Introducing the Talking-Points Team:
Jason Stewart
Jason is a first year graduate student at School of Information and has Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as his specialization.
Background: He received his Bachelor degree from the University of Michigan in Anthropology in 2007, as well as minor degrees in both Classical Archaeology and Science, Technology & Society Studies.
Role: Jason is the TalkingPoints team project manager and is also working on the design and user experience of the mobile device.
Project interest: Jason is interested in exploring methods of contributing to collaborative community driven social websites using mobile devices.
Michelle Escobar
Michelle is a second year graduate student at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. Her specialization is Information Economics, Management and Policy (IEMP), but she is also interested in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Records Management (ARM).
Background: She received her Bachelor of Arts in History, a minor in Mandarin Chinese and a Rehabilitation Technician Certificate from Utah State University in 2000.
Role: Michelle has valuable experience working with assistive technology and helping build adaptive mobility equipment for disabled people. She is working on establishing relationships with hardware producers and leading the usability testing efforts in our project.
Project interest: She is interested in accessibility issues, RFID technology, and the collaboration aspect of the project’s website.
Sara Baumann
Sara Baumann is a Senior at UM’s LS&A in the Sociology department and Residential College. After graduating she plans to study Global Public Health for her Masters/PhD.
Role: Sara is our link to the Ann Arbor community. She tries to raise awareness for the issues of blind people and our project in the community. She is also leading our marketing efforts.
Jakob Hilden
Jakob is a first year graduate student at the School of Information as well. He is specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Social Computing.
Background: He received his Bachelor in Applied Communication and Media Science from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany in 2007. He also has a strong computer science background and has worked as a freelance web developer for a couple years besides his studies.
Role: Jakob’s is the one developing the social database where all the location information will be stored.
Project interest: He has already worked on annotation systems for his Bachelor thesis and is very interested in transferring this knowledge to the area of location annotation. Additionally he is interested in building accessible websites and being involved in the process of designing a usable product.
Kumud Bihani
Kumud is the fourth graduate student from the School of Information on the team. She is also in her first year and specializing in Human-Computer Interaction.
Background: She received her Bachelor in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of West Bengal, Kolkata, India in 2007. She has worked on a project involving RFID technology before.
Role: Because of her prior experience she is the one that is responsible for the RFID technology in our project.
Project interest: Kumud is interested in accessibility issues, and wants to help enhance the way people with disability interact with the computer.
Our advisors:
Jim Knox
Jim is working at UM’s Adaptive Technology Computing Site and was a member of a former Talking-Points project. He is very interested in the needs of disabled people in general and this project in particular.
Mark W. Newman
Mark W. Newman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information (SI) at the University of Michigan. His research interests include human computer interaction, mobile and ubiquitous computing, and end-user programing. The Talking Points project brings together many of Mark’s interests in that it presents challenging problems regarding the design, development, and evaluation of a social, mobile, context-aware application that serves an important need.
