Home Staff Activities Business Networking Training Publications Contact

Guy Boy Managing Director guy.boy@eurisco.org

Philosopical Objectives: I am interested in the emergence of new practices in the use of current technology. My personal research agenda is directed by the search of artifacts properties. Artifacts are direct concrete representations of human intelligence. Artifacts involve the use of human cognitive functions. Software artifacts currently evolve towards software agents that have cognitive functions. Thus, I am interested in cognitive functions that make sense in the communication, cooperation, coordination, delegation and other interaction processes. I believe that taking human factors into account in the design and development of artifacts is seldom possible when the organization is not prepared to accept humanization of technology. Thus, social and organizational aspects are crucial to carry out research in human factors and cognitive engineering. Cognitive engineering denotes an integrated approach and a consistent set of methods and techniques used in the analysis, design and evaluation of human-machine systems.

Why has cognitive engineering become so important? One of the best explanations I can provide is that the overcomputerization of systems has produced a clear shift from energy-based to information-based human-machine interaction. For instance, force feedback (energy-based feedback) does not provide the same information as a red light on a computer screen (information-based feedback). The level of interpretation is quite different. While in the past people could assess directly a force or a pressure, today they need to reconstruct these physical concepts from computer-generated information usually available through the central vision channel. Work is consequently more cognitive. Furthermore, several cognitive tasks have been delegated to the machine, and users have progressively become managers of artificial agents. They need to learn new skills such as trust, supervisory control, evaluation, and to coordinate activities of a new type. The emergence of artificial agents has raised a novel socio-cognitive issue that is impossible to address using traditional human-factors methods and techniques.

Deliberately, my focus is human-centered design (HCD). Working in the fields of cognitive sciences and engineering as well as in the aerospace domain, I found a real need for the development of an approach and a methodology that would take into account cognitive functions in the design of human-machine interaction artifacts, especially for complex dynamic systems. Cognitive functions are defined not only from a local ergonomics viewpoint, but also from management, organizational memory and human-centered design viewpoints. Although, I would advise to start from global to local, the proposed design/evaluation approach is iterative and is based on the use of the user-task-artifact triangle. Global ergonomics expends the triangle to a pyramid by introducing a fourth concept: environment. Environment introduces three additional issues:

• the designed artifact emerges in the environment, and the environment evolves after the integration of the artifact;
• the task requires the organization of new jobs, and the environment sends back new roles;
• users using the artifact to perform the task in the environment determine social issues.

One of my favorite topics is the evolution of socio-technological systems, in the aerospace domain in particular. The notion of working tool is central. I try to investigate technology not only from an engineering viewpoint, but also from a use viewpoint. Technology is an entity to be discovered. For example, I am interested in the role of a specific instrument in a specific context for a specific person or group of persons. The study of emergence and evolution brings questions related to the organizational memory and the processes that it involves. I am also interested in other phenomena such as latency, forgetting, obsolescence, affordance and inertia. This is to improve practical topics such as traceability and participatory design.

Research Interests

Cognitive engineering. Human-computer interaction. Human-centered design. Hypertext systems. Knowledge management. Organizational memory systems.

Education

1994 : Full Professorship Qualification in Computer Science and Psychology. 1992 : "Habilitation Diriger des Recherches", Universit Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI. 1983 : Masters (DEA) in Psychology, University of Toulouse. 1980 : PhD in Automation and System Design, Ecole Nationale Suprieure de l'Aronautique et de l'Espace (SUPAERO). 1977 : Masters in Automation, Ecole Nationale Suprieure de l'Aronautique et de l'Espace (SUPAERO). 1976 : Engineering Degree, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse and Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada.

Teaching

Tutorial on Joint Human-Automation Systems ENSAE (SupAero) ENAC DESS IHM Toulouse DU Facteurs Humains, Université Paris V Institut de Cognitique (IdC)

Experience

President, European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering (EURISCO International), 2002-2008(June). Visiting Professor, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, University of West Florida, 2001-Present. Director, European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering (EURISCO), 1992-2001. Head, Advanced Interaction Media group, AI Research Branch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 1989-1991. Co-Founder and President of Dialogics/Dialexis S.A. Board, a software company specialized in Human-Machine Interaction, 1987-1994. Founder and Director of a Professional Course on Human-Machine Systems for the Socit des Amis de l'ENSAE et de l'ENSTA (SAE), 1987-present. Group Leader, Human-machine systems, Toulouse Research Center. (CERT), Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiale (ONERA: French Aerospace Research Agency), 1986-1988. Principal Investigator, HORSES project, Aerospace Human Factors Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, on leave from ONERA, 1984-1986. Research Scientist, Toulouse Research Center. (CERT), Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiale (French Aerospace Research Agency), 1980-1984.

