The Loveliest Village

Auburn’s Computer Science and Software Engineering Department promote the many benefits of user friendly technology to students and faculty members on Nov. 14, 2006. Presentations will be held in the Dunstan Hall conference room from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Students and faculty are encouraged to participate by sharing research on user centric products or services by submitting an article online. The presentations will be given in Dunstan Hall and broadcast live on the Web. Some of the presentations include Holistic Usability Measure, Electronic Voting System, and Assistive Technology in the Workplace.

“Making Life Easy!” serves as the event theme. Engineers stress their desire to make software programs accessible for users and encourage the users to continue asking for easy to use technology. Over 210 events will be held in 39 countries; Auburn proudly contributes to the beneficial cause.

Program public relations manager Priyanka Gupta said, “Usable technology makes a difference to everyone, everywhere in the world.” Healthcare professionals can better help their patients if they understand how to use their equipment most effectively; electronic voting could prove beneficial if voters realize how to correctly cast their votes; and teachers may better educate their students through technology in the classroom.

Gupta hopes the World Usability conference will provide a forum for the creators and users of new technology systems to collaborate and understand each other’s needs more clearly. Everyone should be included in this process, according to Gupta.

Volunteers and local event coordinators work together to make the conference a reality. Thirty-six hours of usability conferences will be held around the globe on Nov. 14, deemed World Usability Day. Each conference promotes the discussion and inclusion of user friendly software technologies and “Making Life Easy.”

Daniela Marghitu serves as coordinator of Computer 1000 level classes in the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department. She is also chair of the Usability Conference at Auburn and will present on Maximizing the Universal Usability of a Computer Literacy Course.

Marghitu’s lecture will focus on information technology (IT) systems used by students with disabilities. Eventhough government regulations do not require schools to teach IT systems to disability students, public universities will have to in the near future. More than a thousand enrolled students are served by the Office of Students with Disabilities currently, according to Marghitu.

“Technology-enhanced education is becoming an increasingly important part of higher and professional education,” said Marghitu. “The IT solutions for training, assessment, testing, Web-based Course Management and Web-based Integrated Learning Environments are becoming more and more part of the IT academic programs.”

Associate Professor Juan Gilbert will give his presentation on the new Prime III voting system. This new technology allows voters to use a touchscreen to cast their vote or record their vote through a headset, also referred to as automated speech recognition (ASR). The ASR feature permits people with physical disabilities, such as arthritis or visual impairment, to cast their vote.

Visit the Web site www.WorldUsabilityAtAuburn.com/ to view the presentations live.

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