Increasing Collaboration between Industry and Academia in HCI Education

Sunday, May 7 and Monday Morning, May 8

During the most recent CHI workshops on HCI education, the issue of collaboration between industry and academia arose. Some collaboration has existed for years, largely focused on research and some isolated internship/coop opportunities. A critical point--how educators can best prepare students to successfully enter the industrial world--has been left for educators to decide on their own.

The goals of this workshop are to identify (a) ways that HCI education programs can provide benefit to industry, (b) ways that industry can provide benefit for HCI education programs, and (c) ways to increase collaboration between industry and academia. In this workshop, we will develop a list of roles that industry can play to benefit HCI education programs and a list of roles that academic institutions can play in support of industry. We will also compile a compendium of ideas for projects that call for collaboration between academia and industry, while benefiting both. These ideas can serve as the seed for practitioners of all kinds to enhance collaboration.

Each participant should submit a 2 to 3 page position paper, in addition to a brief biography. Industry representatives should describe a proposed or hypothetical project that would include students from an academic HCI program. The description should briefly cover the roles of both the students and your colleagues and how this project would benefit your organization. University representatives should describe a proposed project (e.g., a course exercise, an independent study project) that could be done in collaboration with industry. The description should briefly cover the roles of the students and industry representatives and what purpose the exercise would fulfill in the course (e.g., what skill it would teach, what principle it would demonstrate).

This one-and-a-half day workshop is limited to 20 participants.

Contact:

Maxine Cohen
IBM Corporation
Usability Design & Evaluation
Internal Zip 1606
1000 NW 51st Street
Boca Raton, FL  33431 USA
E-mail: maxine@vnet.ibm.com
Tel: +1 407 443 2687
Fax: +1 407 982 9825