Combining computer science and psychology to support public safety

Studying collaborative digital systems in their environment

Helping the helpers: this is what motivated Lisa Formentini to embark upon a PhD focusing on emergency services in October 2023. “My objective is to understand how and why the Covid pandemic caused first responders’ collaborative practices to evolve, identify their issues, recognise their needs... with the hope that in the long term, creators of digital tools can draw on this research to develop solutions that are truly adapted to the environment of these services,” says the young researcher. 

This field of research has a name - Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, or CSCW. And the PhD candidate studies it through a particular lens: “visualising artefact ecologies”, i.e. observing digital collaboration networks; with artefacts that may be hardware (computers, phones, etc.) or software (intranet, shared storage spaces, applications, etc.). This exploratory avenue of research lies at the intersection of computer science, cognitive psychology and social psychology, identified by Inria and the eNSEMBLE PEPR (see inset), and a perfect match with Lisa Formentini’s background.  

Passionate about psychology  

After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, this versatile researcher went on to complete the first year of a Master’s in Digital Science, then another Master’s in Cognitive and Sociocognitive Dynamics. “I knew that I wanted to research psychology and I needed the tools to do so,” she explains. “How could I go deeper into the question of psychology without understanding the ins and outs of this technology? With the first Master’s, the aim was to give me these keys; the second, to develop my knowledge of my first love, focusing more specifically on cognitive psychology, i.e. the study of cognitive functioning, and social psychology, which is the study of individuals within a group.”

Alongside her studies, Lisa Formentini tested collaborative practices first-hand, initially by working with her friends to organise a TEDx conference in Belgium (which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to Covid), then through the Matrice incubator. This offered her the chance to develop a project aimed at events management companies, alongside other students with multidisciplinary backgrounds. The idea presented by Lisa Formentini and her fellow students was to create an AI capable of quantifying the attractiveness of a physical space, in order to guide the decisions of companies organising events. The concept was supported by Matrice. “For a year, we worked together to create a microenterprise to develop the project,” says Lisa Formentini. “Then, we each started to drift off on our own separate paths and it came to a natural end. But once again, it was a great collaboration!” 

Better understanding developments in collaboration related to Covid

Buoyed by all this experience, Formentini did not hesitate when she saw the PhD offer published by Inria: “It asked for technical IT skills, mastery of qualitative research methods and an interest in studying collaborative practices... It seemed like it was made for me!” the PhD student enthuses. “Straight away, I was drawn to the highly multidisciplinary nature of the work that Inria wanted to undertake, and the fact that it was real field work.” 

The conversations with her PhD supervisors, François Charoy (Université de Lorraine professor and a member of the Coast project team) and Matthieu Tixier (Troyes University of Technology) convinced her of the benefits that the research could have for emergency services.

One year later, Lisa Formentini has already laid the groundwork. “The first six months were devoted to carrying out a literature review, having discussions with different first responders (firefighters, police officers, and so on) and meetings with my PhD supervisors,” she says. “During this phase, I was able to, first of all, better identify and define artefact ecology and related theories, look more closely at the history of emergency services and finally, better understand what was expected of me. I was also able to identify the tools and collaborative practices used pre-Covid and therefore lay the foundations from which to start my research.”  

Responding to the real needs of professionals

Her research is based on two main sources: interviews with firefighters from the Moselle Departmental Fire and Emergency Service (SDIS57) and field observations. Lisa Formentini has already conducted around twenty-seven interviews, aiming to understand the firefighters’ missions and how they organise themselves, as well as how they use various digital tools, the context in which they started to use them, their collaborative practices in the field, and so on. As for the observations, they took place during trainings or through visiting physical spaces, such as crisis units. 

“These two methods are highly complementary: for example, the interviews revealed that Covid influenced each department differently and that these developments are ongoing,” says the PhD student. “During the pandemic, the firefighters spoke to each other on video calls, as they couldn’t be together at the fire station, and this practice continues to this day. As for the observations, they drew our attention to certain tools or practices that first responders didn’t necessarily think to mention during the interviews, because they are so obvious to them, but which are worth studying.”

Thanks to the data that’s already been gathered, an initial article should be published next year on how new digital tools were introduced into SDIS57. “It aims to draw on experience to show how important and complex the work environment is and that it is therefore imperative to take into account when designing tools,” says Lisa Formentini. “If a software program is very well designed but doesn’t respond to a real need or integrate into an existing environment, it will be useless.” 

This is just one demonstration of how computer science and psychology are complementary: one provides the object of study and the other, the methods. Lisa Formentini’s promising research will continue to better define these environments and their needs.