Meet the Team
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Dr. Kay M. Stanney
President
Dr. Kay M. Stanney is President of Design Interactive, Inc., a woman-owned small business focused on human-systems integration. Her research and development in the areas of multimodal interaction, augmented cognition, and virtual environments has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Distributive Technology Office (DTO), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as other sources. Dr. Stanney is editor of the Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications (2002; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), co-founder and co-chair with Michael Zyda of the 1st Virtual Reality International (2005), co-founder with Leah Reeves of the Augmented Cognition Technical Group and co-founder with Ronald Mourant of the Virtual Environment Technical Group, both within the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, co-chair with Dylan Schmorrow of the 2nd Augmented Cognition International 2006, held in conjunction with HFES 2006, and co-chair with Dylan Schmorrow of the 3rd Augmented Cognition International 2007, held in conjunction with HCI International 2007. She spent the past five years conducting user-centered design research for ONR’s Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE) Program. She is currently Requirements & Evaluation Lead for the Next generation Expeditionary Warfare Intelligent Training (NEW-IT) effort funded under ONR’s Capable Manpower Future Naval Capability Program. She is also involved in research in support of DARPA’s Augmented Cognition Program, and in Spring 2005 received their Coggie Award, an award designed to recognize those individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in service to this DARPA Program. Summer 2005, she also received the DARPA Foundations of Augmented Cognition Award. Most recently, she received The Computer Society Technical Committee on Visualization and Graphics 2006 Technical Achievement Award for Accomplishments in the Design of Virtual Environments, an award designed to honor individuals for their lifetime contribution to virtual and augmented reality.
Dr. Stanney has over 100 scientific publications and has given several invited lectures and presentations. She received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1986, after which time she spent three years working as a manufacturing/quality engineer for Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California. She received her Masters and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, with a focus on Human Factors Engineering, from Purdue University in 1990 and 1992, respectively, after which time she spent 15 years as an Industrial Engineering professor at the University of Central Florida. She has over 15 years experience in the design, development, and evaluation of human-interactive systems.
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John P. Stanney
CFO
John has over 20 years of experience in the operational, organizational and financial management of companies ranging from publicly held manufacturing firms to small defense contracting consultancies. He has increased revenues and profitability at every firm he has led over the course of his career. John specializes in new market identification and product/service development to enter target markets. He has experience in raising capital, including private and public offerings. His current role provides DI with long range planning, opportunity identification, organizational planning and development, and project management including contract negotiation and compliance.
He is an avid outdoorsman, fly fisherman, runner and weightlifter. John has three sons, and has been a youth baseball and basketball coach for the past 14 years.
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Dr. Kelly S. Hale
Director, Human-Systems Integration
Kelly has over 8 years experience in human-computer interaction, training
transfer, usability evaluation methods of advanced technologies, and
cognitive processes within multimodal systems and virtual environments.
Kelly has been involved with DARPA’s AugCog program, ONR’s
VIRTE program, and has gained extensive experience in evaluating various
devices using a variety of empirical and non-empirical usability evaluation
methods. She is Principal Investigator of multiple Phase I and II
SBIR efforts funded by ONR, DARPA and NASA, and is research and technical
lead of innovative augmented cognition technology development funded
by IARPA. Kelly directed Multimodal Information Design Support (MIDS)
and Tool for Information Processing Capability Assessment (TIPCA)
SBIR product development efforts and a Speech, Earcons, Auditory Spatialized
(SEAS) Signals research project for Boeing.
Kelly holds a BS in Kinesiology/Ergonomics from the University of Waterloo,
Canada, and an MS and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University
of Central Florida. Her research interests include multimodal interaction
design, haptic interfaces, human-computer interaction, usability evaluation
methods of advanced technologies, human cognitive processes within
multimodal systems and virtual environments, and operator screening.
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Dr. Laura Milham
Director, Training Systems
Laura has been involved with work in support of the human computer interaction aspects of building VE training systems for VELCAC and VEAAAV. In support of this, she has performed task analyses, assessed design and training needs for the VE systems; performed usability evaluations and user testing; and developed preliminary designs for VELCAC. She has also been responsible for the design of transfer of training experiments to investigate the utility of virtual helicopter (VEHELO), training design, training evaluation, team performance assessment, scenario development and developing guidelines for training tactical teams.
