My Career: Current and Future

Current

Research

My current research is based on factors affecting a user’s trust in an automated system. Specifically, we are investigating the importance of the reliability and adaptation of the system, and how these factors interact with the user’s personality traits to impact their feelings of trust in the system. Reliability is defined as the proportion of correct responses provided by the system. For example, a highly reliable system may provide a correct response 95 times out of 100, while a lower reliability system may only be correct 70 times out of 100. The adaptation of the system is defined as its ability to respond appropriately to changes in the needs of the user. For example, if the user must switch from monitoring two displays to four, the adaptive system should respond by increasing the level of automation in order to counteract the increase in task demand. The user’s personality is expected to play an important role in the results of this study, as those who tend to be more agreeable are expected to be more likely to trust the system regardless of its flaws, while those users who are higher in neuroticism are expected to have a stronger negative reaction to the poorly designed systems. This project is nearing completion. We have run approximately 175 participants, which will (hopefully) be determined to be sufficient after the initial data analysis begins over the next few weeks.

As one project is winding down, I am beginning to start working on a new project. I am currently in the early stages of putting together a grant proposal for the National Science Foundation. I am planning on designing a study that will seek to better understand the relationship between personality differences physiological (EEG) responses to stressful situations. There have been studies that have shown general physiological differences among people with different personalities, and many studies that measure physiological response to stress, but none have attempted to integrate the two.

Teaching

I have taught in some capacity every semester I have been in the program. I started off as a lab instructor for Research Methods, then a lab instructor for Statistical Methods. This semester was my first time actually being an Instructor of Record, teaching Neuropsychology. I had enjoyed teaching as a lab instructor, but actually running a class completely on my own is a completely different experience. Knowing that I am solely responsible for teaching 45 students everything they should know about a subject, and that I have to do it in a comprehensive, understandable, and enjoyable way is very stressful, and very rewarding. Seeing the same students three times a week for a full semester and watching them learn and grow and become interested in the topic has been one of the most rewarding things I have done. I feel that I have personally grown a great deal from the experience as well: both on a social level from gaining experience working with students, and on a personal level by understanding the content better after explaining in to others. I feel like I learned more about Neuropsychology by teaching it to others than I have ever learned from being a student in a class. Although I still don’t plan on going into a career in academia after I graduate, I would really enjoy teaching part time as an adjunct professor once I have established a career in industry or government research.

Future

Near Future

This summer I will begin working as a Research Fellow at the Army Research Institute. I will work there for at least a year working on issues related to using games as military training simulators. The first project I will work on involves creating and validating new measures to examine the trainee’s performance on specific game-based scenarios. These measures will serve as benchmarks to determine the progression of military personnel through their training, in order to better understand who is ready to move into real-world scenarios and who require additional training.

I am hoping that my work at ARI will be a bit faster paced than the work I have done so far at UCF. The army seems more interested in quick answers than incredibly thorough findings, and I feel this will be a better setting for me at this stage in my career. While I have enjoyed spending two years analyzing every conceivable aspect of the research project I have been working on, it has still all revolved around one specific experiment. I feel I will be better prepared for a future career by working on several smaller experiments for a year in order to get some more diverse experience.

I am also looking forward to being able to devote more of my time to research. Up to now I have had to share my time between research and teaching, but my position at ARI will allow me to just work on research and not have to teach. While I do enjoy teaching, I feel I will get more out of being able to devote myself entirely to research.

While working at ARI for the next year, I plan on continuing research through UCF. Hopefully, the grant proposal I am working on now will come through and I can start getting some experience using EEG in an experimental setting. Even if I do not win the grant, I will likely still work on some basic EEG-based research in order to gain experience.

I would like to build on this physiological measurement experience to eventually lead to my dissertation. I am very interested in using the brain as a direct input device for computers, and would like to work this into my dissertation somehow. But doing that will definitely require experience with measuring and analyzing EEG recordings, which I need to start working on now.

