Brian T. Gill, Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics
Seattle Pacific University

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  MAT 1360 Intro to Stats
  MAT 3360 Prob & Stat
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Biographical Sketch

Dr. Brian Gill is a Professor of Mathematics Department at Seattle Pacific University. He is also funded by NSF grants as the statistician for two research labs at the University of Washington: the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) Research Lab in the Information School and the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Research Lab in the Department of Psychology.   He is also currently serving as the national chair of the Statistics Education Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America.

Dr. Gill joined the faculty at SPU in 1999 immediately after completing a Ph.D. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Biometry and Statistics at the State University of New York at Albany.  In 1999, Dr. Gill was selected as a fellow in Project NExT, a program of the Mathematical Association of America for new Ph.D.’s who are dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics.

Dr. Gill teaches a wide range of courses at SPU, with a primary focus on probability and statistics (both introductory courses and our more advanced courses), real and complex analysis, and calculus.

Research Interests

Dr. Gill has three main areas of research interests:

  • Complex analysis.  His research in pure mathematics is in the area of geometric function theory, a branch of complex analysis.  His work relates primarily to properties of the density of the hyperbolic metric in domains in the complex plane.
  • Applied statistics. Much of his current scholarly work involves applications of statistics in collaboration with researchers in other disciplines, particularly in social and health sciences.
  • Undergraduate mathematics and statistics education.  Dr. Gill is also very interested in issues in undergraduate mathematics education, with a particular focus on two areas: (i) how students build an understanding of mathematics and statistics through discovery based learning, and (ii) the impact of classroom technology on student learning.  As a result of these interests, he has been PI or co-PI on three grants supporting changes in the calculus sequence at SPU.  More recently, his focus has shifted toward introductory statistics courses rather than calculus. 

For the past few years, most of Dr. Gill's scholarly work has been in the area of applied statistics.  In 2003, he became the statistician for the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) Research Lab in the Information School at the University of Washington.  For the past six years, he has been a major collaborator on a $2.5-million NSF grant, serving as the statistician on a wide variety of studies relating to human interaction with technological systems.  Currently, Dr. Gill is funded on NSF grants as the statistician both in the VSD Lab and in the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington.

Education

  • Ph.D., Mathematics, The University at Albany, State University of New York, 1999.
  • M.S., Biometry & Statistics, The University at Albany, State University of New York, 1999.
  • M.A., Mathematics, University of Kentucky, 1994.
  • B.S., Mathematics, Truman State University, 1991.

Employment

  • Seattle Pacific University, Mathematics Department
    • Professor 2010-present
    • Chair, 2007-2011
    • Associate Professor, 2005-2010
    • Assistant Professor, 1999-2005
  • University of Washington, Information School
    • Affiliate Associate Professor, 2007-2009
    • Statistician, Value Sensitive Design Research Lab, 2003-present
  • University of Washington, Department of Psychology
    • Statistician, Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab, 2008-present
  • University of Washington, Mathematics Department
    • Lecturer, summer 2009
    • Auxiliary Faculty, summer 2003
  • The University at Albany, State University of New York, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
    • GAANN Fellow, 1997-1999 (U.S. Department of Education Fellowship, Graduate Assistants in Areas of National Need)
    • SUNY Presidential Fellowship, 1994-1997
  • New York State Department of Health, Division of Nutrition, Evaluation and Analysis Unit
    • Statistical internship, 1997-1999
  • University of Kentucky, Mathematics Department
    • Teaching Assistant, 1992-1994

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Melson, Gail F., Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Alan Beck, Batya Friedman, Trace Roberts, Erik Garrett, & Brian T. Gill. (2009)  “Children’s Behavior Toward and Understanding of Robotic and Living Dogs,” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(2), pp. 92-102.

Borning, Alan, Batya Friedman, Janet L. Davis, Brian T. Gill, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Travis Kriplean, & Peyina Lin. (2009) “Public participation and value advocacy in information design and sharing: Laying the foundations in advance of wide-scale public deployment,” Information Polity, 14(1-2), pp. 61-74.

Kahn, Peter H., Jr., Batya Friedman, Brian T. Gill, Jennifer Hagman, Rachel L. Severson, Nathan G. Freier, Erika  N. Feldman, Sybil Carrère, & Anna Stolyar.  (2008) “A Plasma Display Window? – The Shifting Baseline Problem in a Technologically-Mediated Natural World,” Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28(2), pp. 192-199.

Kahn, Peter H., Jr., Carol D. Saunders, Rachel L. Severson, Olin E. Myers, & Brian T. Gill. (2008) “Moral and Fearful Affiliations with the Animal World: Children’s Conceptions of Bats,” Anthrozoös, 21(4), pp. 375-386.

