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 229 - 238

https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518740

Published: 04 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) provide sophisticated functionality to assist with mathematical problem solving. Despite their widespread adoption, however, little work in the HCI community has examined the extent to which these computational tools support domain experts. In this paper, we report findings from a qualitative study investigating the work practices and tools of nine mathematicians in a research setting. Counter to our expectations, our data suggests that computational tools play only a minor role in their workflow, with the limited use of CAS owing primarily to four factors: (1) the need for transparency in CAS's reasoning to explain computed results; (2) the problem of rigidity and formality in CAS's input/output style dialogue; (3) the need for 2D input to support a wide range of annotations, diagrams, and in-place manipulation of objects of interest; and (4) the need for collaboration, particularly in early stages of problem solving. While grounded in the study of mathematicians, these findings (particularly the first) have implications for the design of computational systems intended to support complex problem solving.

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Cited By

Jones BTanimoto S(2018)Searching Over Search Trees for Human-AI Collaboration in Exploratory Problem Solving: A Case Study in Algebra2018 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VLHCC.2018.8506580(33-37)Online publication date: Oct-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2018.8506580
Weitnauer ELandy DOttmar E(2016)Graspable math: Towards dynamic algebra notations that support learners better than paper2016 Future Technologies Conference (FTC)10.1109/FTC.2016.7821641(406-414)Online publication date: Dec-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FTC.2016.7821641
Bunt ATerry MLank E(2013)Challenges and Opportunities for Mathematics Software in Expert Problem SolvingHuman-Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2012.69702028:3(222-264)Online publication date: 1-May-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1080/07370024.2012.697020
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Friend or foe?: examining CAS use in mathematics research
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Information systems

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '09: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2009

2426 pages

ISBN:9781605582467

DOI:10.1145/1518701

General Chairs:
Dan R. Olsen
Brigham Young University
,
Richard B. Arthur
Brigham Young University
,
Program Chairs:
Ken Hinckley
Microsoft Research
,
Meredith Ringel Morris
Microsoft Research
,
Scott Hudson
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Saul Greenberg
University of Calgary

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 04 April 2009

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April 4 - 9, 2009

MA, Boston, USA

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CHI '09 Paper Acceptance Rate 277 of 1,130 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Jones BTanimoto S(2018)Searching Over Search Trees for Human-AI Collaboration in Exploratory Problem Solving: A Case Study in Algebra2018 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VLHCC.2018.8506580(33-37)Online publication date: Oct-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2018.8506580
Weitnauer ELandy DOttmar E(2016)Graspable math: Towards dynamic algebra notations that support learners better than paper2016 Future Technologies Conference (FTC)10.1109/FTC.2016.7821641(406-414)Online publication date: Dec-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FTC.2016.7821641
Bunt ATerry MLank E(2013)Challenges and Opportunities for Mathematics Software in Expert Problem SolvingHuman-Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2012.69702028:3(222-264)Online publication date: 1-May-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1080/07370024.2012.697020
Zanibbi RBlostein D(2012)Recognition and retrieval of mathematical expressionsInternational Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition10.1007/s10032-011-0174-415:4(331-357)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10032-011-0174-4
Robinson TBurns C(2010)A Learning Process: Old Strategies, New ToolsProceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting10.1177/15419312100540042454:4(384-388)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2010
https://doi.org/10.1177/154193121005400424
Zeleznik RBragdon AAdeputra FKo HPerlin KCzerwinski MMiller R(2010)Hands-on mathProceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology10.1145/1866029.1866035(17-26)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1866029.1866035

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