About Us

From the Directors

The person, technology, and the interaction of the two. 

This is a broad framing of a research lab that is interdisciplinary by design and pragmatic in approach. The Human-centered Analytics Lab (HAL) combines disparate skillsets and foundational disciplines to solve problems – all seeking to better understand the human condition in the context of the digital life of persons.

We regard analytics as the translational arm of more foundational areas of data science. In a lab group like no other we know of, multiple fields usually isolated from one another are merged into an interdisciplinary mash-up of technology, psychology, methodology, and business. These areas are generally in different departments that span multiple colleges or schools in a university environment. They often use different language, terms, and theoretical lenses to explore similar phenomena, which causes great confusion in many contexts. 

This interdisciplinary mashup, though, is our playing field. The HAL lab sufficiently intersects these areas and has a way of looking at the world in a unique, and dare we say with a realistic, approach. We are “T-shaped” in structure: wide (horizontal) in foundational theories and deep (vertical) in methods. The HAL approach is one in which analytics have a purpose: problems are framed, critically considered, and evaluated with rigorous methods in an effort to understand the human condition. We find problems and then solutions; identify inputs and assess outputs; test stimuli on responses; identify causes and their effects; explain and predict.

Our work cuts across what would traditionally be part computer science, part statistics, part psychology, and part information systems. The intersection of these areas makes for research that is more interesting than most and unlikely to be done in other labs. Why? One reason is that the skillsets represented here are not usually combined for a common goal. Another reason is journal outlets in one area are generally siloed – it is difficult to navigate multiple outlets due, in part, to the language used but also the methods and framing of problems. 

Again, this is our playing field. We are not beholden to a rigid disciplinary framing of theory or method. Not only do we use methods, we develop methods, where our developments are done for a purpose. New questions in a changing world cannot always leverage existing methods, and thus the need to work on methods in the context of understanding the human condition.

As co-directors, we are both endowed chairs in analytics, but in different areas of analytics. There are relatively few chairs in analytics and we know of no other place where two senior co-directors come together in a single lab. We think that provides a special context in which to work. No one in HAL is beholden to a particular area or disciplinary boundary. Most scholars tend to publish in a particular area; we are aiming beyond disciplinary boundaries. 

Yet, we both bring our records established in different spaces to a common space to work together to advance our understanding of the human condition. Being based in a business school provides yet another interesting context, in that the research aims to be applied and can help understand the human condition, especially in one’s work, at work, and more generally, in the organization. In a way, an argument can be made that most endeavors can be framed in business or at least use business principles. Context matters and work is an important context of society and therefore the human condition. 

Thus, rather than studying behavior in a vacuum, so to speak, we look for real-world applications. That said, we value lab studies for the purity of effects they can illustrate and use those ourselves for evaluating theories and impacts. And we believe that a lab-like study can be implemented in the real world. We regard the world as a large laboratory. The aim, though, is application and understanding.