IIS Workshop: Human-Computer Interaction Doctoral Research Consortium at ACM CHI 2008: Human Factor in Computing Systems

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This 12-month standard award is to support a Doctoral Consortium program at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems to be held in Florence, Italy on April 5-10, 2008 (http://www.chi2008.org/). This will bring together fifteen dissertation-stage doctoral students in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) for two days of presentations and interactions with five faculty members selected from among distinguished HCI researchers. The students represent an intellectually diverse and excellent sample of the next generation of scholars, embodying a broad cross-section of HCI subfields and reflecting the geographic and demographic diversity of the community. The CHI Doctoral Consortium, which began in 1986, has been highly successful in providing a forum for the initial socialization into the field of young doctoral scholars. Many of today?s leading HCI researchers participated in earlier Consortia as students. This project provides support for the travel and lodging of the students as well as some of the direct expenses of putting on the Doctoral Consortium at the CHI 2008 meeting. Intellectual Merit: The focus of the CHI Doctoral Consortium is the students? doctoral dissertation research. Since the students are selected chiefly on grounds of research excellence, this research represents the state-of-the-art in the field of HCI. The Consortium provides an opportunity both for these projects to be shaped and improved through intellectual exchange as well as for the students to present and communicate the character of their work to a key group of their peer professionals. Broader Impact: The CHI Doctoral Consortium brings together the best of the next generation of HCI researchers. This allows them to create a social network both among themselves and with several senior researchers, which plays a major role in their enculturation into the profession. Since the students and faculty are a diverse group on several dimensions (geography, scientific discipline, research specialization, demographics), the students? horizons are broadened at a critical stage in their professional development.