Gill, Brian T. and Thomas H. MacGregor. (2006) “The Hyperbolic Density near an Isolated Boundary Point”, Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, 36(6), pp. 1873-1884.

Friedman, Batya, Peter Kahn, Jennifer Hagman, Rachel Severson, & Brian Gill. (2006) “The Watcher and The Watched: Social Judgments about Privacy in a Public Place”, Human-Computer Interaction, 21(2), pp. 235-272.

Gill, Brian T. and Thomas H. MacGregor. (2003) “Minimum Points and Level Sets of the Hyperbolic Density”, Complex Variables, 48(3), pp. 225-234.

Peer Reviewed Proceedings

Woelfer, Jill P., Amy Iverson, David G. Hendry, Batya Friedman, and Brian T. Gill. (2011) "Improving the Safety of Homeless Young People with Mobile Phones: Values, Form and Function." Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press, 1707-1716.

Czeskis, Alexei, Ivayla Dermendjieva, Hussein Yapit, Alan Borning, Batya Friedman, Brian T. Gill, and Tadayoshi Kohno. (2010) "Parenting from the pocket: value tensions and technical directions for secure and private parent-teen mobile safety." Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security.  SOUPS '10, vol. 485. ACM, New York, NY, 1-15.

Denning, Tamara, Alan Borning, Batya Friedman, Brian Gill, Tadayoshi Kohno, and William H. Maisel. (2010) "Patients, Pacemakers, and Implantable Defibrillators: Human Values and Security for Wireless Implantable Medical Devices." Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 917-926.

Kahn, Peter H., Jr., Brian T. Gill, Aimee L. Reichert, Takayuki Kanda, Hiroshi Ishiguro, & Jolina H. Ruckert. (2010). Validating characterizations of sociality in HRI. In Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 50-57). United Kingdom: The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour.

Kahn, P. H., Jr., Gill, B. T., Reichert, A. L., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Ruckert, J. H. (2010). Validating interaction patterns in HRI. Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 183-184). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.

Friedman, B., Höök, K., Gill, B., Eidmar, L. & Sallmander Prien, C. (2008)  “Personlig Integritet: A Comparative Study of Perceptions of Privacy in Public Places in Sweden and the United States.” Proceedings of the Fifth Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - NordiCHI 2008 (pp. 142-151). New York, NY: ACM Press.

Friedman, Batya, Alan Borning, Janet L. Davis, Brian T. Gill, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Travis Kriplean, & Peyina Lin. (2008) “Laying the Foundations for Public Participation and Value Advocacy: Interaction Design for a Large Scale Urban Simulation,” Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o2008), (pp. 305-314).  Montreal, Canada: Digital Government Society of North America.

Stanton, Cady M., Pater H. Kahn, Jr., Rachel L. Severson, Jolina H. Ruckert, & Brian T. Gill. (2008) “Robotic Animals Might Aid in the Social Development of Children with Autism,”  Proceedings of the 3rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robotic Interaction, (pp. 271-278). New York, NY: ACM Press.

Miller, Jessica K., Batya Friedman, Gavin Jancke, & Brian Gill. (2007) “Value tensions in design: The value sensitive design, development, and appropriation of a corporation’s groupware system,” Proceedings of GROUP 2007, (pp. 281-290).  New York: ACM Press.

Invited Chapter in Book

Kahn, P. H., Jr., Reichert, A. L., Gill, B. T., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Ruckert, J. H. (in press). Validating characterizations of sociality in HRI: It’s more than psychometrics. In K. Dautenhahn & J. Saunders (Eds.), New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 57- 72). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Friedman, Batya, Peter H. Kahn Jr., Jennifer Hagman, Rachel L. Severson, and Brian Gill. "The Watcher and the Watched: Social Judgments about Privacy in a Public Place." Media Space 20+ Years of Mediated Life. Ed. Steve Harrison. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. London: Springer, 2009. 145-176.

Other Publications

Kahn, P. H. Jr., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Ruckert, J. H., Severson, R. L., Freier, N. G., Gill, B. T., Kane, S. K., Klasnja, P., and Reichert, A. L., (2010). Coding Manual for the “Robovie, You Need to Go into the Closet Now!” Study. Seattle, University of Washington, UW ResearchWorks Archive.

Funded Grants

“Maternal Age, Smoking, and Low Birth Weight: Interaction Effects in Logistic Regression.” (2006). Senior Faculty Research Grant, Seattle Pacific University.  Brian Gill (PI).

“Incorporating the use of computers and Maple into Calculus I and II.” (2004-2005). Academic Renewal Grant, College of Arts and Sciences, Seattle Pacific University.  Brian Gill (PI), Wai Lau, Steve Johnson, and Robbin O’Leary.

