His research concerns interactions between technology, information, and people. Among his current research projects, Beaton is studying public participation in the sciences and the crowdsourcing of scientific and biomedical research. His work at UNLV will focus on the growing use of online games designed to involve ordinary people in the collection, manipulation, and analysis of large scientific data sets. He will be studying how Las Vegas casinos draw crowds, looking for crowd-drawing techniques that seem to hold the most potential for re-use and adaptation within the context of online “citizen science” games. Beaton hopes to learn how to attract more people to such games, utilizing those strategies proven effective in Las Vegas casinos and gaming centers.