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Tracy Hammond

Texas A&M University, Deapartment of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty Member

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Director of the Institute for Engineering Education & Innovation, Director of Sketch Recognition Lab, and Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, Dr. Hammond is an international leader in activity recognition (focusing on eye, body, and sketch motions), haptics, intelligent fabrics, SmartPhone development, and computer-human interaction research.

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Francisco Vides

Texas A&M University

Tracy A Hammond

Texas A&M University

University of Southern California

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

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Papers by Tracy Hammond

Frontiers in Pen and Touch

Human–Computer Interaction Series, 2017

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Score Improvement Distribution When Using Sketch Recognition Software (Mechanix) as a Tutor: Assessment of a High School Classroom Pilot

Human-computer interaction series, 2017

Effectively communicating engineering concepts in high school classrooms is an important goal of ... more Effectively communicating engineering concepts in high school classrooms is an important goal of many curricula in secondary education since the material can help prepare students for future study in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. However, the material can be challenging. This work describes the deployment of Mechanix to a high school environment with the intent of improving the effectiveness of student practice regarding free body diagrams, vector analysis, and truss problem solving. Mechanix is a globally-available, Internet-connected digital tutor that provides immediate, constructive feedback to the learner while also providing student-level metrics to the instructor. It was made available to students in a STEM-infused classroom as part of Project Lead the Way (PLTW). The focus of this study is to evaluate the progress realized by differing academic levels of students. We used pre- and post-testing to assess progress, which showed an average increase of 1.65 points on a 12 point scale (p < 0. 005). A greater increase was found in the ‘A-level’ high school students while historical, college-level studies suggest significant progress may be realized at all levels versus current tutoring techniques as the students continue to utilize Mechanix.

STRAT: a Sketched-truss Recognition and Analysis Tool

Distributed Multimedia Systems, 2008

Abstract The statically-determinate, pin-connected truss is a basic structural element used by en... more Abstract The statically-determinate, pin-connected truss is a basic structural element used by engineers to create larger and more complex systems. Truss analysis and design are topics that virtually all students who study engineering mechanics are required to master, many of whom may experience difficulty with initial understanding. The mathematics used to analyze truss systems typically requires lengthy hand calculations or the assistance of proprietary computer-aided design (CAD) programs. To expedite work in this domain, we propose: ...

LADDER: a language to describe drawing, display, and editing in sketch recognition

International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Aug 9, 2003

We have created LADDER, the first language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are draw... more We have created LADDER, the first language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are drawn, displayed, and edited. The difficulty in creating such a language is choosing a set of predefined entities that is broad enough to support a wide range of domains, while remaining narrow enough to be comprehensible. The language consists of predefined shapes, constraints, editing behaviors, and display methods, as well as a syntax for specifying a domain description sketch grammar and extending the language, ensuring that shapes and shape groups from many domains can be described. The language allows shapes to be built hierarchically (e.g., an arrow is built out of three lines), and includes the concept of "abstract shapes", analogous to abstract classes in an object oriented language. Shape groups describe how multiple domain shapes interact and can provide the sketch recognition system with information to be used in top-down recognition. Shape groups can also be used to describe "chain-reaction" editing commands that effect multiple shapes at once. To test that recognition is feasible using this language, we have built a simple domain-independent sketch recognition system that parses the domain descriptions and generates the code necessary to recognize the shapes.