Editorial and Program Boards

Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, HCI International. Cognition, Technology and Work Journal . Knowledge Acquisition Journal (now IJHCS). Human Factors and Aerospace Safety (An International Journal) . Interactions ACM. European Journal of Engineering for Information Society Applications. Hypertextes Journal. Revue d'Intelligence Artificielle.

International and National Offices

Member of the CLESCO Doctoral School and its Committee Chair of the Pedagogical Board of the French Institut de Cognitique (IdC), 2004 to Present Permanent Member of the Air and Space Academy, 2006-Present. Member of the Board of the National Center for Research and Technology (CNRT) in Aerospace and co-chair of the "Interaction Engineering" working group, 2002-Present. Executive Vice-Chair, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI), 1995-1999. Co-Founder and Member of the Board, French-speaking Association for Human-Computer Interaction (AFIHM), 1996-1999. Co-founder and main organizer of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aeronautics (HCI-Aero), in Cooperation with ACM-SIGCHI (1998-present). Paper Co-Chair of INTERCHI'93. Co-founder and main organizer of the International Conference on Human-Machine Interaction & Artificial Intelligence in Aerospace (HMI-AI-AS), Toulouse, France (1986-1995).

Memberships

AFIHM, Association for Computing Machinery, ACM-SIGCHI, European Association for Ergonomics.

Awards

ACM Recognition of Service, 1999. ACM Recognition of Service, 1997. IFG (French Institute of Management) Start-Up Award, 1991. NASA Award for a Tutorial on Expert Systems, 1985.

Consulting

Evaluator, Scientific Committee of INRETS-LESCO, 2007 Evaluator, Scientific Committee of INRIA, 2001. Expert Consultant at the European Commission, 1999-Present. Legal Expert in aircraft accident investigations, 1992-1994. Expert Consultant on Human-Machine Interaction for the European Space Agency (ESA) to help determine ESA orientations in Aritificial Intelligence, 1991-1992. Scientific Consultant for the MATRA SPACE Company to create and develop its Aritificial Intelligence Department, 1986-1987.

Some Invited Addresses

April 2006, "Les actions risque". Invited speech at the National Cognitive Science Forum, Paris. June 2005, "Decision Making: A Cognitive Function Approach". Invited speech at the Seventh International on Naturalistic Decision Making - NDM7 - Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Mai 2003, "Affordances and Esthetics of Interfaces". Invited lecture at the "Métalurgie, Art et Informatique" Conference, Nancy, France. December 2001, "New interface/interaction paradigms How they bridge the gap with consumer needs - An Overview ", Invited speech at the IST Conference of European Commission, Dsseldorf, Germany. September 2001, "Organizational Memory Systems", Plenary speaker at the IFAC'01 Conference, Kassel, Germany. September 1997, "Ingnierie Cognitive et Conception Centre sur lHomme." Invited speech at the National Meeting on Safety and Cognition organized by the GIS Sciences de la Cognition, French Ministry of Research, Paris. June 1996, "Learning evolution and software agents emergence." Intelligent Tutoring Conference, Held in Montreal, Canada, In Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1996. October 1995, "Cooperation Homme-Machine dans les Systmes Complexes : Agents et Aide la Dcision." Invited Speech at the Annual National Conference in Human-Computer Interaction, Toulouse, France, 1995. May 1995, "Decision Support in The Cockpit." Human factors symposium, University of Linkping, Sweden. January 1995, "Design Rationale and Supportability: An Agent-Oriented Corporate Memory Approach." Invited paper, COOP'95 - Juan-Les-Pins, France. August 1994, "Agent-oriented interaction in cooperative computer-based training systems." Invited speech at the Seminar on Expert and Tutoting Systems as Media for Embodying and Sharing Knowledge", Schloss Dagsthul, Germany. September 1993, "Knowledge Acquisition In Dynamic Systems: How Can Logicism And Situatedness Go Together?" Invited Address. EKAW93, Toulouse. EKAW'93 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in AI. Springer Verlag, Berlin. April 1993, "HCI in the Cockpit." Invited Address at InterCHI93, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. December 1991, "Advanced Interaction Media as a Component of Everyday Life for the Coming Generation." Invited Address. JMA Marketing World Congress in Tokyo, Japan.

Books

"L'Ingnierie Cognitive: Interaction Homme-Machine et Cognition.", Hermes Sciences - Lavoisier, Paris, 2003. " Cognitive Function Analysis", Greenwood/Ablex, 1998. "Intelligent Assistant Systems", Academic Press, 1991. "Assistance l'Oprateur: Une Approche de lIntelligence Artificielle", Teknea, 1988.

