ACM Mid-Atlantic Special Interest Group on Accessibility

User Interface Design and Functional Gains from Cognitive
Assistive Technology: Treading on the Frontiers of Neuroscience

Dr. Elliot Cole
Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics

1:30pm Thursday, 4 April 2013, ITE 404, UMBC

Assistive Technology can and should be viewed as a therapy modality, by increasing functioning as a technology effect, and sometimes by an increase in underlying abilities through one or more neuroscience mechanisms. User interface design has been a core technique in achieving gains in the cognitive dimensions. Patient-Centered Design was developed as a methodology to help achieve these gains. This methodology seems to be a close relative of Ability-Based Design. Case studies will help demonstrate effects achieved with Patient-Centered Design. Older psychological and the emerging neuroscience paradigm will be presented.

Elliot Cole, PhD is the founder of the Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics. He brings his training in human-centered computing to developing technology and techniques which address cognitive disabilities from brain injury. The Institute's successful R&D efforts came from a multidisciplinary staff from clinical and computing specialties working closely together and focusing on the rehabilitation needs of the individual patient. This approach has generated deep knowledge of the cognitive disabilities computing domain. For over a decade, the Institute had a "lab" brain injury cognitive rehabilitation facility. Dr. Cole was an associate professor at Drexel University and a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is currently a Visiting Scholar. His book Patient-Centered Design of Cognitive Assistive Technology for Traumatic Brain Injury Telerehabilitation is being published in April by Morgan and Claypool as part of the series Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies.

The UMBC Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department will hold its annual day-long research review from 9:00am to 4:00pm on Friday April 12, 2013 in University Center Ballroom.  Faculty, research staff and students will present their latest research results in talks, posters and demonstrations. Refreshments and a free buffet lunch are provided.  Submit poster and talk abstracts by April 8.  The public is welcome. 

The UMBC Center for Women in Technology will hold its 3rd Annual CWIT Spring into Leadership event on Thursday evening, April 11, 2013 in the University Center Ballroom at UMBC. Space is limited and registration is required. Register online by Monday, April 8.

Schedule
   6:15-6:30 Check-in and Refreshments, UC 3rd floor
   6:30-7:00 Networking Activity, Dessert will be served!
   7:10-7:30 Keynote Speaker's Story: Tina Kuhn, Northrop Grumman Corporation
   7:30-7:45 Discussion Activity and Q&A with Ms. Kuhn
   7:45-8:00 Wrap-Up & Evaluations

Keynote Speaker:

Ms. Tina Kuhn
Vice President, Security and Information Operations
Cyber Intelligence Division
Northrop Grumman Information Systems

Ms. Kuhn will share information about her career path and offer advice and wisdom based on her personal experiences as a successful technical leader.

Tina Kuhn is vice president of Security and Information Operations (S&IO) in the Cyber Solutions division of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector. The S&IO business unit provides intelligence-related systems and services to U.S. government and international security customers. The organization’s focus is on full-spectrum cyber solutions that protect critical national systems and support the nation’s information dominance. S&IO also is a premier supplier and integrator of net-centric, next-generation signal processing solutions for specialized customers. Ms. Kuhn brings more than 25 years of management experience to her current position. She joined Northrop Grumman from General Dynamics, where she served as vice president of its Intelligence Systems line of business, leading three business units that addressed the cyber and intelligence communities. Prior to that, she was the vice president/director of programs for the Intelligence and Information Solutions business unit for SAIC in Columbia MD. Ms. Kuhn began her career at General Electric and also held positions at GTE Corp. Ms. Kuhn has a bachelor’s degree in information systems management from the University of Maryland and also is a certified Program Management Professional.

The event is co-hosted by the Center for Women in Technology, CWIT Student Council, IS Council of Majors, SWE, ASME, and the WISE graduate student organization. Contact Dr. Susan Martin, Associate CWIT Director as susan at umbc.edu if you have any questions about the event or registering online.