RésuMatcher: A personalized résumé-job matching system

Expert Systems With Applications, Oct 1, 2016

Today, online recruiting web sites such as Monster and Indeed.com have become one of the main cha... more Today, online recruiting web sites such as Monster and Indeed.com have become one of the main channels for people to find jobs. These web platforms have provided their services for more than ten years, and have saved a lot of time and money for both job seekers and organizations who want to hire people. However, traditional information retrieval techniques may not be appropriate for users. The reason is

We have created and tested Tahuti, a dual-view sketch recognition environment for chum di~raum in... more We have created and tested Tahuti, a dual-view sketch recognition environment for chum di~raum in L~J.L. The system is based on a multi-layer recognition frsm~ework which recognizes multi-stroke objects by their geometrical properties allowing users the freedom to draw naturally as they would on paper rather than requiring the user to draw the objects in a pre-d~ned msnner. Users can draw and edit while viewing either their origins] strokes or the interpreted veal!on of their strokes engendering user-autonomy in sketching. The experiments showed that tmem prefwzed ~khufi to a paint program and to Rations] RcaeTMbecatme it combined the ease of drawing found in a paint program with the ease of editing available in a UML editor.

Comparing Student and Recruiter Evaluations of Computer Science Resumes

IEEE Transactions on Education

The Development of a Texas A&M University Faculty of Engineering Education

ASEE 2021 Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference, Mar 24, 2021

Revolutionizing Education with Digital Ink: The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education

Springer eBooks, Jun 13, 2016

Direct Injuries and Fatalities of Texas Tornado Outbreaks from 1973 to 2007

The Professional Geographer, 2021

Since 1950, tornadoes have accounted for nearly one third of disaster-related fatalities in the U... more Since 1950, tornadoes have accounted for nearly one third of disaster-related fatalities in the United States, the third highest after floods and lightning. The largest share of fatalities occurred in the state of Texas, which also accounts for about 7 percent of the overall property damage from tornadoes. An increasing proportion of tornadoes occur during tornado outbreaks, which were responsible for almost 80 percent of tornado-related fatalities in the United States between 1972 and 2010. Although the relationships between tornado severity, economic damage, and injuries and fatalities are generally well understood, few studies examine how injuries and fatalities are affected by a single tornado versus those that are part of a tornado outbreak. This work analyzes a data set of Texas tornadoes that occurred between January 1973 and January 2007, through nonparametric statistical and spatial analyses, examining the associations between tornado severity, number, and geography of occurrence as related to direct injuries and fatalities in severe weather events. Results indicate that tornado severity exacerbates causalities, but outbreaks do have some effect as well. These findings have potential implications for improving forecasting, warning, and preparedness for tornado outbreaks, which could be critical to reducing deaths and injuries from future tornadoes.

A Rapid and Formative Response by the Engineering Education Faculty to Support the Engineering Faculty and Students Throughout the Extreme Classroom Changes Resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Her research focuses on creating intelligent systems for tasks that require human-like levels of ... more

EasySketch2: a novel sketch-based interface for improving children's fine motor skills and school readiness

Children’s fine motor skills are associated with enhanced drawing skills, as well as improved cre... more Children’s fine motor skills are associated with enhanced drawing skills, as well as improved creativity, self-regulation skills, and school readiness. Assessing these skills enables parents and teachers to target areas of improvement for their children, so that they are better prepared for learning and achieving once they enter school. Conventional approaches rely on psychologybased tracing and drawing tasks using pencil-and-paper and performance metrics such as timing and accuracies. However, such approaches involve human experts to manually score children’s drawings and evaluate their fine motor skills, which is both time consuming and prone to human error or bias. This paper introduces our novel sketch-based educational interface, which can classify children’s fine motor skills more accurately than conventional methods by automatically classifying fine motor skills through sketch recognition techniques. The interface (1) employs a fine motor skill classifier, which decides child...

Consistently Evaluating Sketching Ability in Engineering Curriculum

Numerous studies have found sketching to be a useful skill for engineers. Sketching has been foun... more Numerous studies have found sketching to be a useful skill for engineers. Sketching has been found to improve spatial visualization skills and help increase creativity in the design process. Therefore, in recent semesters, there has been a push to further develop the sketching instruction at Georgia Tech. This development has included introducing different methods of sketching, such as perspective sketching, and introducing new tools, such as sketch-based online tutoring applications. However, a consistent, trusted method to accurately evaluate students’ sketching ability does not yet exist. This study outlines the first steps taken to create a rubric that can be used to create consistent evaluations of students’ sketching abilities. A reliable and valid rubric will allow for evaluation of different methods of sketching education as well as to help to determine the links between sketching ability and other skills such as design reasoning, creativity in idea generation, and self-effi...

