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Research Profile

Manfred Huber – Guiding Research Experiences

It’s unfortunate, but most engineering students don’t have meaningful research experiences until their senior year or during their graduate studies. But a limited number of students are taking advantage of a summer program funded by the National Science Foundation that supports active research participation by undergraduate students. The Computer Science and Engineering Department is the site of one of these programs.

Back in 1993, the CSE Department began its first offering of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program involving undergraduates in ongoing research or in projects specifically designed for the program. Assistant Professor Manfred Huber has been involved with the 10-week program since he arrived at UT Arlington in 2001 and has led it for several years.

“We try to involve them in something as close to a real thesis project as we can,” said Dr. Huber. “We provide some project ideas, guidance and support, but they are the ones driving the projects.”

This year, 10 students from UT Arlington, Austin College, Carnegie Mellon, Fairley Dickenson, Texas State and the University of Buffalo are here to work on several innovative but complex projects. Each of the students receives a stipend to cover tuition and living expenses; non-UT Arlington students also receive a travel allowance.

Here are some examples of their projects:

3-D Gesture Interface. Move objects on a computer display with hand gestures – make selected objects smaller by pushing away, larger by pulling toward you; move them by making a sideways gesture. The technology is similar to the Wii controllers, but could utilize a glove with reflective reference points for more refined actions.
Muscle Interface for Robotic Arms. Utilizes raw muscle signals to control a robotic or prosthetic arm.
Facial Expression Recognition from 3-D Images. Voice recognition and generation will replace keystrokes for many computer interactions, and facial expressions, which humans easily use to convey underlying meanings such as disgust, fear and sarcasm, will need to be interpreted correctly by the computer.
Compatibility between Different Electronic Medical Records Software. This will enable the transfer of information used in one program to that using another. Vitally important for physicians, healthcare providers and insurers when prescribing treatment, evaluating outcomes and paying for services rendered.
Location-dependent Nutrition Guide. Walk by a restaurant and your personal communications device will display not only the day’s menu, but also the nutritional qualities of those offerings.

Professor Ishfaq Ahmad is assisting Dr. Huber by advising students in two other projects: Integrating images from two video sources to provide a different point of view, and increasing the energy efficiency in computing by better scheduling of jobs. Graduate students also provide assistance to the undergraduate students in the program.

“Our goal is to get these students to consider and investigate factors that create intelligent, secure environments,” said Dr. Huber. “That encompasses many things, not just applications for general living conditions and uses, but also disability and other health-related situations. That means developing intuitive interface methods that are more easily understood and employed by a wide spectrum of users.”

Program participants Dan Nguyen, a biomedical engineering and computer science senior at Austin College in Sherman, and Fred Clark, Jr., an electrical engineering junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Trenton, New Jersey, are teaming on the robotic arm project. “Working on this project makes us feel like we’re part of the scientific community that we hear about during our courses,” Dan said. Fred agreed. “It’s great to implement the tools we learned at our home universities in a work setting. We feel like we’re contributing to the greater good.”