“Adaptation and Implementation of Research-based Curricula in Introductory Physics Courses.” (2003-2005). NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Grant, DUE-0310583. Stamatis Vokos (PI), Brian Gill (Co-PI), John Lindberg (Co-PI), and Lane Seeley (Co-PI).

“Interactive Web-Based Materials for Calculus Using LiveMath.” (2000-2001). Digital Materials Development Grant, Northwest Academic Computing Consortium.  Brian Gill (PI).

Other Substantial Grant Funding (as collaborator, but not PI or co-PI):

“Social and Moral Interaction Patterns with a Personified Robot." (2008-2010)  NSF HCC-SGER Grant. ($199,960)  Peter H. Kahn, Jr. (PI), University of Washington.  (Brian Gill funded as statistician)

“Value Sensitive Design - Integrating Values into the Design of Information and Computer Systems.” (2003-2009)  NSF Information Technology Research Grant IIS-0325035.  ($2,512,000)  Batya Friedman (PI) and Peter Kahn (co-PI), University of Washington.  (Brian Gill funded as statistician)

“Augmented Reality of the Natural World and Its Psychological Effects: A Value-Sensitive Design Approach.” (2001-2004)  NSF Grant IIS-0102558. ($523,908)   Peter H. Kahn, Jr. (PI), Batya Friedman (Co-PI), University of Washington, and Alan Beck (Co-PI), Purdue University.  (Brian Gill funded as statistical consultant)

Teaching & Advising

  • Courses Taught at Seattle Pacific University:
    • Calculus I
    • Calculus II
    • Multivariable Calculus
    • Introduction to Analysis
    • Real Analysis II
    • Complex Variables
    • Applied Analysis
    • Linear Algebra
    • Mathematics Seminar
    • Introduction to Statistics
    • Statistics for Business and Economics
    • Probability Theory
    • Applied Statistics
    • Probability and Statistics for Science & Mathematics
    • Engineering Probability & Statistics
    • Mathematical Statistics
    • University Seminar ("Does God Play Dice")
  • Courses taught at University of Washington:
    • Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning
    • Matrix Algebra
  • Courses taught at State University of New York at Albany:
    • Calculus I
    • Calculus II
    • Calculus of Several Variables
    • Precalculus
    • Business Calculus
    • Elementary Statistics
  • Courses taught at University of Kentucky:
    • Business Calculus
    • Computer lab sections for Calculus I and Calculus II
       

  • SPU University Scholars Honors Theses Advised:

    Samuelson, Bethany. (2006) “Hepatitis C: an Epidemiological Profile and Suggestions for Prevention and Management.” (2nd reader)

    Morse, Heather. (2005) “Gaming Nation: The Factors Affecting Consumer Demand for the Sony Playstation Two.” (2nd reader)

    Marston, Matthew J. (2002) “Wavelet-Based Image Compression.” (1st reader)

Professional Memberships

  • Mathematical Association of America
    • Project NExT Fellow of Mathematical Association of America (Brown Dot, 1999)
    • Statistics Education SIGMAA, Mathematical Association of America
  • American Statistical Association

Service to Professional Societies

  • Chair, Statistical Education Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America (Stat-Ed SIGMAA), 2011.  Served as chair-elect in 2010 and will serve as past-chair in 2012
  • Member, Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Curriculum Reform Across the First Two Years (CRAFTY) Subcommittee of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM), 2009-2015
  • Consultant, MAA's national Project NExT, 2006-present
  • Newsletter Editor, MAA Pacific Northwest Section (PNW MAA), 2001-2003
  • Exploratory committee for 2004 PNW MAA meeting in Anchorage, Alaska
  • Member of advisory board for Pacific Northwest Project NExT, 2000-2004
  • Organizing committee for 2002 joint PNW MAA-AMS meeting in Portland, Oregon
  • Local Arrangements Chair, PNW MAA, 200-2001
    • Organized 2001 annual PNW MAA meeting, hosted by Seattle Pacific University

University Service 

  • Chair, Mathematics Department, Seattle Pacific University, 2007-present

  • Instructional Development Committee, Seattle Pacific University, 3 year elected term, 2001-2004

    • Chair, 2003-2004

  • Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable, Seattle Pacific University, 2000-2001

  • Technology Task Force, Seattle Pacific University, 1999-2000

  • Webmaster, Seattle Pacific University Mathematics Department web pages, 1999-present

  • Coordinator for implementation of MINITAB in Elementary Statistics, Mathematics Department, The University at Albany, 1997-1999

Community Service 

  • School Board Vice Chair, Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic School, Bremerton, WA, 2003-2005
  • School Board Member, Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic School, 2002-2005

 

Send questions or comments to Brian Gill or call (206) 281-2954.
Copyright © 2012 Seattle Pacific University.

Mathematics Department
Seattle Pacific University
3307 Third Avenue West
Seattle, Washington 98119-1997
United States of America