Multimodal Interaction for Enhancing Team Coordination on the Battlefield

Team coordination is vital to the success of team missions. On the battlefield and in other hazar... more Team coordination is vital to the success of team missions. On the battlefield and in other hazardous environments, mission outcomes are often very unpredictable because of unforeseen circumstances and complications encountered that adversely affect team coordination. In addition, the battlefield is constantly evolving as new technology, such as context-aware systems and unmanned drones, becomes available to assist teams in coordinating team efforts. As a result, we must re-evaluate the dynamics of teams that operate in high-stress, hazardous environments in order to learn how to use technology to enhance team coordination within this new context. and supported me and helped me realize my academic goals. I'd like to thank my committee members Dr. Ann McNamara, who inspired me to pursue creative solutions in my research, Dr. Dylan Shell, for providing guidance and constructive feedback when I needed it, and Dr. Nancy Amato, for helping me keep my priorities straight and supporting me during tough times. I'd also like to thank Dr. Ricardo Gutierrez for putting me through hell in CSCE 666 and for pushing me to always strive for better results. I'd like to thank Dr. Mark Billinghurst, my advisor overseas, for helping me pursue so many rewarding research opportunities. I'd like to thank Dr. Ann Morey for fueling my passion for learning through film and for devoting countless hours toward making me a better writer, without which I may have had far fewer publications, and for helping me to obtain my certificate in film studies which resulted in the work presented in Appendix B. I'd especially like to thank Dr. Tiffani Williams and her protege Dr. Suzanne Matthews who kept me on the path to graduation when so many obstacles threatened to derail me. Thanks to the wonderful staff in the Computer Science department including Kathy,

A Virtual Community of Practice for Enhanced Teaching and Convergence to Strengthen Student Learning, Engagement, and Inclusion

2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Oct 13, 2021

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty are suddenly thrown into a world where they have... more With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty are suddenly thrown into a world where they have to teach virtually, forcing them to innovate in their teaching practice without the ability to “chat with their colleagues” next door. Additionally, many faculty do not know how to create an inclusive classroom, which is crucial for students who have also lost their learning community and support structure. Many faculty are afraid to include issues of inclusion and diversity, feeling ill equipped and unsupported. As tensions rise across the US, there is a critical need for engineering students to be able to discuss issues involving inclusion in the classroom as well as apply their abilities as engineers to make a significant impact (both positively or negatively) on inclusion through their applications and innovations. Without the proper support for the faculty to innovate and foster inclusive classrooms, millions of students will suffer in their education. Additionally, without a trusting support group, most engineering faculty would not choose to assume the risk. In response, we developed a community of practice with six teaching fellows who shared, watched, commented on, and emulated each other's classroom recordings. The teaching fellows learned a significant amount from each other, courageously implemented activities focused on inclusion and awareness in their classrooms, observed greater awareness among their students on inclusion issues, and were able to mentor faculty and publish about the data driven best practices that they completed.

Using Machine Learning with Eye-Tracking Data to Predict if a Recruiter Will Approve a Resume

Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction

When job seekers are unsuccessful in getting a position, they often do not get feedback to inform... more When job seekers are unsuccessful in getting a position, they often do not get feedback to inform them on how to develop a better application in the future. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand what qualifications recruiters value in order to help applicants. To address this need, we utilized eye-trackers to measure and record visual data of recruiters screening resumes to gain insight into which Areas of Interest (AOIs) influenced recruiters’ decisions the most. Using just this eye-tracking data, we trained a machine learning classifier to predict whether or not a recruiter would move a resume on to the next level of the hiring process with an AUC of 0.767. We found that features associated with recruiters looking outside the content of a resume were most predictive of their decision as well as total time viewing the resume and time spent on the Experience and Education sections. We hypothesize that this behavior is indicative of the recruiter reflecting on the content...

