Doctoral Consortium for Research In Universally Accessible IT

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This is funding to support a research symposium (workshop) of approximately 15 promising doctoral students from the United States and abroad, along with distinguished research faculty. The event will take place in conjunction with the 6th International ACM SIGCAPH Conference on Assistive Technologies (ASSETS'04), to be held October 18-20 in Atlanta, and sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computers and the Physically Handicapped. The ASSETS conference is the premier forum for presenting research results and innovations in software and technology designed to address the special needs of people with disabilities of all kinds. Researchers and developers from both academia and industry around the world will meet to exchange ideas and present reports on the latest work relating to speech, motor, hearing, and vision impairments, cognitive limitations, emotional and learning disabilities, and aging. The ASSETS'04 doctoral research symposium will provide an opportunity for graduate students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished experts in the field. Student participants will make formal presentations of their work during the symposium, and will receive constructive feedback from a faculty panel. The feedback is designed to help students understand and articulate how their work is positioned relative to related research, whether their topics are adequately focused for thesis research projects, whether their methods are correctly chosen and applied, and whether their results are appropriately analyzed and presented. Thus, the symposium will help shape ongoing and future research projects aimed at assistive technologies and universal access, will promote scholarship and networking among new researchers in this emerging interdisciplinary area, and will expose these promising young researchers to a larger community. Evaluation of the symposium will be conducted, and the results made available to the organizers of future such events. Broader Impacts: The doctoral symposium will help expand the participation of young researchers pursuing graduate studies in this field, by providing them an opportunity to gain wider exposure in the community for their innovative work and to obtain feedback and guidance from senior members of the research community. It will further help foster a sense of community among these young researchers, by allowing them to create a social network both among themselves and with senior researchers at a critical stage in their professional development. Because the students and faculty constitute a diverse group across a variety of dimensions, including nationality/cultural and scientific discipline, the students' horizons are broadened to the future benefit of the field.