Proposal

The Department of Psychology at FAU is committed to providing students with the knowledge and skills that will position them to succeed in the job market and excel in research.  I am planning to offer a course to advanced undergraduate and graduate psychology students that would give them insight and competence regarding human-machine interaction. The proposed course is for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology and related areas who are interested in information and communication technology, but do not have any experience in electronics. This course will provide psychology students with modern knowledge and cutting edge skills that will enable them to pursue a career in the rapidly developing field of information and communication technology.  As the result of this course, students will have mastered theoretical approaches and empirical methods to study human- machine interaction.  They will also know the basics of designing and diagnosing user experience in interaction with intelligent devices. Students will learn how to study interaction of individuals with intelligent devices, and will also learn the basics of technology that allow devices to interact with humans.

This grant builds on the success of the previous Tech Fee grant by Andrzej Nowak: A novel way of introducing students to parallel computing at a very low cost. Awarded in 2012. As the result of this grant a graduate course was taught in the Spring of 2013 at the Department of Psychology FAU, where psychology students learned how to design, code and analyze computer simulations. This course had a major impact on competence of the participants. On the basis of the simulations developed in the course and run on the machine provided by the grant students wrote a scientific paper which is now under review at one of the top journals of science PlosOne. The participants of the course continue to use computer simulations in their research. One of them has a paper accepted to a pre-conference of the Personality and Social Psychology Conference, which is one of the largest and most prestigious scientific conferences in social psychology. The paper is about new uses of social simulations. Taken together, the previously funded grant and this proposed course, establish FAU in a leading position for preparing psychology students to use the cutting edge technology in their research and professional activities, which in doing so it opens for FAU psychology graduates possible employment opportunities in the information and communication technologies job markets.

This proposed course will have the form of a workshop and will have two main components:  The first component will concentrate on psychology of human-machine interaction. Students will learn theory and methods to study the use of intelligent devices, and acquire practical skills in working with eye tracker and EEG for studying humans interacting with machines. The second component will be hands on experience with designing and assembling interactive objects. Students will start with the psychological aspects of functionality and methods to design user experience. The first part of the semester will be devoted to small projects of assembling very simple, but increasingly somewhat more complex objects and studying how humans interact with reactive objects. The projects will utilize Arduino sets: sensors, diodes, parts moved by small motors etc. In the second part of the semester students working in groups will work on a somewhat larger project of interactive device and study how humans interact with the device. They will use 3D printers to prototype the parts. In projects requiring more powerful processing they will use Rapbsberry Pi computers with Arduino compatible boards.

In the context of small work groups, students will gain experience in designing and implementing interactive devices. This hand on experience will give them insight about how interactive technology works and prepare them for work in interdisciplinary teams in research and industry. This pilot course, if it is successful, can lead to the development of a larger scale educational program that paired with other initiatives can place FAU at the forefront of education for modern society.

To conclude, a psychologist with insight and competence regarding human-machine interaction, designing human-machinery, and wearable computing have a much better chance in finding jobs. A course in Studying and designing user experience: Psychological aspects of human machine interaction will be given next spring if this grant it awarded.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dr. Nowak

Psychology Department

None.

10 sets of Arduino with basic components with enhancements: $2,148

10 Raspberry pie with enhancements: $2,030

2 Emotiv EEG neuroheadset: $2,400 

GP3 Gazepoint Analysis Bundle: $995

2 3D printers and plastic refills: $5,480

Miscellaneous: Safety glasses per student, soldering irons, voltmeters, etc… $1,200

Total Hardware: $15,253

This course will use the Psychology  Department Computer Lab desktop computers for the programing and 3D software.

Agisoft 3D software (educational version price per seat $600)

Autodesk 3ds max (free* 36-month license of Autodesk products for students)=$0.00

Zbrush (educational version price per seat $795)

Total Software: $ 1,395

In the event of this proposal being funded, all installation will be done by Psychology IT support staff as soon as funds become available. No additional cost are anticipated for this project.

In the event of this proposal being funded, this course in will be given next spring.

Given that this is such a novel course, the consumption of materials is difficult to predict at this time. However, after the first course is completed will the cost for sustaining this course will be known. But the software, printers, EEG, and Eye tracker will be reused in other teaching projects. For example, both the EEG, and Eye tracker will add a valuable component to the cognition lab courses already taught by the Psychology Department. 

In the event of this proposal being funded, all installation will be done by Psychology IT support staff as soon as funds become available. No additional cost are anticipated for this project.

In the event of this proposal being funded, all installation will be done by Psychology IT support staff as soon as funds become available. No additional cost are anticipated for this project.