Virginia Tech Computer Science Faculty Interview Series: Dr. Kurt Luther

I’m an assistant professor of Computer Science, a member of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, a fellow of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, and a faculty affiliate in Human Centered Design, all at Virginia Tech.

My teaching and research focus on human–computer interaction (HCI), social computing, and crowdsourcing. I build and study systems that leverage the Internet to connect geographically distributed people with diverse skills and backgrounds. These social technologies can help people be more creative, make new discoveries, and solve complex problems.

My work has applications across many domains, including movie and game production, graphic design, and citizen science. I’m also interested in connections to the digital humanities, especially history.

Before coming to Virginia Tech, I was a postdoc in the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. I received my Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech, where I was a Foley Scholar, and my undergraduate degree is from Purdue University, where I studied computer graphics, art, and design. I’ve also worked at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Newgrounds, and YouTube (Google). http://www.kurtluther.com/