UMBC Information Systems Distinguished Speaker

The Potential of Technology Systems for Enhancing the
Independence and Quality of Life for Older Adults

Dr. Sara J. Czaja

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
and Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Miami

10:00am Thursday, March 28, 2013, ITE 456, UMBC

Sara J. Czaja is a Leonard M. Miller Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami. She is also the Scientific Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami and the Director of the Center on Research and Education for Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE). The focus of CREATE is on making technology more accessible, useful, and usable for older adults. Dr. Czaja has extensive experience in aging research and a long commitment to developing strategies to improve the quality of life for older adults. Her research interests include: aging and cognition, aging and healthcare access, family caregiving, aging and technology, and functional assessment. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Gerontological Society of America. She served as a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of the APA Presidential Task Force on Integrative Healthcare for an Aging Population. In addition, she is a member of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human Factors and Home Health Care.

The UMBC Council of Computing Majors (CCM) will hold a general meeting from 3:00pm to 4:00pm this Wednesday, April 27, in the CSEE Department conference room, ITE 325b.

Come discuss service opportunities, CSEE speakers, and upcoming CCM events.  Several professors have generously agreed to lecture on tools and topics in computer science.  Dates and details will be announced at the meeting.

The Council of Computing Majors is a student organization for CMSC and CMPE majors and other students interested in computing.  Come if you are interested in joining or just finding out more about the CCM.

For questions of more information, send email to Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

The CSEE Department will hold a CMPE Undergraduate Townhall Meeting on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 from 11:30am to 1:00pm in the University Center Ballroom Lounge. All CMPE majors and other interested students are welcome.

We will discuss recent important changes to the CMPE program, course scheduling, current Capstone projects, the BS/MS program, guidance about undergraduate research opportunities, and more. There will also be ample time for questions and discussion.

Please sign up in your CMPE classes by Friday, March 29. If you have any questions, please contact Professor Chintan Patel at Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

Rick Forno, Assistant Director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, was quoted in an article in the Louisville KY Courier-Journal about a compromised online poll the paper ran about Internet voting. The paper's March 20th poll was prompted by a Kentucky initiative to make voting easier for overseas personnel and asked "Should overseas U.S. military personnel be allowed to vote via the Internet?".

University of South Carolina computer science professor Duncan Buell and his students cast tens of thousands of votes for the "No, the possibility of fraud is just too great" response to highlight the potential risks of online voting.  Before the poll was shut down, more than 91% of the votes cast were negative and only 7% were positive ("Yes, it can be made just as secure as any balloting system").

In the Courier-Journal article, Forno pointed commented on relatively low security for most online polls.

But the difference between an online newspaper poll and state-run online election balloting is “night and day,” said Richard Forno, director of the Graduate Cybersecurity Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and assistant director of the university’s Center for Cybersecurity. “I’m not saying it’s impossible to hack some online voting for a state election, but it’s much more difficult to do it there” than with the newspaper’s poll, Forno said. A state election system “would have far more security features built in,” he said.  …   Forno said hacking generally is on the increase in the United States. “We’re seeing more and more cyber-related incidents” of all kinds, ranging from foreign theft of the intellectual property of U.S. companies to theft of personal information and webpage defacement, he said.

The security of voting systems is a specialty of UMBC Professor Alan Sherman, whose Center for Information Security and Assurance has worked on secure voting systems for more than ten years. In 2009, Sherman and his students helped the city of Takoma Park, Maryland use the Scantegrity voting system — the first time any end-to-end cryptographic system will be used in a binding governmental election.

The Problem with Print: publishing born digital scholarship

Professor Helen J. Burgess
Department of English, UMBC

4:00pm Monday, 25 March 2013
7th Floor, A. O. Kuhn Library

Dr. Burgess will discuss some of the difficulties for academics seeking to work and publish outside traditional "print-bound" models of humanities scholarship – including issues of professional evaluation and distribution – and show some examples of "born digital" works that would benefit from a new model of publishing. A reception, sponsored by the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, will follow the program.

Helen J. Burgess is an Assistant Professor of English in the Communication and Technology track. Dr Burgess received her BA(Hons) and MA(Dist.) in English Language and Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand, and her PhD in English from West Virginia University. She is active in the new media research community as editor of the online journal Hyperrhiz: new Media Cultures, and technical editor of Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. Dr Burgess is coauthor of Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Enounters with Mars and Biofutures: Owning Body Parts and Information, both titles published in the Mariner10 interactive DVD-Rom series at the University of Pennsylvania Press. She has interests in multimedia and web development, open source and open content production, electronic literature, and science fiction.