Dr. Jonathan Lazar, UMD iSchool Professor, received a Google Faculty Research Award for the next academic year. Dr. Lazar’s Google faculty research award focuses on the development of new metrics for use in automated accessibility testing tools, for more accurately measuring web accessibility in large organizations. Dr. Lazar is involved in research and teaching in human-computer interaction, with a focus on ICT accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, and law and public policy related to accessibility and human-computer interaction. At the University of Maryland, Dr. Lazar is the Associate Director of the Trace Research and Development Center, the nation’s oldest center on disability and technology. He is also a faculty member in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL).
The Google Faculty Research Awards provide funding for a graduate student to work on one cutting-edge research project for an entire year. The awards include a broad set of computer science research areas, including Algorithms and Optimization, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Retrieval and Real-Time Content, Machine Learning and Data Mining, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and much more. Jonathan Lazar continues a tradition of the iSchool. Past recipients of the Google Faculty Research Award from the iSchool include Jessica Vitak, Tamara Clegg, and Allison Druin.