Distant Future

After graduating, I would like to work in a research lab, either private or government, working with brain-computer interfaces. There is just starting to be some very interesting advances in this area and I feel that there is no end in sight for what can be accomplished with these types of systems.

For example, Dr. Nicolelis from Duke has created an interface which involves the direct measurement of a monkey’s motor cortex via surgically implanted electrodes. This information is sent to a computer, which translates it into intended muscle movements. This information is sent to a robotic arm which then moves appropriately based on the monkey’s thoughts. This type of technology fascinates me to no end, and I hope to be able to devote my career to advancing it.

Working for the Private Sector

I never would have even considered that I could work somewhere like Darden Restaurants with a Ph.D. in Human Factors; Dr. Vanduyn's work is so far off from everything I think of when I think of Human Factors. While the work she did doesn't particularly interest me at this point, it is good to see that there is a wide variety of positions available for people with Human Factors degrees. It seems like with the extensive background we get in statistical analysis and experimental design, that we could probably end up in basically any sort of analysis-based position that attempts to understand the underlying processes functioning in a complex system: be it in psychology, technology, economics, business, politics, etc. It's good to know that I will have a wide array of options available if I ever decide to stray from "traditional" human factors research.

Working for Government

I am very glad Dr. Chen came in to speak with us. I will actually be starting at the Army Research Institute (where she started) this summer, so it was nice to hear someone's opinions who had worked there for years. I am really looking forward to getting away from the stress and politics of grant-based research and instead working on research directly funded by the government. By removing the pressure of winning grants it seems like researchers can focus more on the science, rather than trying to "sell" it. Although it does seem to potentially limit the scope of the research you could do, Dr. Chen seemed satisfied by her options, and said that it was actually relatively easy to switch from one focus area to another. I am really looking forward to working on science for the sake of science, rather than for the sake of pleasing a funding agency with a shiny deliverable.

Employment Law

It's amazing the changes that have been made in the law in just the last 50 years. I imagine that virtually none of the aspects of modern employment law were around 50 years ago, and I'm sure those that were were not strictly enforced. It's incredible that in the not too-distant past an emplyer could easily discriminate against employees based on gender, ethnicity, or religion with absolutely no retribution. However, it is just as incredible that today's employers can still legally discriminate based on sexual orientation. People like Ms McKenna are doing good work to make our society a better place, but there is still a lot of work yet to be done.

Starting a Business

I really enjoyed Dr. Stanney's talk, as I hope to work for a private research company much like her's (I'm actually hoping to do an internship at Design Interactive next summer). However, I'm not so sure that running the business would be for me. Although it would be nice to have complete control over the company and thus control the direction of the research, I don't know that I would be willing to go through the hassles involved in the business side of things. I am much more interested in being directly involved in the research than the business structure headaches of taxes, paperwork and hiring/firing employees. As long as I can work on research I am interested in and be paid enough to live comfortably I'll be happy; I don't think the increase in sallary would be worth the increase in stress associated with running a business.

Telecommuting

I don't think I would have the willpower to work efficiently from home. It seems like it would be too easy to get distracted by other things, continually saying 'I'll work later'. Either I wouldn't end up getting enough work done, or I would work too hard - constantly fearing that I'm not getting as much done as I should be - and end up sacrificing my family life and/or my sanity. I do wish I was capable of telecommuting, though, as it seems wonderful to be able to avoid the daily commute to work and work from home in comfort.

Obtaining Grant Funding

I really enjoyed Dr. Salas' discussion on obtaining Grant funding. I have never been through this process before so it was nice to hear an explanation of what to expect before hand; it makes the impending process less intimidating. I thought some of his advice was very creative, like trying to publish in the airline magazines. What better way get your name out to a mass audience that would be unlikely to be exposed to your work if it were in an academic journal. It was also nice to hear that even someone as prolific as Dr. Salas gets turned down for funding regularly. I will have to do my best to keep that in mind to keep from getting discouraged when I get turned down.