1997 Swinburne Higher Education Handbook

Centre for Social Research
Chair
John Pidgeon
Division of Business, Humanities and Social Science
Telephone: 9214 8306, 9214 8825 Fax: 9819 5349
Internet: http://www.swin.edu.au/dbhss/cusr.htm
The Centre was established in 1974 in order to brine "
together Swinburne staff with a common interest in urban
issues. Since the early 1980s the focus has been on applied
and pure research, originally focusing on housing but
extending into a wide range of urban and social issues
including gender research. These research activities have
extended to initiatives in citizenship, and public sector
training and education, including the production of
workplace training modules and short courses.
The Centre emphasises the demographic, social and
economic dimensions of urban and social research,
education and training and policy development. wide
range of skills and techniques is offered by the Centre
including survey research, needs analysis, social impact
analysis, policy and program evaluation, housing market
analysis, community profiles, population forecasting and
projections, development of training modules and training.
Current Research and Training Themes of the Centre
Housing and Urban Research
Housing and urban issues, particularly the affordability of
housing, infrastructure provision and housing finance.
Citizenship
This concerns the right and responsibilities of members of
Australian society, and translating these citizenship rights
and responsibilities into benchmarks of best practice.
Survey and Demographic Research
Large scale survey research focuses on topics as diverse as
medical ethics, home purchase decision-making and car and
public transport usage. In addition the need for demographic
research has been a consistent requirement for many of the
consultancy and research projects.
Gender
Gender research is also conducted, particularly in relation to
equal opportunity in and access to the workplace.
Education and Training
The Centre provides training and educational materials for a
wider audience. Particular attention is given to public and
community housing management and administration.
Swin burne Computer Human
Interaction Laboratory (SCHI L)
Director (Acting)
Dr Steve Howard
Telephone: 9214 856618180
ernail: showard@swin.edu.au
School of Computer Science and Software Engineering
SCHIL has emerged as a laboratory that aims to understand
and improve the nature of information technology from the
perspective of the end users of that technology.
SCHIL was established in the early 1990's to meet the needs
of the important research and consulting areas of usability
and human factor in computing systems. SCHIL, located
within the School of Computer Science and Software
Engineering (CS&SE), provides a 'centre of excellence in,
the human issues which underpin information technology
and the systems development processes.
SCHIL is broad in its interest, but always focused on the
usability of technology. The following list highlights key
projects areas:
Trade-off decision making in user interface design
Multimedia user interface prototyping
Usability and the internet
Interface evaluation process guidelines
Opportunism in design
Implicit theory in design methodologies
Temporal aspects of usability
Design rationale in user interface design
Applying bifocal displays to data visualisation
Comparative study of auditory icons and earcons
Designing a user interface for folding editors to support
collaborative work
Applying
.
distortion-oriented
. -
presentation techniques to
geographical information systems
Other activities of the centre include the teaching of human
computer interaction at undergraduate levels, the
supervision of postgraduate research students, and the
conduct of . high - level .. consultancy in the areas of usability
and user interface deslgn.
Swinburne University of Technology 1997 Handbook 45