A Wearable Haptic Interface for Assisting Blind and Visually Impaired Students in Learning Algebraic Equations

Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

BVI (blind and visually impaired) persons do not have the same degree of access to concepts and p... more BVI (blind and visually impaired) persons do not have the same degree of access to concepts and procedures in learning algebraic equations as sighted persons. As tactile resources are uncommon, most rely on auditory-based methods that place heavy stress on working memory. We propose a novel approach that leverages haptic technology to communicate mathematical symbols via vibrotactile patterns; this design addresses open challenges found in existing resources for BVI people and explores the potential utility of this medium for all users. We conducted three separate studies to evaluate the feasibility of our gloves that included BVI participants. The outcomes of our studies yielded insightful design discussions, including a blind participant who found the device immediately intuitive and exciting in potential. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interface design prototyping; Accessibility technologies; Haptic devices.

Early Mild Cognitive Impairment Detection using a Hybrid Model

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been used in imagebased applications and have made sign... more Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been used in imagebased applications and have made significant progress toward early detection of hard-to-detect diseases such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and its prodromal stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Despite this progress, there has been limited research on accurately distinguishing Normal Cognitive (NC) subjects from Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) at the subject-level. This paper aims to address this gap by proposing the use of structural MRI (sMRI) images and demographic information, in conjunction with predictive models based on a shallow CNN architecture and a supervised hybrid neural network, to distinguish EMCI from NC at both the slice and subject level. These models have fewer parameters but still maintain a high level of performance in classifying EMCI and NC images and require fewer computational resources. Moreover, the model's performance was trained and tested using only the initial and first-year visit MRI images from the newly released ADNI3 dataset. CCS CONCEPTS • Computing methodologies → Object recognition; Neural networks; • Applied computing → Health informatics.

SketchRec 2023: 3rd Workshop on Sketch Recognition

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

Sketch recognition is the interpretation of hand-drawn diagrams, and seeks to understand the user... more Sketch recognition is the interpretation of hand-drawn diagrams, and seeks to understand the users' intent while allowing them to draw unconstrained diagrams. Research in sketch recognition has been ongoing for approximately half a century, and has experienced iterative advances due to the difficulty of the problem. As pen-and touch-capable devices such as smartphones, tablets, touch-driven monitors, and large touchscreen devices have become ubiquitous, and as emergent technologies such as virtual and augmented reality-driven computing technologies are becoming more advanced, sketch recognition-related research remains an open field for researchers to explore in approaching continuing interaction and recognition challenges with these technologies. The SketchRec workshop was hosted at the ACM Annual Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) and served the sketch recognition research community for sharing, presenting, and discussion research work that relates to the topics in the research field. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interaction techniques; • Applied computing; • Computing methodologies → Machine learning approaches;

An Intelligent Virtual Meeting App for Seamlessly Polling Virtual Participants “On-the-Fly” with Nonverbal Communication Cues

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

The prevalence of virtual meeting software and webcams have normalized holding group meetings bot... more The prevalence of virtual meeting software and webcams have normalized holding group meetings both remotely and distributed. However, virtual meetings reduce viewing to computing displays and listening to unidirectional speakers, which disrupt real-life social cues for activities such as informally polling participants "on-the-fly". This paper proposes an intelligent virtual meetings app called Show of Hands, which leverages nonverbal communication cues to spontaneously poll virtual participants. The app recognizes virtual participants' intuitive real-time hand gestures to express intended polling selections, and then displays in realtime highly-visible video filters that overlay participants' camera views and a visual chart of the aggregated polling counts. Our work benefits virtual participants in seamlessly conducting spontaneous polls to gauge opinions or check knowledge of attendees without prior preparation, expressing poll responses using familiar physical gestures, and being better informed of poll results with both a distributed view of video filters and a focused chart visualization. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interactive systems and tools; User studies; Mixed / augmented reality; Gestural input.

