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Matt Huenerfauth

Matt Huenerfauth, professor and expert in computing accessibility research, is part of a team that has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to use artificial intelligence to better understand the role of facial expressions in signed and spoken languages.

Matt Huenerfauth, a professor and expert in computing accessibility research, has been named director of RIT’s iSchool (School of Information). Huenerfauth takes the helm Aug. 1 from Stephen Zilora, who is stepping down after eight years of leadership.

Eight years ago, as a high school junior, Peter Yeung participated in NTID's Explore Your Future, a program that introduces deaf and hard-of-hearing high schoolers to career opportunities. Today, Yeung is an RIT/NTID graduate who has completed three degrees and has started his career as a user experience architect with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Springfield, Va.

RIT has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to help make artificial intelligence smarter and more inclusive. The grant creates the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Computational Sensing for Human-centered AI and will allow a total of 30 undergraduate students from across the country to spend 10 weeks at RIT.

New research is helping scientists around the world understand what drives language change, especially when languages are in their infancy. The results will shed light on how the limitations of the human brain change language and provide an understanding of the complex interaction between languages and the human beings who use them.

Matt Huenerfauth and his research team are developing animations of American Sign Language—a language that requires precise control of hand and body movement as well as facial expressions.