Alumni

Sujoy Kumar Chowdhury [ web site ]

Why MWSU: I selected this graduate program because of its strong emphasis on usability.

Education: B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering (Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology Dhaka)

"My undergraduate major was computer science and engineering. After graduation, I worked in the telecom industry for 3 years where I was responsible for mobile software and services for millions of users. There I became aware of the value of user-centered design process and usability testing. So, I started looking for graduate programs for formal training in this domain. The newly introduced human factors graduate program at Missouri Western could not have been a better fit. Its curriculum had an emphasis on the Psychology of Design, along with hands-on training in usability techniques. I learned not only from my faculties who had proven track records in HCI research, but also from my classmates who came from multi-disciplinary backgrounds. Together we conducted applied usability research, as well as collaborated with companies from different industries to improve the usability of their products and services. I got the opportunity to intern at a world renowned user experience research lab because of the unique skills this program equipped me with. Therefore I strongly recommend this graduate program to anybody who is interested in the exciting profession of usability or user experience."

– Sujoy Kumar Chowdhury

Internship: Furthering Education: MIT Media Lab

He worked as an intern with his mentor at the Motorola User Experience Research Team to create a functional Android prototype of the Serendipitous Family Stories system. It allows family members to create visual and audio stories about places of importance to them and their relatives to discover serendipitously as they go about their lives. A patent was filed at the US Patent office recently where Sujoy has been recognized as a co-inventor. He received an IP Award from Motorola because of this achievement.

Additionally, Sujoy was a member of a multi-disciplinary intern team that was recognized as runner-up in the 'Motorola Intern Apprentice Competition 2010'. They earned this honor amongst Motorola's 325 interns this summer in 20 locations from over 100 universities represented

Skills: Certified Usability Analyst (CUA), Project Management Professional (PMP), 4+ years of experience in mobile value added services

Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology (Attention), Mobile User Experience, Memory & Aging

Chowdhury, S. & Wynn, J. (2011). Cowabunga!: A system to facilitate multi-cultural diversity through CouchSurfing. Computer-Human Interaction Conference (Student Design Competition). 

Chowdhury, S. K. & Still, J. D. (2010, March). Effect of opacity of stimulus in deployment of interest in an interface. Poster presented at the Great Plains Conference, St. Joseph, MO. {*Awarded 1st Place*}

Tyler Davis [ web site ]

Why MWSU: I was impressed with what this Human Factors program offered.

Education: B.S. Mechanical Engineering (University of Missouri)

Skills: AutoCAD, Pro-E, Matlab, Teamwork

Research Interests: Medical field, Web design

Internship: Employed by: NetApp (User Experience Specialist)

Davis, T., Steinhoff, C. & Telan Vela, M. (2012). MeCasa: A family virtual space.Computer-Human Interaction Conference.

Joseph Grgic [ web site ]

Why MWSU: It focuses on using cognitive psychology to further our understanding of good and bad product designs.

Education: B.S. Psychology (Iowa State University)

Internship: Working as: freelance Interaction Designer in New York, New York

He worked as a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University in the HCI department. Joseph researched haptic perception of visco-elastic tissues using a magnetic levitation haptic device. In addition, he was involved in multidisciplinary collaborations between CMU and the University of Pittsburgh with the intention of developing in-situ microscopes and to explore the possible application of haptic devices during medical procedures.

Skills: Programming: C, Java, Perl, Visual Basic; Usability Testing; Research Methods & Design; Data Analysis; National Guard Simulator Evaluation

Research Interests: Human Factors (Visual), Attention (eye tracking), Display Design, Ubiquitous Computing (peripheral design)

Grgic, J. & Still, J. D. (2010, May). Affordance interactions are affected by spatial working memory load. Poster presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. 

Grgic, J. E., Masciocchi, C. & Still, J. D. (2010, March). Designing human-centered notifications. Poster presented at the Great Plains Conference, St. Joseph, MO. {*Awarded 3rd Place*} 

Still, J. D., Grgic, J. & Still, M. L. (2011, February). Revealing user button-to-action mappings through describing and acting. Paper presented at the 7th STL UX Conference, St. Louis, MO.

Jennifer Pellersels

Why MWSU: It is the only Missouri university that covers usability research and standard processes. 

Education: B.S. Psychology (Missouri Western State University)

Internship: Employed by: Altec (Manager)

Skills: Software: SPSS, Excel, Access; Research Methods & Design; Data Analysis; Experience implementing new company processes from everyday team management to writing goals and mission statements.

Research Interests: Cost/Benefit Analysis; Forecasting Customer Needs; Web Site Design

Pellersels, J. L. (2010, March). Augmenting visual graphs with audio. Poster presented at the Great Plains Conference, St. Joseph, MO. {*Awarded 2nd Place*}

Victoria Rodgers

Why MWSU: I wanted to stay in Missouri to expand my knowledge and research experience in Human Factors.

Education: B.S. Psychology (Missouri University of Science and Technology)

Internship: Employed by: MasterCard (Usability Specialist)

Skills: SPSS, Laboratory Research Experience, FORTRAN Programming

Research Interest: Memory considerations in Interaction Design

Rodgers, V. A. (2010, March). Early design of software with children. Poster presented at the Great Plains Conference, St. Joseph, MO.

*Jody Shares Her Experience* (Complete Story)

Jody, Wynn

Why MWSU: I wanted to study Human Factors in Missouri.

Education: B.S. Accounting (Northwest Missouri State University)

Internship: Employed by: Hallmark (Customer Experience Specialist)

Skills: User-Centered Design, Screen Design, Usability Testing

Research Interests: Interaction Design, Practical Usability Testing Methodologies

Wynn, J. & Still, J. D. (2011). Motivating change and reducing cost with the discount video data analysis technique. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.  Acceptance rate: 33%

Chowdhury, S. & Wynn, J. (2011). Cowabunga!: A system to facilitate multi-cultural diversity through CouchSurfing. Computer-Human Interaction Conference (Student Design Competition). 

Wynn, J. S. & Still, J. D. (2010, March). Comparison of two accelerated usability test data analysis techniques. Poster presented at the Great Plains Conference, St. Joseph, MO.