HCI News
Volume 4, Issue 1	September 1, 2009
New HCI Students Twenty-three new students have been admitted to the HCI Graduate Program for Fall 2009. Sondra Ashmore, PhD student working with Anthony Townsend. Sondra earned her BA in Communication Studies from ISU and an MS in Management and an MS in Technical Communication/HCI from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  She is from Tucson, AZ and works for IBM. Kiraz Candan Herdem, PhD student working with Julie Dickerson.  Candan comes to us from Turkey, where she earned her BS in Computer Engineering from Erciyes University and her MS in Computer Engineering from Gazi University. Ryan Kirk, PhD student working with Jared Danielson. Ryan earned his BS in Psychology from Drake University. Ryan Pavlik, PhD student working with Judy Vance.  Ryan earned his BS in Computer Science, Math and Spanish from St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Volodymyr Sukhoy, PhD student working with Alex Stoytchev.  Volodymyr is also working on his MS in Math at ISU. Anicia Peters, PhD student working with Brian Mennecke.  Anicia is a Fulbright Scholar from Nambia, where she earned her BS in Information Technology from Polytechnic University. Natayla Koehler, PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction with an HCI co-major.  She is working with Ann Thompson. Wutthigrai Boonsuk, MS student working with Stephen Gilbert.  Wutthigrai earned his Ph.D. in IMSE from Iowa State University. Nikolaus Karpinsky, MS student working with Song Zhang.  Nik earned his BS in Software Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Jay Roltgen, MS student working with Stephen Gilbert.  Jay earned his BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from ISU.  He is also working on an ECpE co-major. Mark Stenerson, MS student working with Eve Wurtele. Mark earned his BS in Computer Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. The following students were admitted to the HCI MS Online program. Stephen Gilbert serves as their major professor. Joshua Brooks is from Colorado Springs, CO and is a Systems Administrator for Frontier Technology, Inc. Esther Holmes is from San Luis Obispo, CA and is an Information Engineer Associate with Lockheed Martin.  She also is an Independent Contractor working as a Software Engineer and a Usability Analyst. Nathan Landis lives in Ames and works for TeamQuest.  He completed the HCI Graduate Certificate in the Fall of 2007. Dillan Laughlin is from Des Moines. His undergraduate degree is in Management and Marketing from the University of Iowa. Ann Mickelson is from Stillwater, MN and is a Usability Manager with Minnetronix in Satin Paul, MN. Dillard Ortego is from Lafayette, LA and is a Systems Administrator for Oats & Hudson Attorneys at Law. Sheri Poulson is from Des Moines, IA and is a Web Project Manager with American Enterprise. Michael Tate lives in Ames.  He earned his BS in MIS from Iowa State University. He is the owner of Tate Enterprises, Inc. and is also in the Iowa Army National Guard. The following students were admitted to the HCI Graduate Certificate program.  Jim Oliver serves as their major professor. Lynda Baker is from Oxford, PA and is a Global Associate Knowledge Manager for eLearning Development for Deloitte, Touche & Tohmatsu in Glen Mills, PA. Samantha Dahlby is from Cedar Rapids, IA and is Personal Area Network Software Engineer for Intermec Technologies. Tracy Goldbach is from Eighty Four, PA and works as a Programmer for Community Care Behavioral Health in Pittsburg, PA. Ashley Kline is from Columbus, OH and works for HMB, Inc. as an Associate Software Consultant. Women in HCI Lecture Series to resume this Fall The HCI Graduate Program will host two lectures this fall as part of the Women in HCI Lecture Series. Rosalind Picard from MIT will visit the program on Monday, September 21.  She will speak in the Howe Hall Alliant Energy Auditorium at 1:10 pm.  Her talk is entitled Emotional Intelligence Technology and Autism. Allison Druin Director of the HCI Lab at the University of Maryland will visit the program on Friday, October 9.  She will speak at noon in the Howe Hall Alliant Energy Auditorium. Her talk is entitled Mobile Technologies for Children. More information about meetings with these women and HCI faculty and students will be sent to you by email before their visits. All ISU faculty and students are invited to attend. HCI Supervisory Committee The HCI Graduate Program is an interdisciplinary graduate program administered by the HCI Supervisory Committee. The committee also includes one student representative.  The committee members for this year include the following: Jim Oliver, Director Stephen Gilbert, Associate Director Julie Dickerson, Electrical and Computer Engineering Douglas Gentile, Psychology Brian Mennecke, Logistics, Operations & Management Information Systems Debra Satterfield, Art and Design Judy Vance, Mechanical Engineering Andrea Peer, HCI student representative Pam Shill, HCI Program Coordinator Please contact any of these members with comments or concerns you may have about the program.  