WORKSHOP: Doctoral Consortium at ASSETS 2017

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This is funding to support a Doctoral Consortium (workshop) of approximately 12 promising graduate students (10 from the United States to be funded by this award), along with 5 distinguished research faculty. The event will take place on Sunday, October 29, immediately preceding and in conjunction with the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2017), to be held October 30-November 1 in Baltimore,, MD. The ASSETS conferences are the premier forum for presenting innovative research on the design and use of both mainstream and specialized assistive technologies. This includes the use of technology by and in support of: individuals with hearing, vision and other sensory impairments; individuals with motor impairments; individuals with memory, learning and cognitive impairments; individuals with multiple impairments; older adults; and professionals who work with these populations. Researchers and developers from around the world, in both academia and industry, will meet at ASSETS 2017 to exchange ideas and present their latest work. More information about the conference may be found online at http://assets17.sigaccess.org/. A key component of building any community is through its youth. The Doctoral Consortium 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. The organizers will take steps to promote participation from institutions with relatively large numbers of students from under-represented groups. To further increase diversity, the organizers will aim for equal participation of females and males in the consortium, and will not invite more than 1 or 2 students from the same educational institution; if two students from the same educational institution are selected, the organizers will ensure that at least one of them is from an underrepresented minority in STEM. In an effort to further integrate the Doctoral Consortium participants into the conference itself, a session has been set aside in the technical program to allow all Doctoral Consortium participants to present their research to the full conference. The ASSETS 2017 Doctoral Consortium will be a research-focused meeting of an international group of selected Ph.D. candidates and an international panel of distinguished research faculty (the latter yet to be named). It will provide an opportunity for graduate students from diverse backgrounds (computing, engineering, psychology, architecture, etc.) to come together and explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of the PI and the panel of experts, so that they can appreciate the broader spectrum of research and development approaches to assistive technologies and universal usability, and also experience the community in which they can pursue their endeavors. Student participants will make formal presentations of their work during the consortium, and will receive constructive feedback from the 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 consortium will help shape ongoing and future research projects aimed at assistive technologies and universal access, will promote scholarship and networking among new researchers in these interdisciplinary fields, and will also expose the young researchers to a larger community. In addition, the faculty will give a presentation on job opportunities for researchers in both academia and industry, to better inform the students when considering career options. An evaluation of the consortium will be conducted and the results made available to the organizers of future such events.