Faculty Use Major Grants to Fund Cutting-Edge Research in Fields Such as Technology, Aging

Assistant Professor Sorin Matei conducting research in Purdue's Envision Center.

By Emily Hambidge
Journalism senior

The subjects of their investigations range from cell phones to cerebrum, but three faculty members in the Department of Communication are using nearly $1 million in grants to improve everyday life.

The projects involve Assistant Professor Sorin Matei, Professor John Greene, and Professor Howard Sypher, the department head. Working with graduate students and faculty members in other university departments, they will be conducting research in several different areas.

Matei received grants totaling $28,000 from Motorola and Purdue's Discovery Learning Park and is heading up two projects. The first is a Motorola project that looks at use patterns and user requirements for features on cellular phones.

He conducted research this summer with the help of graduate student Wendy Zeitz-Anderson. Together they looked at the early prototype of a multimedia communication device.

The second project he is working on is called SPACEAWARE. He said it was similar to the Motorola project in that both are concerned with location aware delivery systems.

"These are mobile information delivery systems which use our wireless network here at Purdue to deliver information about a specific location where the users are located," he said.

He is looking for the impact these applications have, and now, specifically, whether SPACEAWARE, which is the next type of application being developed for wireless technology, can help improve learning.

"This application allows handheld devices to automatically load information about the room, building, or area the user has just entered. For example, when students enter a specific classroom, their course materials would automatically load," he said.

Matei is looking to see if this type of technology makes sense to potential users. He wants to know how people would react and how they would learn if information was fed to them in this manner.

Working with graduate student Lance Madsen and undergraduate Drew Davidson, Matei is conducting his preliminary work at Purdue's new Envision Center. He said the location allows them to simulate the use of the technology in a three-dimensional virtual reality environment.

Matei is pleased with his projects and the opportunities they afford his students.

"They have opened up a new research avenue for me and my students which is at the cutting edge of research in this area," he said.

Greene's grant came from Purdue's Center on Aging and the Life Course, and is being used to conduct research on creative facility in older adults.

Greene works with Assistant Professor Melanie Morgan and graduate students Angie Graves, Jami Cates, and Beth Buenger-Gill. He said that as a team, they hope to learn why some people are able to think on their feet and be quick-witted while others cannot. They plan to examine the lives of older adults to see if some of this thinking is lost with age, and if so, what the result is and whether such loss can be predicted.

Greene said it was originally thought that creative facility was a result of personality types. Greene was able to discover, however, that traits such as being extroverted do not affect people's abilities to be quick thinkers.

Greene said this kind of research is fun to conduct because it has real-life applications.

"It's new and exciting. What I am able to learn and discover keeps me doing what I do," he said.

The ultimate goal of the research is to make a difference in people's lives and gain a greater understanding. Greene said once creative facility is understood, programs can be designed to help people maintain and cope with these issues.

Sypher and a team of three computer science faculty members received a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

The team is made up of Sypher; Gene Spafford, a courtesy faculty member in the department who is executive director of Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance (CERIAS) and a leading expert in the areas of security and forensics; Mikhail Atallah, deputy research director at CERIAS; and Elisa Bertino, research director at CERIAS and information security expert.

One of the major components of the project, which is coordinated through CERIAS, involves defining and implementing digital identity management. This means finding ways to identify the various aspects of digital identity and to assist people in understanding and controlling their digital identities, which are comprised of the digital information that is known about them. Aspects of digital identity include e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, and instant messenger accounts.

Sypher said identity management is critical for the conduct of business, government and online social interaction. This research, he said, will address a variety of digital identity needs.

"The ultimate goal of my part of this research is to develop data-based policy research and educational programs that will inform people of ways to protect their private information and make them aware of what info is available in a digital world," said Sypher.

"Down the line, we will be able to develop more effective and coordinated media campaigns to raise awareness of this issue and educate people about what they can do to secure and protect their digital information."

For example, Sypher said, public service announcements could be created about how to keep your passwords safe and secure.

"There is a high interest in this research from companies and industries," Bertino, the project leader, said. "It is a very hot topic right now."