New Doctoral Programs Blaze Technological Trails
Revi Sterling (PhDTechMedSoc’08) worked with women in Nthongoni, Kenya, to create a portable, inexpensive communication device that enables female listeners of community radio to produce broadcasts, radio plays and debate programs discussing poignant issues on air. She plans to track the impacts of the program for several years to see if power shifts among men and women actually occur as a result of the technology.
Developing sensing and imaging systems in everything from cars and cell phones to medical equipment and military operations may be lines of work for future alumni of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥â€™s new graduate program in computational optical sensing and imaging.
Launched this fall, the program will enable up to 20 Ph.D. students to receive full tuition, insurance and a $30,000 annual stipend to complete their doctoral dissertation and receive a certificate in computational optical imaging. The unique program is funded by a $3.2 million National Science Foundation grant.
The program’s goal is to provide education in the rapidly developing technologies of computational optics and address research challenges in sensing and imaging. Students will be recruited from the departments of physics, applied mathematics, electrical and computer engineering and molecular, cellular and developmental biology to work with 15 participating faculty.
In other news, Revi Sterling (PhDTechMedSoc’08) received the first doctoral degree in technology, media and society in December from the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society institute. Sterling’s research in rural Kenya focused on the ways in which women’s participation in community radio elevated their status in their husbands’ eyes, as well as in the community.
ATLAS was established in 1997 to integrate information and communication technology in disciplines across campus and beyond. There are 10 doctoral students in the program. It also offers an undergraduate certificate program in technology, arts and media.