Some selected publications

Boy, G.A. (2005). Decision Making: A Cognitive Function Approach. Proceedings of the Seventh International on Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM7) Conference (Ed. J.M.C Schraagen), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June. Boy, G.A. (2005). Human-Center Automation of Transportation Systems. AAET 2005 Conference. Braunschweig, Germany. February. Boy, G.A. (2005). Knowledge management for product maturity. Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Capture. Banff, Canada. October. Boy, G.A. (2005).Maturité, Automation et Experience des Utilisateurs.  Actes du Colloque National d'Interaction Homme-Machine. Toulouse, Septembre 2005. ACM-Press, New York. Boy, G.A. & Grote, G. (2005). Coordination, authority trading, and control in the context of safety-critical systems. Coordination, authority trading, and control in the context of safety-critical systems. Proceedings of HCI International 2005, Las Vegas, USA. Boy, G.A. & Barnard, Y. (2005). Knowledge Management in the Design of Safety-Critical Systems. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Idea Group, Inc. Publication, Hearsey, PA, USA. Dumur, E., Barnard, Y., & Boy, G. (2004). Designing for comfort. In D. de Waard, K.A. Brookhuis, and C.M. Weikert (Eds.), Human Factors in Design (pp. 111-127). Maastricht, the Netherlands: Shaker Publishing. G. Boy & M. Morel (2004). Affordances et esthètique des interfaces. Alliage, Seuil, Paris. 53-54, pp 80-87. Boy, G. & Barnard, Y. (2003). Knowledge Management in the Design of Safety-Critical Systems. Proceedings of the European Cognitive Science Conference (EuroCogSci′03). Osnabrck, Germany, September. Boy, G.A. & Ferro, D. (2003). Using Cognitive Function Analysis to Prevent Controlled Flight Into Terrain. Chapter for the Human Factors and Flight Deck Design Book. Don Harris (Ed.), Ashgate, UK. Boy, G.A. (2002). Interfaces procedurales. Actes du Colloque National d′Interaction Homme-Machine. AFIHM, ACM-Press, New York. Boy, G.A. (2002). "Theories of Human Cognition: To Better Understand the Co-Adaptation of People and Technology." In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, UNESCO. Boy, G.A. (2002). External Memories: Hypertext, Traces and Agents. Diogenes, 1 April 2002, vol.49, no.4, pp.112-125(14), Blackwell Publishing, UK. Boy, G.A. (2001). Mmoires Externes : Hypertexte, Traces et Agents. Retour Vers Le Futur. Revue Diogne, Paris. Boy, G.A. (2001). "Contextualisation des connaissances pour une conception centre sur l'homme." In Systmes d′information pour la gestion des connaissances dans les organisations : recherches en cours et approches industrielles, M. Zacklad & M. Grundstein (Eds.). Boy, G.A. (2001). Organizational Memory Systems. Plenary Paper, Proceedings of IFAC 2001, Kassel, Germany. Boy, G.A. (2001). When safety is a matter of redundant information. Proceedings of HCI International, New Orleans, LA, August. Boy, G.A. (2001). Evolution of socio-cognitive models supporting the co-adaptation of people and technology. Proceedings of HCI International, New Orleans, LA, August. Boy, G.A. & de Brito, G. (2000). Towards a categorization of factors related to procedure following and situation awareness. Proceedings of HCI-Aero 2000, EURISCO, Toulouse, France. Boy, G.A. (2000). Active design documents as software agents that mediate participatory design and traceability; In Cognitive Task Analysis. Boy, G.A. (1999). Traceability. EURISCO/Airbus Technical Report T-99-060. Boy, G.A. (1999). Organizational Memory Systems. Chapter for the Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology. Dekker, Inc, New York. Boy, G.A. (1998). Cognitive function analysis for human-centered automation of safety-critical systems. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Los Angeles, California, United States. Pages: 265 - 272, ISBN:0-201-30987-4. Boy, G.A. (1997). "Software Agents for Cooperative Learning." In J.M. Bradshaw (Ed.), Software Agents, AAAI/MIT Press. Boy, G.A. (1997). Cognitive function analysis: an example of human-centered re-design of a flight management system. Proceedings of the 13th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, June 29 -July 4, 1997, Tampere, Finland. Boy, G.A. (1997). Active design documents. Proceedings of ACM DIS97 Conference. ACM Press, New York. Boy, G.B. (1997). Knowledge Elicitation for the Design of Software Agents. Chapter of the Handbook of Human Computer Interaction, 2nd edition, M. Helander and T. Landauer (Eds.), Elsevier Science Pub., North