Faculty Beki Grinter

Beki Grinter

Associate Professor
School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing

Member of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Member of GVU Center

Areas of Expertise
  • Societal Impacts of Technology
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Best Way to Contact:
E-mail: beki@cc.gatech.edu and beki@grinter.org
You may also contact Jason Maderer at the numbers above.

Beki Grinter is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing. Her primary research interests focus on understanding the societal impacts of technology. Specifically, she applies a variety of knowledge from the social sciences in order to understand how information and communications technologies (ICTs) are human-built machines. Her investigation of the production process has yielded insights into the human-centered challenges associated with the production of complex technologies that include configuration management systems, a variety of telecommunications products and distributed real-time operating systems.

A second focus of her work is on how people appropriate and adapt ICTs as they enter new domains of use. The study of consumption practices, i.e., what people do when they purchase and then begin to appropriate technologies into their everyday lives. Using the same social-orientation to understanding how people use ICTs she has examined why SMS & IM messaging systems became so popular with teenagers, the challenges that householders face in adopting networking technologies and, most recently, how Americans are forming new relationships with systems as robots enter their homes.

Grinter received her Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she worked in the Computer Science division of Bell Laboratories, and in Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory.

More information about Grinter's work can be found at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~beki/Beki.html