Faculty Receive Awards, Grants

May 14, 2019 Communication

Professors Namkoong, Khamis, Nan, and Aldoory receive accolades.

Department of Communication faculty members have recently received awards, grants, and recognition for their achievements.

Namkoong Receives $20,000 Pilot Grant for Augmented Reality Research

Assistant Professor Kang Namkoong is the Principal Investigator on a $20,000 one-year pilot research grant from the National Children’s Cancer for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS). The main goals of this pilot study are to (1) develop an innovative farm safety education program entitled, Augmented Reality Intervention for Safety Education (ARISE), for farm parents and children, (2) examine the feasibility and usability of the AR health intervention, and (3) evaluate the potential of the intervention as a sustainable agricultural safety education program.

AR technology enables us to provide a high level of system-user interactivity, which allows users to freely change angles and distance to the simulations with seamless transitions. Thus, ARISE is expected to help improve the quality of farm safety education, because it is designed to provide the participants with: (1) maximum autonomy in their use of the intervention; (2) vivid second-hand experience of incidents that frequently occur in farms; and (3) interactive learning tools that present farm safety tutorials.

Khamis Receives Research Communicator Award

Associate Professor Sahar Khamis was selected as a winner of the 2019 Research Communicator Impact Award in the "Op-Ed" category from the University of Maryland's Division of Research. Communicating the value of University of Maryland research is an essential component in our mission to achieve global impact, infuse knowledge, and improve human life. The Research Communicator Impact Award was established in 2015 to recognize researchers who take a proactive approach to sharing their research or opinions on research issues and policies with the public.

The Research Communicator Impact Award is administered by the Division of Research and winners are selected by a committee of faculty and staff representing multiple disciplines. Distinguished University Professor Ben Shneiderman, of the computer science department and founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, initiated the award as part of his advocacy for broad communications about research.

Nan and Aldoory Receive Research Communicator Impact Award

Congratulations to Professors Xiaoli Nan and Linda Aldoory who will be awarded the 2019 Research Communicator Impact Award at the Inaugural Maryland Research Excellence Celebration!

Faculty who have been selected for the award have demonstrably elevated the visibility and reputation of the University of Maryland Research Enterprise through meeting one or more of the following criteria:

Research finding that is both highly-cited and transformative to their field
Research achievement with demonstrable societal impact, such as change in policy, major external press coverage
Recognition by national or international group
Published in a renowned scholarly journal or publication in their field
Selection for award for a funding competition with limited submissions
Selection for a Division of Research Tier 1/New Directions award
Recipient of significant external research funding from a federal funding agency, foundation, corporation, non-profit, national laboratory, medical center, or other entity