Holland. Boy, G.A. (1996).Learning evolution and software agents emergence. Proceedings of ITS96, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin. Boy, G.A. (1996). The Group Elicitation Method for Participatory Design and Usability Testing. Proceedings of CHI96, the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, New York. Boy, G.A. (1996).The Group Elicitation Method: An Introduction. Proceedings of EKAW'96, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin. Boy, G.A. (1995). Supportability-based design rationale. Proceedings of the 6th IFAC/IFIP/IFORS/IEA Symposium on Analysis, Design and Evaluation of Man-Machine Systems. Boston, MA, USA. June. Boy, G.A. (1995). "Human-like" system certification and evaluation. Book Chapter. Expertise and Technology: Cognition and Human-Computer Interaction. J.M. Hoc, P.C. Cacciabue and E. Hollnagel (Eds.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers, Hillsdale, New Jersey. Boy, G.A. (1994). Interface agents for handling fuzzy descriptors in information retrieval. Proceedings of IPMU'94, Paris, July. Boy, G.A. (1994). Etude d'une nouvelle gnration de poste de travail du Personnel Navigant Commercial (PNC) et du Personnel au Sol (PS). EURISCO Report No. T-94-007-VI, August. Boy, G.A. & Hollnagel, E. (1993). Cockpit Evolution and Human-Machine Interaction. EURISCO Report no. T-93-002-GB-VI. Boy, G.A. (1993). Operator and Student Models in Computer-Based Training. EURISCO Report no. T-93-005-GB-VI, Toulouse, France. Boy, G.A. (1993). Texte et Hypertexte. Rapport Technique EURISCO no. T-93-001-GB-VI. Boy, G.A. (1993). Knowledge acquisition in dynamic systems: How can logicism and situatedness go together? Proceedings of the 7th European Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop (EKAW'93). Lecture Notes in AI, Springer Verlag, Berlin. Boy, G.A. & Math, N. (1993). Operator assistant systems: An experimental approach using a telerobotics application. International Journal of Intelligent Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Vol. 8, pp. 271-286. Boy, G.A. (1992). Integrated Human-Machine Intelligence in Space Systems. Acta Astronautica. Pergamon Press Ltd, Vol. 27, pp. 175-183. Boy, G.A. (1992). Computer integrated documentation In E. Barrett (Ed.), Sociomedia: Multimedia, hypermedia, and the social construction of knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 507-531. Boy, G.A. (1991). Computer Integrated Documentation. NASA Technical Memorandum. Ames Research Center, California. Boy, G.A. (1991). Indexing Hypertext Documents in Context. In theProceedings of Hypertext'91. San Antonio, Texas, December. Boy, G.A. (1991). Some Theoretical Issues on the Computer Integrated Documentation Project. Proceedings of the Sixth AAAI-Sponsored Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop, Banff, Canada, October 6-11. Boy, G.A. & Gruber, T. (1990). Intelligent assistant systems: support for integrated human?machine systems. Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Knowledge-Based Human Computer Communication, Stanford, March 27-29. Boy, G.A. (1990). Acquiring and Refining Indices According to Context.Proceedings of the Fifth AAAI-Sponsored Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop, Banff, Canada, November 4-9. Boy, G.A. (1989). The Block representation in knowledge acquisition for computer integrated documentation. Proceedings of the Fourth AAAI-Sponsored Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop, Banff, Canada, October 1-6. Boy, G.A. & Caminel, T. (1989). Situation Patterns Acquisition improves the Control of Complex Dynamic Systems. Proceedings of the Third European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, Paris. Boy, G.A. (1988).Assistance à L'Opérateur : Une Approche de l'Intelligence Artificielle.Teknea, Toulouse. Boy, G.A. & Delail, M. (1988). Knowledge Acquisition by Specialization-Structuring: A Space Telemanipulation Application. AAAI-88, Workshop on Integration of Knowledge Acquisition and Performance Systems, St Paul, Minnesota, USA. Boy, G.A. (1987). Operator Assistant Systems. International Journal of Man Machine Studies. 27, pp. 541-554. Boy, G.A. & Tessier, C. (1985). Cockpit analysis and assessment by the MESSAGE methodology. Proceedings of the Second Conference on Analysis, Design and Evaluation of Man-Machine Systems. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 73-79. Boy, G.A. (1983). Le systme MESSAGE: un premier pas vers l'analyse assiste par ordinateur des interactions homme-machine. Le Travail Humain, 46 (2).