Toward Diversity in Information Access and Manipulation Graduate Student Consortium at VL/HCC'05 Grants for Graduate Students and Outside Experts *** Deadline extended to May 31. *** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://viscomp.utdallas.edu/vlhcc05/consortium.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Graduate students and other researchers whose work is related to the research theme below are invited to participate in a Graduate Student Consortium at the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC'05). VL/HCC'05 has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to cover travel expenses to attend the conference in Dallas, Texas, USA, on September 20-24, 2005. Eligibility for this funding is limited to students and other researchers from U.S. universities and research institutions; however, participants from outside the U.S. are encouraged to obtain other support to participate in this event. Research Theme -------------- How can designers of digital devices and environments better address universal access issues? Operation of digital devices is increasingly necessary in our information society, to locate, retrieve, and manipulate information, whenever it is needed, wherever it may reside. Providing these capabilities to all people, including those who are disadvantaged by their background, education, learning style, or physical abilities, is a universal access problem. In this event, we aim to explore all aspects of universal access, with a special emphasis on multi-modal interaction. We encourage submissions that explore interaction metaphors that utilize input methods beyond the keyboard and mouse and output methods beyond a two-dimensional display; and investigate the roles of mobile devices such as smart phones, PDAs, or wearable computers. Digital devices are in general created by a highly educated and privileged class of technology developers who all too frequently have little knowledge of the special needs of disadvantaged populations. Whether intentional or not, these developers embed their own value systems in the languages and tools they provide. We will explore ideas about how to analyze and respond to the special needs of disadvantaged populations as an integral component of the design process. We aim to look beyond surface-level interactions to consider an area of true information power: programming. Improving programming languages and tools through methods such as multi-modal interaction will help to ensure that all groups are able to learn and use the most powerful tools becoming part of everyday information literacy. At the same time, such efforts may lead researchers to identify programming metaphors and techniques that increase the usability of their languages and environments more generally. In this context, the term programming does not necessarily refer to languages designed for professional programmers, such as Java or Basic. Programming power has begun emerging in numerous forms. For example, CAD systems and spreadsheet systems are in actuality programming language environments, in which constraints and formulas are snippets of declarative programs. Other examples include multimedia/web authoring, voice mail programming, and building macros by demonstration. Who Can Participate ------------------- There are three categories of participation: 1) Graduate student researchers: Students may apply to present their work to a panel of experts and to interested conference attendees. The goal is to exchange ideas, generate new ones, and receive constructive feedback. Current Ph.D. students are preferred, but M.S. students who intend to go on to pursue a Ph.D. may also apply. For one third of the participation slots, returning student researchers will be given priority; and for the other slots, students who have not participated before will be given priority. Each student from the returning group will be linked with new students in a mentoring arrangement. 2) Outside experts: A few "outside expert" U.S. participants, who are not traditionally present at this conference, may also be eligible for travel support. They will assist the panel of experts in providing constructive feedback and insights. These participants should be specialists in areas relevant to the research question, such as specialists in education, the sociological aspects of computing, or ergonomics. 3) Other conference attendees: All other VL/HCC'05 conference attendees are invited to attend the event to listen to the presentations, interact with the participants, and add to the feedback available to the presenters. No additional sign-up process or registration fee is involved. The event will be one of the tracks during a portion of the main conference. Application Process ------------------- Applications from graduate students and outside experts are due May 31. Please send the following items by email: 1. A statement of up to 30 words explaining how your research fits the research theme listed above. 2. A 2-page research abstract, formatted in IEEE two-column conference format. Abstracts exceeding two pages will not be considered. The conference format is detailed at: http://www.computer.org/cspress/instruct.htm The 2-page research abstracts of accepted participants will be included in the conference proceedings. 3. A CV. 4. State whether you are applying as a student participant or an outside expert. 5. For students only, a letter of recommendation sent by your thesis advisor directly to the organizers in a separate email message. Preferred file format for attachments is PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format). If you are unable to comply, please contact the organizers. All submissions and other correspondence should be directed to John Pane ([log in to unmask]). Committee/Panel and Event Organizers ------------------------------------ John Pane (RAND Corporation) Margaret Burnett (Oregon State University) Mary Beth Rosson (Pennsylvania State University) Steve Tanimoto (University of Washington) Dates ----- Deadline for applications: May 31. Notification: June 3. Final camera-ready abstracts due: June 17. Event: September 20-24, 2005. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://viscomp.utdallas.edu/vlhcc05/consortium.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send an empty email to mailto:[log in to unmask] For further details of CHI lists see http://sigchi.org/listserv ---------------------------------------------------------------