Laura received her Ph.D. in the Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology
program at the University of Central Florida.
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Dr. Ali Ahmad
Lead Researcher
Ali has diverse expertise in human-computer interaction, quality engineering, and simulating human-machine systems. He previously worked on projects related to transfer of training in advanced human-machine systems, usability evaluation of everyday products and services, and research in multimodal systems and virtual environments.
Ali holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Jordan, M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida. His dissertation research in multimodal information integration focused on incorporating audio information presentation into complex virtual training environments with the goal of enhancing training effectiveness. His research interests include multimodal interaction design, audio interfaces, advanced usability evaluation techniques, simulating complex human-machine systems, and advanced application of statistical techniques.
Prior to joining DI, Ali has worked with Six Sigma quality group at Siemens Power Generation, Inc., where he coached belt projects and delivered various Six Sigma training classes. While at Siemens, Ali developed a tool master that is currently being used by all Siemens six sigma practitioners and demonstrated in all training classes. In addition, for the past 6 years, Ali has worked as a graduate research associate at the University of Central Florida, where he conducted research funded by NASA, DOT, and ONR on training systems, simulation, and supply chain management. Ali is a Certified Simulation Analyst, a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and is a member of HFES and ASQ.
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Meredith Bell Carroll
Senior Research Associate
Meredith is a Senior Research Associate at Design Interactive, Inc. and is currently supporting virtual training system design and evaluation
for the office of Naval Research’s Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE) Program. Her work focuses on HCI design of VE training systems,
and design of training effectiveness evaluations and training transfer experiments.
From 2003 to 2005 she worked as a Human Factors Engineer for the Boeing Company’s International Space Station (ISS) Checkout, Assembly, and Payload Processing Services (CAPPS) contract at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. Her work there focused on user-centered design of ISS payloads, payload processing facilities and ground support equipment to optimize human performance through improvement of the human-machine interfaces.
Her research efforts have been directed towards human/team performance and training in complex systems in aviation and military domains, with focuses on performance measurement and virtual training technology. She received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2001, her M.S. in Aviation Science from Florida Institute of Technology in 2003 and is currently working toward her doctorate in Human Factors and Experimental Psychology at the University of Central Florida.
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Roberto Champney
Senior Research Associate
Roberto has had significant experience in systems design and evaluation having performed several system evaluations in industry and academia. His has worked on several multidisciplinary teams where he has developed an expertise in capturing the Voice Of the Customer (VOC) for transformation into design requirements and specifications. At DI he has worked supporting both the Training Systems and Human-Systems Integration departments. Most recently he has worked in developing methodologies for optimal training time; has co-developed methodologies for participant pre-training; and is leading the user-centered design approach of an interactive system for a corporate client.
Prior to joining DI during the Fall of 2005, he has been a Graduate Research Associate at the University of Central Florida’s Virtual Reality Laboratory, where he has conducted several extensive analyses on human behavioral data, literary reviews, and experimental testing with human participants that lead to the co-development of manuscripts for publication.
Roberto holds an M.S. in Human Engineering and Ergonomics, and is an ABD Ph.D. candidate at the University of Central Florida. His dissertation research interests are in Design and Emotion, primarily in the use and development of tools and methodologies for informing the design and evaluation of products with regards to affective criteria. In addition to his design and human-systems interests he has an interest in quality management and holds a Six Sigma Greenbelt certification.
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Sven Fuchs
Senior Research Associate
Sven works on multimodal design science to optimize operator situational awareness and workload in complex interactive systems and next generation mitigation strategies for Augmented Cognition systems. Within DI, Sven is known for his unconventional thinking and his passion for innovation. He brings 5 years of experience in the creative industries where he worked in marketing, multimedia production and advertising.
Sven has an M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University, Chicago, where he conducted research on navigation strategies and cognitive models of Web navigation. Previously, he earned an interdisciplinary degree in Computer Science and Media from Flensburg University of Applied Science in Germany.
