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ABOUT IHMC The Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Human & Machine
Cognition (IHMC) was established in 1990 as an interdisciplinary research
unit of the University of West Florida. Since that time, IHMC has grown into
one of the nation's premier research institutes with more than 115
researchers and staff investigating a broad range of topics related to
understanding cognition in both humans and machines with a particular
emphasis on building computational tools to leverage and amplify human
cognitive and perceptual capacities. This shift in
perspective places human/machine interaction issues at the center of the
subject. The “system” in question isn’t “the computer,” but instead includes
cognitive and social systems, computational tools, and the physical
facilities and environment. Thus, human-centered computing provides a new research
outlook with new research agendas and goals. Building cognitive prostheses is
fundamentally different from Artificial Intelligence’s traditional Test
ambitions — it doesn’t set out to imitate human abilities, but to extend
them. It gives a methodological framework which provides clear, objective
criteria of success and measurable progress (both decisively absent from the
Turing Test methodology). And yet (unlike, say, the ambition of developing
artificial insects) it keeps human thought at the center of our science. Current
active research areas include: knowledge modeling and sharing, adjustable
autonomy, advanced interfaces and displays, communication and collaboration,
computer-mediated learning systems, intelligent data understanding, software
agents, expertise studies, work practice simulation, knowledge
representation, and other related areas. IHMC faculty
and staff collaborate extensively with industry and government to develop
science and technology that can be enabling with respect to society's broader
goals. IHMC researchers receive funding (current funding in force exceeds
$24,000,000) from a wide range of government and private sources. IHMC
research partners have included: DARPA, NSF, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force,
NIMA, NIH, DOT, IDEO, Noikia, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, Procter &
Gamble, Boeing, SAIC, and IBM among others. |