Frontiers in Pen and Touch

Human–Computer Interaction Series, 2017

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Score Improvement Distribution When Using Sketch Recognition Software (Mechanix) as a Tutor: Assessment of a High School Classroom Pilot

Human-computer interaction series, 2017

Effectively communicating engineering concepts in high school classrooms is an important goal of ... more Effectively communicating engineering concepts in high school classrooms is an important goal of many curricula in secondary education since the material can help prepare students for future study in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. However, the material can be challenging. This work describes the deployment of Mechanix to a high school environment with the intent of improving the effectiveness of student practice regarding free body diagrams, vector analysis, and truss problem solving. Mechanix is a globally-available, Internet-connected digital tutor that provides immediate, constructive feedback to the learner while also providing student-level metrics to the instructor. It was made available to students in a STEM-infused classroom as part of Project Lead the Way (PLTW). The focus of this study is to evaluate the progress realized by differing academic levels of students. We used pre- and post-testing to assess progress, which showed an average increase of 1.65 points on a 12 point scale (p < 0. 005). A greater increase was found in the ‘A-level’ high school students while historical, college-level studies suggest significant progress may be realized at all levels versus current tutoring techniques as the students continue to utilize Mechanix.

STRAT: a Sketched-truss Recognition and Analysis Tool

Distributed Multimedia Systems, 2008

Abstract The statically-determinate, pin-connected truss is a basic structural element used by en... more Abstract The statically-determinate, pin-connected truss is a basic structural element used by engineers to create larger and more complex systems. Truss analysis and design are topics that virtually all students who study engineering mechanics are required to master, many of whom may experience difficulty with initial understanding. The mathematics used to analyze truss systems typically requires lengthy hand calculations or the assistance of proprietary computer-aided design (CAD) programs. To expedite work in this domain, we propose: ...

LADDER: a language to describe drawing, display, and editing in sketch recognition

International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Aug 9, 2003

We have created LADDER, the first language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are draw... more We have created LADDER, the first language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are drawn, displayed, and edited. The difficulty in creating such a language is choosing a set of predefined entities that is broad enough to support a wide range of domains, while remaining narrow enough to be comprehensible. The language consists of predefined shapes, constraints, editing behaviors, and display methods, as well as a syntax for specifying a domain description sketch grammar and extending the language, ensuring that shapes and shape groups from many domains can be described. The language allows shapes to be built hierarchically (e.g., an arrow is built out of three lines), and includes the concept of "abstract shapes", analogous to abstract classes in an object oriented language. Shape groups describe how multiple domain shapes interact and can provide the sketch recognition system with information to be used in top-down recognition. Shape groups can also be used to describe "chain-reaction" editing commands that effect multiple shapes at once. To test that recognition is feasible using this language, we have built a simple domain-independent sketch recognition system that parses the domain descriptions and generates the code necessary to recognize the shapes.

RésuMatcher: A personalized résumé-job matching system

Expert Systems With Applications, Oct 1, 2016

Today, online recruiting web sites such as Monster and Indeed.com have become one of the main cha... more Today, online recruiting web sites such as Monster and Indeed.com have become one of the main channels for people to find jobs. These web platforms have provided their services for more than ten years, and have saved a lot of time and money for both job seekers and organizations who want to hire people. However, traditional information retrieval techniques may not be appropriate for users. The reason is

We have created and tested Tahuti, a dual-view sketch recognition environment for chum di~raum in... more We have created and tested Tahuti, a dual-view sketch recognition environment for chum di~raum in L~J.L. The system is based on a multi-layer recognition frsm~ework which recognizes multi-stroke objects by their geometrical properties allowing users the freedom to draw naturally as they would on paper rather than requiring the user to draw the objects in a pre-d~ned msnner. Users can draw and edit while viewing either their origins] strokes or the interpreted veal!on of their strokes engendering user-autonomy in sketching. The experiments showed that tmem prefwzed ~khufi to a paint program and to Rations] RcaeTMbecatme it combined the ease of drawing found in a paint program with the ease of editing available in a UML editor.

