Apr 25, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Christine Alvarado has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for research into the development of computer-based sketch recognition systems.

The five-year grant for $411,802 will officially begin July 1, 2006, but Alvarado's work is already well underway. The project was initiated this spring as one student's senior thesis project began to explore how 10 HMC engineering students used tablet PCs to sketch circuit diagrams during this spring's Engineering 85 class, Digital Electronics and Computer Engineering. This summer, four more students' research will build on this initial work. Alvarado is collaborating with Sarah Harris, assistant professor of engineering, who taught the class.

"Recognition algorithms have been written before," Alvarado points out, "but this research provides a missing link -- we're gathering real-world data first, from students in real classes. Previous work focused on developing tools, then collecting sketches to evaluate these tools. We're seeking to learn first how people draw: is it messy or clean, how many stokes do they use, how can it aid in learning or with the user's experience in the lab?"

Menu-based drawing systems exist, but are often cumbersome to use. Alvarado is seeking to analyze user data and to arrive at a metaphor that best meets students' needs -- the correct balance between menu-driven and sketch-driven systems. Her long-term goal is to develop a system that goes beyond electrical engineering to applications in other fields, such as chemical diagrams or musical notation.

Improvements in handwriting recognition have made table PCs increasing popular for note-taking and other applications that are traditionally paper-based. Alvarado stated: "Handwriting recognition is robust enough today to have crossed over the threshold of utility. As we develop sketch recognition algorithms, we will be asking, 'How many errors can the user tolerate?"

At a recent conference of educators and scientists who use the new generation of tablet PCs, there was skepticism about the ability to take this large leap forward. "Many of them think, 'This is one step beyond what is possible."Alvarado said. "But most of them are end-users who don't understand how the technology is developed." Alvarado ambitiously predicts the team will have an initial prototype by the end of summer 2006.

Alvarado earned her A.B. degree at Dartmouth College and her S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She joined the faculty in the Department of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College in 2005.

Previous HMC faculty members to receive the NSF CAREER Award are Professor of Chemistry Shenda Baker (1996) and Professor of Biology Mary E. Williams (1997). The NSF describes its CAREER Award thus:

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.

Following is the abstract of Alvarado's NSF proposal:

In many technical disciplines, from electrical to mechanical engineering, the simplest and most straightforward way to communicate an idea is to draw a picture. Diagrams are particularly powerful in education when they are combined with computer simulation programs because, unlike paper, simulation programs allow students to explore the behavior of a physical system, such as a circuit or a mechanical device.

Unfortunately, the mouse and keyboard interface to these programs prevent students from drawing their diagrams freely, forcing them continually to consult menus to choose pieces of the diagram. The hardware to draw on the computer exists; the bottleneck is the computer's inability to understand diagrams. The PI's central research goal is to construct and deploy computer simulation tools capable of understanding students' hand-drawn diagrams. The results of free-sketch recognition research cannot yet be incorporated into end-user applications for two reasons.

First, free-sketch recognition is not sufficiently robust to incorporate into useful tools. Second, little is known about how to build usable interfaces that incorporate free-sketch recognition. This work will bridge the gap between free-sketch recognition technology and its end-users by focusing on its application to undergraduate engineering design. The outcome of this work will be improved techniques for free-sketch recognition, guidelines for incorporating free-sketch recognition into usable interfaces, and educational sketch-based simulation tools.

This project also includes a significant outreach component aimed at establishing a community of educational and technological researchers with the combined expertise necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools on learning. This research project directly supports the PI's educational goal of increasing the number and diversity of students who use and who develop technology.

First, technology that can understand hand-drawn diagrams will provide students with a more familiar interface to simulation programs, lowering the barrier to using technology in the classroom, particularly for students with less computer experience including women and underrepresented minorities.

Second, this research will be performed at Harvey Mudd College, an exclusively undergraduate institution. The small size of the college and low faculty to student ratio (1:9) will enable the PI to work closely with undergraduates, teaching them the basics of performing research and preparing many for graduate work.