INSPIRED 2009 Research Seminar

Featuring Guest Speaker
Dr. Juan E. Gilbert

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Professor and Chair of the Human Centered Computing Division in the\\ School of Computing at Clemson University
Dr. Gilbert has research projects in spoken language systems, advanced learning technologies, usability and accessibility, Ethnocomputing (Culturally Relevant Computing) and databases/data mining. He has published more than 80 articles, given more than 120 talks and obtained more than $9 million dollars in research funding. In 2002, Dr. Gilbert was named one of the nation's top African-American Scholars by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. He was recently named a Speech Technology Luminary by Speech Technology Magazine and a national role model by Minority Access Inc. Dr. Gilbert is also a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies, an ACM Distinguished Speaker and a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society.

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Brought to you by: INSPIRED • STAIRSTEP • Department of Computer Science • Lamar University • LU ACM

Date: Friday September 25, 2009
Location: 11:00am – 12:00pm in the Maes Building room 107

Coordinated by Daniel Vincent (Inspired team) Number of INSPIRED participants: 3 Names of INSPIRED participants:

• Daniel Vincent
• Valerie Juarez
• Kasey Doss

Number of STAIRSTEP participants: 2 Names of STAIRSTEP participants:

• Ric Guidry
• Sean Skelton

Preparation:

The preparation for the Research Seminar is simple. The speaker for this event was being compensated for his travel expenses. In order to aquired the speakers payment, the proper paperwork has to be filed with Lamar's Accounts payable department. .....to be continued..... In order for the Seminar to be a success we need to advertise its existence. I created flyers using Microsoft Word , got it approved to be post accross campus, and posted as many as I could accross various buildings along the campus. A certificate of appreciation can be created using Microsoft publisher.

Reports by all participants:

Dr. Gilbert’s talk was very encouraging. Before the Seminar he spoke about his venture through undergraduate and graduate school. I am debating on where I want to take my career and his testimony showed me the possibilities or beyond industry and education. “Human-Centered Computing”, before today I didn’t even know it existed or even what it stood for. Dr. Gilberts Prime III project was a great real world example to show how computer can solve problems we have been dealing with for hundreds of years like voting confidentially.
~Daniel

I greatly enjoyed Dr. Juan Gilbert's speech and lecture he gave at Lamar on September 25. He demonstrated a new schema for voting. One that would allow people regardless of disabilities to be able to cast vote. While the need for such a machine certainly exists it was interesting to see how much thought had been put into Prime 3. It was clear that the program had undergone extensive beta testing. This became more apparent when Dr. Gilbert began to answer questions by the audience. For example Dr. Gilbert explained that they chose to use a robotic voice for the system as it made the users who were blind feel as though there was no one else in the booth. He also said they had to speed up the voice of the system as the blind found it very slow.

In addition to the lecture Dr. Gilbert also stopped by the INSPIRE lab. The members introduced ourselves and Dr. Gilbert told us about his time in college and going for his PhD. He specifically gave me some interesting advice about how to approach applying to graduate school. For example he suggested that I personally phone instructors and ask them about their research and their doctoral program. This way they will know you on a more personal level and they can recommend for their peers to admit you into their program. I know I will definitely try this approach and hopefully will be successful.
~Ric

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert, Professor and Chair of Human Centered Computing Division in the School of Computing at Clemson University, joined us September 25th to discuss his research in electronic voting, and the PrimeIII voting machine.

Before the seminar, Dr. Gilbert spoke with the Inspired and Stairstep groups. He touched on many topics, from his time as a student, starting out as a chemistry major, to deciding to become a Professor. He shared helpful tips on how to get into undergrad research, to how to get experience, to how to get into graduate school. Dr. Gilbert was very personable, and easy to listen to.

The seminar itself was interesting. He introduced the PrimeIII voting program that he helped design and implement. The PrimeIII was inspired by the voting debacle of the Presidential election of 2000, between George W. Bush and Al Gore, and the continuous problem of the hanging chads produced from traditional paper based voting methods. The PrimeIII is a voting program implemented with a large touch screen, headphones, and a microphone. The program has been tested with both the blind and the deaf, as well as those with other disabilities. It was found to be successful in the sense that it gave individuals with handicaps the ability to vote independently. It also gives the voter a chance to clarify their ballots, before the votes are officially cast. The program uses a barcode system to record votes, so that when it comes to counting up the votes, all that has to be done is to scan the voting cards. I thought the seminar was intriguing. I hadn't given much thought to some of the problems that Dr. Gilbert said they had come across when testing the program.
~Kasey

We have received much more positive feedback from all participating faculty and students!

Statistics:

There were over 50 student, faculty, and staff members in attendance!
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