Comparing Student and Recruiter Evaluations of Computer Science Resumes

IEEE Transactions on Education

The Development of a Texas A&M University Faculty of Engineering Education

ASEE 2021 Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference, Mar 24, 2021

Revolutionizing Education with Digital Ink: The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education

Springer eBooks, Jun 13, 2016

Direct Injuries and Fatalities of Texas Tornado Outbreaks from 1973 to 2007

The Professional Geographer, 2021

Since 1950, tornadoes have accounted for nearly one third of disaster-related fatalities in the U... more Since 1950, tornadoes have accounted for nearly one third of disaster-related fatalities in the United States, the third highest after floods and lightning. The largest share of fatalities occurred in the state of Texas, which also accounts for about 7 percent of the overall property damage from tornadoes. An increasing proportion of tornadoes occur during tornado outbreaks, which were responsible for almost 80 percent of tornado-related fatalities in the United States between 1972 and 2010. Although the relationships between tornado severity, economic damage, and injuries and fatalities are generally well understood, few studies examine how injuries and fatalities are affected by a single tornado versus those that are part of a tornado outbreak. This work analyzes a data set of Texas tornadoes that occurred between January 1973 and January 2007, through nonparametric statistical and spatial analyses, examining the associations between tornado severity, number, and geography of occurrence as related to direct injuries and fatalities in severe weather events. Results indicate that tornado severity exacerbates causalities, but outbreaks do have some effect as well. These findings have potential implications for improving forecasting, warning, and preparedness for tornado outbreaks, which could be critical to reducing deaths and injuries from future tornadoes.

A Rapid and Formative Response by the Engineering Education Faculty to Support the Engineering Faculty and Students Throughout the Extreme Classroom Changes Resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Her research focuses on creating intelligent systems for tasks that require human-like levels of ... more

EasySketch2: a novel sketch-based interface for improving children's fine motor skills and school readiness

Children’s fine motor skills are associated with enhanced drawing skills, as well as improved cre... more Children’s fine motor skills are associated with enhanced drawing skills, as well as improved creativity, self-regulation skills, and school readiness. Assessing these skills enables parents and teachers to target areas of improvement for their children, so that they are better prepared for learning and achieving once they enter school. Conventional approaches rely on psychologybased tracing and drawing tasks using pencil-and-paper and performance metrics such as timing and accuracies. However, such approaches involve human experts to manually score children’s drawings and evaluate their fine motor skills, which is both time consuming and prone to human error or bias. This paper introduces our novel sketch-based educational interface, which can classify children’s fine motor skills more accurately than conventional methods by automatically classifying fine motor skills through sketch recognition techniques. The interface (1) employs a fine motor skill classifier, which decides child...

Consistently Evaluating Sketching Ability in Engineering Curriculum

Numerous studies have found sketching to be a useful skill for engineers. Sketching has been foun... more Numerous studies have found sketching to be a useful skill for engineers. Sketching has been found to improve spatial visualization skills and help increase creativity in the design process. Therefore, in recent semesters, there has been a push to further develop the sketching instruction at Georgia Tech. This development has included introducing different methods of sketching, such as perspective sketching, and introducing new tools, such as sketch-based online tutoring applications. However, a consistent, trusted method to accurately evaluate students’ sketching ability does not yet exist. This study outlines the first steps taken to create a rubric that can be used to create consistent evaluations of students’ sketching abilities. A reliable and valid rubric will allow for evaluation of different methods of sketching education as well as to help to determine the links between sketching ability and other skills such as design reasoning, creativity in idea generation, and self-effi...

