Graduate students in the Human-Computer Interaction program have been exploring new ways to network and reach out to the HCI community.
They formed a Carleton Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Association. At the initial get together on February 1, Neville Ko, from Corel Corp. and an Industrial Design alumnus made a formal presentation on web & design and branding.
On February 19, students from the HCI and Industrial Design programs competed in a CapCHI event. CapCHI is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region.
Four teams competed in the CapCHI competition which provided everyone with an opportunity to show off their design process and skills in a fun and informal atmosphere. As well as two teams from Carleton, there were two other teams from CAE Professional Services and the Canadian Border Services Agency.
Meagan Leflar one of the Carleton HCI team captains, explains the competition process: “The challenge was to solve a user experience problem in 15 minutes in front of an audience of peers. Each team was graded on style/charisma, process, and their final solution. All of the user experience problems pertained to the return of the NHL Hockey season, and so the whole night was hockey- themed – we had a spirited referee.”
On February 26, a panel of HCI professionals, ranging from head honchos of big companies to maverick, self-employed consultants, explained how graduating HCI students could best present themselves to employers in order to get hired.
“In HCI, we study how people interact with computers in an attempt to make their interactions with technology more accessible and meaningful,” says HCI student Anthony Scavarelli. “It is also important to reach out and study the world around us – take the opportunity to participate in the local community. Just as a user can enlighten us on how a button could be better placed on a website, networking connections can help us better understand our place in the job market. This gives us a fresh perspective on what we do and why we do it.”
More information about Carleton’s HCI program can be found on the FGPA program page.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 in News
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