Researcher Wins Best Paper Award for Automated Interview Coach

University of Rochester researcher M. Ehsan Hoque has won a best paper award at the 2013 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2013) for a computer system designed to help people practice social interactions.

The system, called MACH (My Automated Conversation coacH), consists of an animated character that can see, hear and respond in real time.

“MACH offers the possibility for people to practice social interactions in their own home, without anyone knowing, as many times as they need and review their performance,” explained Hoque. “This addresses requests we had received from people who struggled with social interactions,but feared the social stigma of seeking help from other individuals.”