Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE): An interdisciplinary hub for human-computing systems to support communication and behavior change

Ahn, Sun Joo (Grace) (2025). “Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE): An interdisciplinary hub for human-computing systems to support communication and behavior change,” in C. Edwards, A. Edwards, & P. R. Spence (Eds.), Creating Communication and Media Research Labs: A Blueprint for Success. PalGrave MacMillan. Abstract: The Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE) is an interdisciplinary research hub at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA, United States) that brings together expertise across communication, engineering, and public health as the core group and involves faculty affiliates in education, psychology, family and consumer sciences, computer science, kinesiology, and pharmacy whose expertise may be added to the core team as needed based on the project at hand. The CACHE center’s primary mission is to understand how humans can leverage features of computing systems to initiate and sustain communicative behaviors that promote physical and mental well-being and can provide timely assistance so that they can become better consumers of information. Although the CACHE center’s work is best known for our expertise in spatial computing and extended realities (e.g., virtual reality [VR], augmented reality [AR], mixed reality [MR]), life in the modern world involves some form of interaction with computing systems (e.g., wearables, sensors, video games, social and online media, AI); consequently, the CACHE center’s research portfolio has become incredibly diverse. Key domains of research include media psychology, health communication, environment and sustainability communication, education, and training.