Meet the Team

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. Meredith B. Carroll
Senior Research Associate

Meredith is a Senior Research Associate at Design Interactive, Inc. and has over 7 years of experience in task analysis, human factors design, individual/team performance assessment and training in complex systems. She has been involved with ONR's VIRTE program and is currently Principal Investigator of an ONR HPTE program effort involving design, development and evaluation of performance assessment tools and virtual training tools. Her work focuses primarily on individual and team performance assessment, including physiological and behavioral measurement, performance diagnosis and training remediation through feedback and training adaptation. She has also performed extensive work conducting task analyses, designing virtual training environments and performance assessment tools and conducting training effectiveness and training transfer evaluations and experimentation.

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 has focused on human/team performance and training in complex systems in aviation and military domains, with focuses on perceptual skills. She received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia, her M.S. in Aviation Science from Florida Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Human Factors and Experimental Psychology from 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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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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Jason Moss
Senior Research Associate

Jason is a recent addition to the Design Interactive team as he joined the team in the spring of 2010. Prior to joining Design Interactive, Jason held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Clemson University within both the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Psychology Departments. During his postdoctoral fellowship, Jason designed and executed several sponsored research studies ranging from subjective and objective workload assessments to simulator sickness investigations. Also, Jason directed interface design efforts geared towards the military domain. Further, he supervised a psychology research laboratory consisting of undergraduate and graduate students.

Jason earned Bachelor's degrees in Communication-Media Management (BS) and Psychology (BA) from the State University of New York at Fredonia (SUNY-Fredonia). He earned his Master's of Science degree in Applied Psychology-Human Factors from Clemson University in South Carolina and went on to become the first ever to earn a Ph.D. in Human Factors Psychology from Clemson University in 2008. His primary research interests in graduate school involved simulator sickness and virtual environments.

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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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Sara Dechmerowski
Research Associate

Sara has a background in Human Factors and Systems Engineering with an aviation focus , and she is currently working on emotion induction in virtual envionment training systems.

She completed her master's degree in Human Factors and Systems from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, where she also worked as a graduate teaching and research assistant. While attending Embry-Riddle, Sara worked on multiple research projects, including CRM failures in emergency medical helicopter incidents and offshore oil platform helicopter accidents. She has also been a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and the Human Performance in Extreme Environments Society (HPEE).

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Katie Del Giudice
Research Associate

Katie’s work at Design Interactive focuses on emotion induction for training systems, multi-modal systems, and developing training for visual search skills. Her research interests also include persuasive technology, human-information behavior, and the social side of the Internet.

She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Clemson University with a minor in Computer Science and her Master’s degree in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology from the University of Central Florida. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology at the University of Central Florida.

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Christina Kokini
Research Associate

Christina has a strong background in Industrial Engineering with a Human Factors focus. She joined Design Interactive in 2009, and her work focuses on product design, development, and usability, specifically designing functionality into products to support user requirements, as well as conducting usability evaluation.

She holds a Master’s degree from Penn State University in Industrial Engineering with a Human Factors Option, where her research was in Human Computer Interaction and focused on the direct effect of contextual characteristics on the perceived usability of a product. While at Penn State, she was the President of both the Penn State chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and of the Industrial Engineering Graduate Association (IEGA), both in 2008. She also has a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Psychology. She has had a variety of work experience in product design, manufacturing, and logistics, working for companies such as GE, IBM, Caterpillar, and SA Technologies.

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Malachi Lawson
Software/Systems Engineering Manager

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 Haddad
Software/Systems Engineer

David has experience with a variety of areas in Information Technology. His interests are in software design, robotics, and simulation with an emphasis on human interfacing.

David received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida. His studies included software development, software documentation, and hardware/software interfacing.

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Michael Kofman
Software/Systems Engineer

Michael Kofman has experience in building robust applications for a variety of industry sectors including political, medical, child entertainment, and digital design. His experience lies in User Interface Design, Software Optimization, System Architectures, Mobile Application Development and Artificial Intelligence in video games.

Michael received his Bachelors of Science from Full Sail University in Computer Science in Game Development. As the first recipient of the Eric DyBsand IGDA scholarship, he continues to be involved within the AIGuild community of professionals. In 2009, the AIGuild organized the first ever AI Summit at GDC San Francisco.

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Joshua Lueck
Software/Systems Engineer

Josh's interests are in Simulation Development, Artificial intelligence, and Software design.

Josh received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida. His focus was on software development, software documentation, and user interface design.

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David Mui
Software/Systems Engineer

David has experience in the simulation and training industry and has worked with various training systems such as Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT,) Close Combat Training Systems (CCTT), and OneSAF Objective System (OOS).

David received his Bachelors of Science in Information Technology and Computer Engineering from University of Central Florida. He also received his Masters of Science degree in Computer Engineering: Intelligent Systems track. His studies and interests includes simulation and training, Artificial Intelligence, and software/system design and documentation.

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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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