The committee meets monthly throughout the academic year.	Summer 2009 HCI Graduates Five students graduated this summer with degrees in HCI. Muthukkumar Kadavasal: Ph.D. in HCI Major Professor: Jim Oliver Dissertation Topic: Virtual reality based multi-modal teleoperation using mixed autonomy Kumar is working at Garmin in Olathe, Kansas. Lucas Bonansea: M.S. with co-majors in Human Computer Interaction and Computer Science. Co-major Professors:  Stephen Gilbert and Vasant Honavar Thesis Topic: 3D Hand gesture recognition using a Zcam and an SVM-SMO classifier. Lucas went back to Argentina to look for a professional position. Levi Swartzentruber: M.S. with co-majors in Human Computer Interaction and Mechanical Engineering Major Professor: Eliot Winer Thesis Topic: Improving Path Planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in an Immersive Environment using Meta-Paths and Terrain Information. Levi is currently Staff-in-Training with the Navigators in Metamora, Illinois. Brandon Newendorp: M.S. in HCI Major Professor: Eliot Winer Thesis Topic: Real-time scenegraph creation and manipulation in an immersive environment using an iPhone. Brandon is enrolled in the HCI Ph.D. program at ISU. Travis Engelhaupt: MS in HCI Co-major Professors: Anthony Townsend and Stephen Gilbert Capstone Course Topic: Interactive Kiosk Demonstrating ISU’s Commitment to Green. Travis is working at ISU and Kung Pow Studios, which is his start-up. Visit the new HCI Alumni webpage at http://www.hci.iastate.edu/People/alumni.php for more information about all of our graduates. SPIRE-EIT for Summer 2009 Fifteen undergraduates from across the country took part in the HCI Graduate Program’s summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program this summer.  This program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The interns were divided into five interdisciplinary research teams, with HCI Faculty and HCI graduate students serving as mentors. The interns presented posters and technical demonstrations of their research at the ISU Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium on July 31 in Howe Hall. The research projects and participants were: The Effect of Interface Domain on Decision Making Experience. Faculty: Nir Keren Grad Mentor: Ross Bohner Interns: Bella Manoim, Bard College; Richard Garcia Lebron, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras; Andrew Newman, Franklin College. Markerless Motion Tracking Faculty:  Song Zhang Grad Mentor: Ken Kopecky Interns: Kelly Bryon, University of Southern California; Linh Pham, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Joshua Situka, University of Houston. Developmental Robotics Faculty:  Alexander Stoytchev Grad Mentors: Jivko Sinapov and Shane Griffith Interns: Taylor Bergquist, Iowa State University, Ugonna Ohiri, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Connor Schenck, Iowa State University. Augmented Tele-robotic Control Faculty:  Richard Stone Graduate Mentors:  Minglu Wang and Jay Roltgen Interns: Amy Green, Northwestern College; Ivan Ojeda, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras; P.J. Campbell, St. John’s University. Psychophysiological Data Acquisition in Digital Games Faculty: Rob West, Brian Mennecke, Stephen Gilbert Grad Mentors: Kira Bailey and Wutthigrai Boonsuk Interns: Mina Choi, George Washington University; Michael Curtis, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Hamadi McIntosh, San Jose State University. Summer 2009 REU Interns Conference Attendance Jivko Sinapov, Ph.D. student in HCI and Computer Science, and three of our summer REU interns, Ugonna Ohiri, Connor Schenck, and Taylor Bergquist, attended the 2009 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference in Seattle, WA in June. Jivko presented an original research paper on Robot Manipulation.  Jivko’s major professor is Alexander Stoytchev. CHI 2010 CHI (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) 2010 will be held April 10-15 in Atlanta, GA.  The theme of the conference is We Are HCI. Deadlines are: September 17, 2009: Papers and Notes October 9, 2009: Media Showcase (Doctoral Consortium, Panels, Case Studies) January 4, 2010: Special Interest Groups (SIGS), Work-in-Progress, alt.chi and Student Research Competition, Student Design Competition. More information about CHI can be found on their website at www.chi2010.org. Mark your Calendars September 2:  VRAC Potluck at noon. September 7:  Labor Day Holiday September 16: HCI Supervisory Committee meets September 21: Women in HCI Lecture by Rosalind Picard of MIT at 1:10 pm in the Howe Auditorium Each Thursday: HCI Student Group Meetings from 5-6 pm. FuTURE EVENTS October 6:  Allison Druin Lecture, Women in HCI Lecture Series October 26:  Deere Day November 12: World Usability Day Please contact Pam Shill at pshill@iastate.edu if you have an item of interest for a future newsletter.
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