{"id":204483,"date":"2023-10-19T15:30:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T19:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=204483"},"modified":"2023-10-19T15:30:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T19:30:03","slug":"hope-chidziwisano-uses-cultural-perspective-in-researching-technology-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2023\/10\/19\/hope-chidziwisano-uses-cultural-perspective-in-researching-technology-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The School of Information Sciences\u2019 newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Hope Chidziwisano, was born and raised in Malawi. His research is inspired by his first-hand experiences of the adverse effects of the challenges facing resource-constrained settings in developing countries, such as unreliable electricity and inadequate social services to support socio-economic development at the household level. His research sets out to gather data from real-world experiences to better understand how context, culture, and many other factors affect how users interact with technology, and it often has surprising results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chidziwisano brings with him a background in computer science and human-computer interaction, but also his unique perspective on how technology is used.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use my background in computer science to design and develop the technologies and then I leverage the human-centered design process to learn about the people and how they\u2019re using those technologies,\u201d he said. \u201cI deploy the technology in people\u2019s homes to understand how they would use them to support their needs or if there are any unintended consequences of using those technologies in their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home Safety Smart Technology Surprises<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s conducted multiple studies in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Kenya and Malawi. This includes one study that used feature phones and motion sensors in homes that would alert the residents to any unwanted intruders. This was the first time any of the study participants had ever used smart home technology.<\/p>\n

To his surprise, the participants didn\u2019t use the home safety app to curb theft, a problem Chidziwisano said is common in the areas where he conducted the study. Instead, here\u2019s what they did use it for:<\/p>\n

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  • To monitor their chickens to understand why some chickens were dying mysteriously.<\/li>\n
  • Some used it to track their spouses\u2019 movements when they are not at home.<\/li>\n
  • Fathers were using it to see if their daughters were sneaking out at night.<\/li>\n
  • Business owners monitoring what time employees get to work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    This study showed how a very patriarchal society would use such technology, and how it could have unintended and possibly detrimental consequences for some people. Despite being intimately familiar with these societal norms, it had not occurred to Chidziwisano that people would use a home safety device in such a way. That\u2019s why studies such as these are so important, he said; they allow for better approaches. He followed up on the initial data by asking the women in the study about potential solutions to their concerns about privacy. These solutions included ideas such as smart cameras that can only work outside the home, or even designing smart sensors as collars that can be worn by dogs to support domestic security outside the home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Now that he\u2019s in Knoxville, Chidziwisano wants to translate his work to apply to refugees living here who may not be used to the technology now available to them.
    \u201cJust because these people have moved to the United States doesn\u2019t mean their cultural perspectives have changed right away,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019m trying to understand how these technologies are impacting women here, specifically in Knoxville, Tennessee. I am looking at what kind of technologies they have in their homes and how that is impacting them in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He said he\u2019s already met some local refugees by visiting their shops, and once they learned he\u2019s from Africa, many quickly get on board to participate in the studies he hopes to conduct.<\/p>\n

    Monitoring Chicken Health<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Another of Chidziwisano\u2019s research endeavors touches on a common industry in Malawi and Kenya, poultry farming. He\u2019s gathered an extensive collection of chicken images and audio data to train models that can apply artificial intelligence to detect diseases in chickens. He\u2019s also worked with veterinarians to understand these diseases from the appearance of their droppings to the vocalizations they make when they\u2019re sick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Not only can this technology help poultry farmers identify when there\u2019s a problem, on a larger scale it can assist with agricultural and public health, Chidziwisano said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cOne of the challenges is that the extension officers only visit the rural areas one time, which is not enough. But if we use this in areas with high occurrences of these diseases then the officers can determine which areas to visit first to check on these chickens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    In addition to keeping the birds healthy, Chidziwisano said this is also a way that flocks can be monitored for zoonotic diseases\u2014diseases that can pass from animals to humans\u2014and possibly prevent outbreaks in human populations.<\/p>\n

    While Chidziwisano will be conducting research in East Tennessee and hopes to collaborate with other experts in the University of Tennessee System, he also wants to continue scaling up his research in sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cI am trying to show that the research that we do in parts of the global south can be translated into western society,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to develop and evolve these technologies so I can go back to Africa and see how they work in a rural setting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The School of Information Sciences\u2019 newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Hope Chidziwisano, was born and raised in Malawi. His research is inspired by his first-hand experiences of the adverse effects of the challenges facing resource-constrained settings in developing countries, such as unreliable electricity and inadequate social services to support socio-economic development at the household level. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":204484,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,56,196,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-featured-story","category-news","category-school-of-information-sciences"],"yoast_head":"\nHope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage - School of Information Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/2023\/10\/19\/hope-chidziwisano-uses-cultural-perspective-in-researching-technology-usage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage - School of Information Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The School of Information Sciences\u2019 newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Hope Chidziwisano, was born and raised in Malawi. 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