Abstract
This workshop will continue to explore issues in HCI
education. Our goal for the workshop is to identify ways to
increase the collaboration between industry and academia,
providing benefit to both. To accomplish this we will bring
together a diverse group of participants, evenly distributed
between university and industry representatives.
Keywords:
Education, Industry, Partnerships, Academic-Industrial
Cooperation
GOALS:
Identify ways that HCI education programs
can provide benefit to industry. Identify ways that industry
can provide benefit for HCI education programs. dentify ways to
increase collaboration between industry and academia.
Introduction
A workshop at CHI '92 proposed a list of skills and
attributes that successful HCI practitioners must possess --
some skills that can be learned in anacademic setting, some that
are personality traits, and some knowledge that can only be
gained on the job. We will use that list as a starting point to
discuss how a collaborative approach between academia and
industry can foster such skills and attributes in HCI students.
The product of such collaboration will benefit education
programs by helping to ensure that their content will
effectively prepared students for careers in industry. It will
benefit industry by bringing them effective job candidates. And
finally, the collaboration itself will benefit both academia and
industry by enriching them both.
FORMAT
The workshop will last
one and a half days. It will include approximately 20
participants, evenly distributed between university and industry
representatives. Prior to the workshop, participants will submit
a position paper that includes: (1) a description of their
current experiences in industry or academia (or both) and (2) a
description of a proposed or hypothetical project in their area
that includes students from an academic HCI program to work on
the project in collaboration with industry.
Activities at the Workshop The primary activities at the
workshop will take place in small working groups. The working
groups will be made up of 4-5 people, half from academia and
half from industry. During the first working group meeting, the
first two goals of the workshop will be addressed. Each group
will develop two lists. One list will share strategies for
industry to support HCI education, and the other will share
strategies for educational programs to support industry. For
each suggestion on each list, participants will identify what
skills or attributes (from the CHI '92 list) this suggestion
will help develop. To address the third goal of the workshop,
working groups will devise a joint project between academia and
industry -- one that would demonstrate a particular skill or
principle in an HCI course, and that would, at the same time,
benefit industry in some way. The roles of the student and
industry participants will be defined, as well as the expected
benefits to all parties. As the final activity of the workshop,
these projects will be presented to the larger group. RESULTS
At the end of the workshop we will have: eveloped a list of
roles that industry can play to benefit HCI education programs
and a list of roles that academic institutions can play in
support of industry. ompiled a compendium of ideas for projects
that call for collaboration between academia and industry, while
benefiting both. These ideas can serve as the seed for
practitioners of all kinds to enhance the collaboration between
academia and industry.
