Johanna Brewer is a developer, designer,

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and professor at Smith College. Brewer was a co-founder and CEO of Frestyl. In 2014, they started work on a tracking toolkit for home automation systems with a special focus on user privacy. In 2016, they founded a research and design studio called Neta Snook, focusing on the creation of technology that works towards a diverse society. In spring 2019, they started as a research associate and postdoctoral researcher at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

. Their research areas include

ubiquitous computing Ubiquitous computing (or "ubicomp") is a concept in software engineering, hardware engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using ...

and human-computer interaction, social connectivity and how technology functions in society.

Education

Johanna Brewer graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science and Philosophy and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. They then acquired a PhD in Informatics and Computer Science at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

where they also worked as a staff researcher. One area of their research in this time focused on urban computing and mobility in urban spaces. They did ethnographic studies on inclusivity and diversity in the online gaming scene, as well as on public transportation, and helped create a new interface for a molecular simulator on the Swiss National Supercomputer. They also developed a real-time tracking system for radiation therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Publications

* Brewer, Johanna, Dourish, Paul (2008): Storied spaces: Cultural accounts of mobility, technology, and environmental knowing. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 20 (12) pp. 963–976. * Bassoli, Arianna, Brewer, Johanna, Martin, Karen, Dourish, Paul, Mainwaring, Scott D. (2007): Underground Aesthetics: Rethinking Urban Computing. In IEEE Pervasive Computing, 6 (3) pp. 39–45. * Dourish, Paul, Brewer, Johanna, Bell, Genevieve (2005): Information as a cultural category. In Interactions, 12 (4) pp. 31–33. * Brewer, Johanna, Williams, Amanda, Dourish, Paul (2007): A handle on what\'s going on: combining tangible interfaces and ambient displays for colla. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, 2007, pp. 3–10. * Brewer, Johanna, Mainwaring, Scott, Dourish, Paul (2008): Aesthetic journeys. In: Proceedings of DIS08 Designing Interactive Systems, 2008, pp. 333–341. * Brewer, Johanna, Williams, Amanda, Dourish, Paul (2007): A handle on what's going on: combining tangible interfaces and ambient displays for collab. In: Ullmer, Brygg, Schmidt, Albrecht (eds.) Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, February 15–17, 2007, 2007, pp. 3–10.

Reference list

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewer, Johanna American computer scientists American women academics American women computer scientists University of California alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women scientists Boston University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology staff