2025 Research Speaker Series
Sayamindu Dasgupta
Assistant Professor, HCDE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13
4:30 – 5:20 p.m.
Sieg Building, room 134
Living with data: Some reflections on implications for learning, epistemology, and design
As quantitative data plays an increasingly prominent role in shaping our society and our daily lives, the need to support young people in learning about data and data-driven processes has become a pressing concern. Furthermore, with the growing ubiquity of quantitative data, ways of knowing and making sense of the world—epistemologies—are increasingly shaped by narratives that elevate and center quantitative data. This too, has implications for how young people can be supported in learning about data and data-driven processes.
In this talk, starting with the argument that living with data requires an ability to recognize both the possibilities and the pitfalls that come with data and data-driven processes, I will present work that considers how to design learning experiences and tools that support learners—especially young learners–in not only learning about data, but also in questioning and critiquing data and data-driven processes.
About the presenter
Sayamindu Dasgupta is an assistant professor in the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. Dr. Dasgupta's research focuses on how young people can learn with and about data—especially in contexts of the communities that they live, learn, and play in. He has designed systems to enable children to design and develop their own data analysis tools, evaluated design changes in existing systems that allow more creative possibilities with data, and studied how children question and critique data and data-driven systems. Dasgupta is committed to learning experiences and communities that are welcoming to all. Toward this, he has studied learner experiences with digital tools translated into the languages they speak at home, and has analyzed differences in participation patterns across genders in interest-driven and informal online learning.
The HCDE Research Speaker Series is hosted Thursdays in Autumn Quarter by the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. Presentations are open to the public.