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Adams Greenwood-Ericksen
Senior Research Associate
Adams received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washington & Lee University. He earned his masters degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering under Dr. Peter Kincaid, and performed his doctoral studies under Dr. Peter Hancock in the Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology program at the University of Central Florida. His research interests include stress and infantry combat performance, tactile displays, and the use of commercial games as learning tools. He brings experience in game and simulator development, as well as research, experimental design, and statistics. Prior to accepting a position at Design Interactive, he has worked at Catholic University, Chi Systems, the Institute for Simulation and Training, and EA games.
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Matt Johnston
Senior Research Associate
Matt has experience in consumer product design, usability testing and user requirement development. He joined DI in 2007 and is a member of the Human Systems Integration department. His focus is on multimodal design and evaluation of advanced technologies as well as human centered design and usability testing of consumer products and websites.
He holds a Master’s degree in Ergonomics from Loughborough University in England where he studied user requirements of technophobes and technophiles for mobile e-commerce applications. He also holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Waterloo in Kinesiology and is certified as a Six Sigma Greenbelt.
Matt spent over 5 years as an ergonomic research engineer for Ford Motor Company where he conducted psychophysical research, usability evaluations, and applied human centered design principles to the development of advanced multimedia interfaces and interior components. Prior to that experience, Matt applied ergonomic design principles and conducted user testing within the telecommunications industry.
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David L. Jones
Senior Research Associate
David’s primary research focuses are on designing multimodal interactive systems and effective training systems. Past projects include usability evaluations for industry clients and government organizations as well as training effectiveness evaluations of virtual training environments. Other past research includes the experimental determination of various working memory capacities, and the resulting effects on dual task performance in multimodal environments. David has also been involved in projects focusing on the development of a guiding science to integrate Speech, Earcons, Auditory Icons, and Spatial Audio (SEAS) cues into multimodal interfaces and the effective integration of multimodal cues to provide effective feedback in training environments.
He has an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central
Florida, with a concentration on human-computer interaction and usability,
and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Factors Psychology from Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University, with a concentration on aviation human factors
and computer science.
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Tiffany Parrish
Senior Research Associate
Tiffany's research interests focus on improving employee performance and satisfaction in the workplace and include training, teams, and diversity issues. She is currently supporting DI with research on teams and naturalistic decision making. She also focuses research efforts toward training effectiveness and evaluation. Prior to joining DI, she worked at RSK Assessments, Inc. where she developed her Human Factors skills in the fields of simulator/motion sickness and accident reconstruction. She also worked as an Organizational Development consultant at UCF. She has provided consulting services and presented seminars and workshops on topics such as: workplace effectiveness, teamwork, job satisfaction, motivation, leadership, conflict resolution and supervisory skills.
Tiffany is currently a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology at the University of Central Florida. Her dissertation focuses on adaptability in teamwork. She received her Master's in I/O from UCF in 2005 and her Bachelor's in Psychology from the University of South Florida.
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Pär Axelsson
Research Associate
Pär joined Design Interactive in 2004, and his work is focused on operator situation awareness and workload in C4ISR environments using multimodal displays.
He has a Master’s degree in the field of Industrial Engineering and Managements Systems and a certificate in Design for Usability from the University of Central Florida. He also has a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Economics from Jönköping University in Sweden. His primary research focused on project management tools such as the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and the Critical Path Method (CPM), but the later years were more focused on Usability and Human-Computer Interaction Design.
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Angela Baskin
Research Associate
Angela’s work has focused on using multimodal design science to optimize operator situational awareness and workload in C4ISR environments, evaluation of situation awareness in virtual environments, and the conceptual development of a training and operational systems design tool. Other research experience includes scenario-based vs. maneuver-based pilot training in glass cockpit aircraft, and simulator sickness among student pilots. Angela holds a Master’s degree in Human Factors and Systems from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Flagler College.
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Malachi Lawson
Lead Software/Systems Engineer
Malachi has experience in research, design, and development of software systems. His work has applied principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis to the development of software systems.
Malachi received his Bachelor's degree in the field of Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida. He received his Master's degree in the field of Computer Engineering: Intelligent Systems Track also from the University of Central Florida. His studies have focused on Software Design, Learning Algorithms, Simulation, and Artificial Intelligence.
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David Tomasetti
Software/Systems Engineer
David interests are in Simulation Development, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis.
David’s received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. His focus was on Image Detection/Facial Recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation, and Software Documentation.
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