Multimodal Interaction for Enhancing Team Coordination on the Battlefield

Team coordination is vital to the success of team missions. On the battlefield and in other hazar... more Team coordination is vital to the success of team missions. On the battlefield and in other hazardous environments, mission outcomes are often very unpredictable because of unforeseen circumstances and complications encountered that adversely affect team coordination. In addition, the battlefield is constantly evolving as new technology, such as context-aware systems and unmanned drones, becomes available to assist teams in coordinating team efforts. As a result, we must re-evaluate the dynamics of teams that operate in high-stress, hazardous environments in order to learn how to use technology to enhance team coordination within this new context. and supported me and helped me realize my academic goals. I'd like to thank my committee members Dr. Ann McNamara, who inspired me to pursue creative solutions in my research, Dr. Dylan Shell, for providing guidance and constructive feedback when I needed it, and Dr. Nancy Amato, for helping me keep my priorities straight and supporting me during tough times. I'd also like to thank Dr. Ricardo Gutierrez for putting me through hell in CSCE 666 and for pushing me to always strive for better results. I'd like to thank Dr. Mark Billinghurst, my advisor overseas, for helping me pursue so many rewarding research opportunities. I'd like to thank Dr. Ann Morey for fueling my passion for learning through film and for devoting countless hours toward making me a better writer, without which I may have had far fewer publications, and for helping me to obtain my certificate in film studies which resulted in the work presented in Appendix B. I'd especially like to thank Dr. Tiffani Williams and her protege Dr. Suzanne Matthews who kept me on the path to graduation when so many obstacles threatened to derail me. Thanks to the wonderful staff in the Computer Science department including Kathy,

A Virtual Community of Practice for Enhanced Teaching and Convergence to Strengthen Student Learning, Engagement, and Inclusion

2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Oct 13, 2021

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty are suddenly thrown into a world where they have... more With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty are suddenly thrown into a world where they have to teach virtually, forcing them to innovate in their teaching practice without the ability to “chat with their colleagues” next door. Additionally, many faculty do not know how to create an inclusive classroom, which is crucial for students who have also lost their learning community and support structure. Many faculty are afraid to include issues of inclusion and diversity, feeling ill equipped and unsupported. As tensions rise across the US, there is a critical need for engineering students to be able to discuss issues involving inclusion in the classroom as well as apply their abilities as engineers to make a significant impact (both positively or negatively) on inclusion through their applications and innovations. Without the proper support for the faculty to innovate and foster inclusive classrooms, millions of students will suffer in their education. Additionally, without a trusting support group, most engineering faculty would not choose to assume the risk. In response, we developed a community of practice with six teaching fellows who shared, watched, commented on, and emulated each other's classroom recordings. The teaching fellows learned a significant amount from each other, courageously implemented activities focused on inclusion and awareness in their classrooms, observed greater awareness among their students on inclusion issues, and were able to mentor faculty and publish about the data driven best practices that they completed.

Using Machine Learning with Eye-Tracking Data to Predict if a Recruiter Will Approve a Resume

Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction

When job seekers are unsuccessful in getting a position, they often do not get feedback to inform... more When job seekers are unsuccessful in getting a position, they often do not get feedback to inform them on how to develop a better application in the future. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand what qualifications recruiters value in order to help applicants. To address this need, we utilized eye-trackers to measure and record visual data of recruiters screening resumes to gain insight into which Areas of Interest (AOIs) influenced recruiters’ decisions the most. Using just this eye-tracking data, we trained a machine learning classifier to predict whether or not a recruiter would move a resume on to the next level of the hiring process with an AUC of 0.767. We found that features associated with recruiters looking outside the content of a resume were most predictive of their decision as well as total time viewing the resume and time spent on the Experience and Education sections. We hypothesize that this behavior is indicative of the recruiter reflecting on the content...

