Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D.
Clemson University
School of Computing
100 McAdams Hall
Clemson, SC 29634-0974
Phone: +1 864 656 4846
Email: juan@clemson.edu
DVP term expires December 2012
Juan E. Gilbert is a Professor and Chair of the Human Centered Computing Division in the School of Computing at Clemson University where he leads the Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Lab, (http://www.HumanCenteredComputing.org/). Dr. Gilbert has published more than 80 peer reviewed articles, given more than 120 invited or keynote talks and obtained more than $5 million dollars in research funding. He has graduated more than 50 graduate students. Currently, the HCC Lab supports more than 10 graduate and undergraduate students under Dr. Gilbert’s direction.
Dr. Gilbert has research projects in Spoken Language Systems, Advanced Learning Technologies, User Interfaces (Usability), Ethnocomputing (Culturally Relevant Computing) and Databases and Data Mining. His research deals with innovative solutions to real world problems. For example, Dr. Gilbert is the creator of Applications Quest, http://www.ApplicationsQuest.com, a data mining software tool that addresses race-conscious admissions and school placement policies. He is also the inventor of Prime III, http://www.PrimeVotingSystem.com, an innovative secure, multimodal electronic voting system. Finally, he is the inventor of the African-American Distributed Multiple Learning Styles Systems, http://www.aadmlss.org, which is a culturally relevant advanced learning technology.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society, he serves on the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors, and he is the column Editor for the Broadening Participation in Computing Series in IEEE Computer. Dr. Gilbert has been a participant in the National Academies Frontiers of Science and Engineering symposium. Dr. Gilbert was named one of the nation's top African-American Scholars by Diverse Issues in Higher Education and he was the recipient of the Black Engineer of the Year Special Recognition Award. In that same year, Dr. Gilbert received the American Society for Engineering Education Minorities in Engineering Award. Recently, Dr. Gilbert was named a national role model by Minority Access Inc. In 2006, Dr. Gilbert was honored with a mural painting in New York City by City Year New York, a non-profit organization that unites a diverse group of 17 to 24 year-old young people for a year of full-time, rigorous community service, leadership development, and civic engagement.
Applications Quest: A Data Mining Approach to Diversity in Admissions
In 2003, two land mark cases challenged the University of Michigan admissions policies, one focused on Law School admission and the other on undergraduate admissions. In Grutter v. Bollinger, the case focused on the Law School, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Law School. However, in the Gratz v. Bollinger, by a vote of 6-3, the Court reversed, in part, the University's undergraduate admission's policy to provide points for race/ethnicity. Therefore, the Court decided that race could be considered in admission's decision, but could not be the deciding factor. Later, Michigan residents voted to adopt a ban on racial and gender preferences through Proposal 2. In 2007, the Supreme Court heard two cases on race-conscious school placement policies in Louisville and Seattle. The court struck down the programs in Louisville and Seattle. In all of these cases, it is clear that racial and gender preferences are either over or on their way out. However, the need to diversify still exists, as explained by the courts and researchers. How can institutions achieve diversity without giving preference to race, gender, etc? In an effort to address these issues, a data mining tool called Applications Quest, http://www.ApplicationsQuest.com , was developed by Dr. Juan E. Gilbert. Applications Quest allows the use of race/ethnicity, gender or any other attributes to be considered in admissions, school assignments, employee hiring or any other application processing area, such that no preferences are given to race or gender.
Prime III: Where Usability and Security Meet in Electronic Voting
Subsequent to the debacle of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, it became abundantly clear that America’s archaic voting system was in dire need of a major overhaul. Consequently, Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines were purchased by several states. The use of these machines has not been without controversy with respect to security, trust and ease of use. Professors and security research teams have found several vulnerabilities in current voting technologies. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was created to provide all citizens equal access to participate in the electoral process, regardless of ability. The Prime III voting system, http://www.PrimeVotingSystem.com , is a secure, multimodal electronic voting system that takes a usable security approach to address security, trust and ease of use.
Advanced Learning Technologies and Culturally Relevant Computing
An effective learning system creates personalized contexts for each student. The 'one size fits all' concept is not very effective across a large number of diverse students. An adaptive instruction approach is more suitable for reaching large diverse groups of students in electronic learning environments. Additionally, cultural groups often share common values; the experiences of children growing up with those values can be reflected in their classroom learning behaviors (i.e. cultural learning style). The research presented here was influenced by the compelling impact of social and cultural issues on academic performance in addition to supporting research on using gaming technology to educate. Accordingly, AADMLSS City Stroll, http://www.aadmlss.org , embraces differences in cultural learning styles by providing a culturally sensitive, pedagogical environment utilizing gaming and advanced learning technologies.
Broadening Participation in Computing: Breaking Down Stereotypes of Underrepresented Students in the Computational Fields
Career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines offer some of the highest salaries for college graduates. Furthermore, advanced degrees in computing disciplines offer job security, independence, leadership and several other benefits. Based on the abundance of benefits available for computing graduates, why are women and minorities significantly underrepresented in these disciplines? Dr. Gilbert will present research findings that explain the diminishing participation of women and minorities in computing and offer some strategies for correcting the downward trend.
