Smartphone-tech pioneer awarded honorary doctorate by the University of Pretoria
Professor Ben Shneiderman, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland and a world leader in the visualisation of big datasets, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, during its Spring graduation ceremony.
Prof. Shneiderman is one of the most influential human-computer interaction researchers in the world. His 1986 list of Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design is still frequently taught in human-computer interaction courses. His book, Designing the User Interface, now in its sicth edition, has been translated into eight languages and is used worldwide in human-computer interaction courses.
His work contributed to a large degree to graphical user interfaces that we still currently use on our computers and mobile devices. He was instrumental in developing the selectable link of the World Wide Web, and the small touchscreen keyboards that we use on our smartphones and other devices.
Prof Shneiderman was elected to the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his pioneering contributions to human-computer interaction and information visualisation. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a Fellow of the Association for Computing, and the National Academy of Inventors.
He has made significant contributions with regard to the analysis and presentation of large health datasets, including the Starfield and Treemaps. His research projects include EventFlow to explore temporal event sequences, such as electronic health records that contain patient histories, in order to discover patterns of treatments or medications that lead to desired outcomes.
Contact Liesel Swart, University of Pretoria, liesel@roundtree.co.za
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