A Wearable Haptic Interface for Assisting Blind and Visually Impaired Students in Learning Algebraic Equations

Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

BVI (blind and visually impaired) persons do not have the same degree of access to concepts and p... more BVI (blind and visually impaired) persons do not have the same degree of access to concepts and procedures in learning algebraic equations as sighted persons. As tactile resources are uncommon, most rely on auditory-based methods that place heavy stress on working memory. We propose a novel approach that leverages haptic technology to communicate mathematical symbols via vibrotactile patterns; this design addresses open challenges found in existing resources for BVI people and explores the potential utility of this medium for all users. We conducted three separate studies to evaluate the feasibility of our gloves that included BVI participants. The outcomes of our studies yielded insightful design discussions, including a blind participant who found the device immediately intuitive and exciting in potential. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interface design prototyping; Accessibility technologies; Haptic devices.

Early Mild Cognitive Impairment Detection using a Hybrid Model

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been used in imagebased applications and have made sign... more Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been used in imagebased applications and have made significant progress toward early detection of hard-to-detect diseases such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and its prodromal stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Despite this progress, there has been limited research on accurately distinguishing Normal Cognitive (NC) subjects from Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) at the subject-level. This paper aims to address this gap by proposing the use of structural MRI (sMRI) images and demographic information, in conjunction with predictive models based on a shallow CNN architecture and a supervised hybrid neural network, to distinguish EMCI from NC at both the slice and subject level. These models have fewer parameters but still maintain a high level of performance in classifying EMCI and NC images and require fewer computational resources. Moreover, the model's performance was trained and tested using only the initial and first-year visit MRI images from the newly released ADNI3 dataset. CCS CONCEPTS • Computing methodologies → Object recognition; Neural networks; • Applied computing → Health informatics.

SketchRec 2023: 3rd Workshop on Sketch Recognition

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

Sketch recognition is the interpretation of hand-drawn diagrams, and seeks to understand the user... more Sketch recognition is the interpretation of hand-drawn diagrams, and seeks to understand the users' intent while allowing them to draw unconstrained diagrams. Research in sketch recognition has been ongoing for approximately half a century, and has experienced iterative advances due to the difficulty of the problem. As pen-and touch-capable devices such as smartphones, tablets, touch-driven monitors, and large touchscreen devices have become ubiquitous, and as emergent technologies such as virtual and augmented reality-driven computing technologies are becoming more advanced, sketch recognition-related research remains an open field for researchers to explore in approaching continuing interaction and recognition challenges with these technologies. The SketchRec workshop was hosted at the ACM Annual Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) and served the sketch recognition research community for sharing, presenting, and discussion research work that relates to the topics in the research field. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interaction techniques; • Applied computing; • Computing methodologies → Machine learning approaches;

An Intelligent Virtual Meeting App for Seamlessly Polling Virtual Participants “On-the-Fly” with Nonverbal Communication Cues

28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

The prevalence of virtual meeting software and webcams have normalized holding group meetings bot... more The prevalence of virtual meeting software and webcams have normalized holding group meetings both remotely and distributed. However, virtual meetings reduce viewing to computing displays and listening to unidirectional speakers, which disrupt real-life social cues for activities such as informally polling participants "on-the-fly". This paper proposes an intelligent virtual meetings app called Show of Hands, which leverages nonverbal communication cues to spontaneously poll virtual participants. The app recognizes virtual participants' intuitive real-time hand gestures to express intended polling selections, and then displays in realtime highly-visible video filters that overlay participants' camera views and a visual chart of the aggregated polling counts. Our work benefits virtual participants in seamlessly conducting spontaneous polls to gauge opinions or check knowledge of attendees without prior preparation, expressing poll responses using familiar physical gestures, and being better informed of poll results with both a distributed view of video filters and a focused chart visualization. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interactive systems and tools; User studies; Mixed / augmented reality; Gestural input.