With faculty and graduate student mentorship, undergraduate researchers thrive in the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction lab.

ROC HCI seeks a diverse representation of undergraduates

The lab places a high priority on bringing a diverse representation of undergraduates into the lab. There are multiple reasons for doing so, they say.

  • The continuing underrepresentation of women and minorities in computer science hurts the field. “Imagine a lab dominated by one particular group of individuals, and not recognizing the problems that females or minorities might associate with a technology that we are developing,” Hoque says. “Or not having someone with a disability coming in and helping us understand how a technology may create more problems for them.”
  • The interdisciplinary nature of the research makes it “really important for us to bring in students from a lot of background, such as psychology, brain and cognitive sciences, digital media studies, and economics,” Bai says.
  • Engaging undergraduates in research helps build a pipeline to address the shortage of US students applying for PhD programs in the field.

Read more at https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/human-computer-interaction-lab-research-mentorship-549662/