On October the 21st, the Albuquerque IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) group organized a public talk that was broadcast on Zoom and everyone in the Albuquerque Section was invited to attend. The talk was organized by WIE’s Chair, Khandakar Islam and co-sponsored by the IEEE Albuquerque Section and WIE.

The title of the talk was “Health and Justice for All – an IEEE SIGHT Group Technology Project” and the speaker was Katherine Grace August, PhD.

If you could not attend the talk but are interesting in learning about the projects Dr. August talked about, you can wath the recording of the talk here: https://youtu.be/dZ_27ZteQw0

About the speaker: Katherine Grace August, PhD (Kit) IEEE Senior Member Biomedical Engineer is a Research Guest at Stevens Institute of Technology – ECE Intelligent Networks. Dr. August received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Newark College of Engineering NJIT, the MSCS-MIS, Marist College, and BFA Communications Design, Parsons the New School for Design. She has research experiences in neurorehabilitation with robots, haptics, augmented and virtual reality, functional brain imaging, biological, analog and digital signal processing, wireless, systems engineering, communications, steganography, intelligent systems, search, AIML, speech processing, and the like. She was engaged Bell Labs MTS New Service Concepts Systems Engineering 1991 – 2002. Currently she is Steven’s consultant and her current Projects: IEEE SA DIITA Workflow Transparent Design for Wellbeing, IEEE SIGHT: “Do Good Things, Justice for All,” an experiential learning system to understand hearing loss, and provide augmentative communications and closed captioning to reduce disparity. 18 United States Patents; 50 International Patents; Citations: 3189, h index 21, i10 index 25; Health and Medical Device Literacy. Her current projects promote improved opportunity for underrepresented, minorities, women, and girls, with an emphasis on inventing. Dr. August is currently IEEE NJ Coast Section PACE SIGHT
Group Chair, IEEE NJ Coast Section History Chair, AP-VT-EMC Chapter Vice Chair, Computers Chapter Vice Chair, IEEE
ComSoc History Committee; She was the Whitaker Scholar 2009-2012 at ETH Zurich and won Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Arts in Technology Award Virtual Actor with John Jesurun and Daniel Lee, PhD.


Abstract: During the COVID-19 emergency, it became clear that timely and comprehensive access to intelligent technology and a connected lifestyle should not be considered discretionary but compulsory for every human being. Successful systems will be culturally and linguistically appropriate. Systems will accommodate people’s needs regarding aging, mobility, hearing, vision, and level of expertise. Since an increasing number of people care for themselves and also care for their loved ones, people need connectivity to one another, to timely information to remain safe, and to resources. To improve wellbeing, easy access to health and medical device literacy is needed for individuals and for professionals. Accommodation is needed for various languages, levels of education and subject matter expertise, interfaces for hearing and or vision loss, and more. Our IEEE SIGHT Group technology humanitarian project, ‘Health & Justice for All’ connects people to health and medical device information in a culturally and linguistically appropriate form for individuals and caregivers, community members, volunteers and professionals. Our IEEE DIITA Workflow Transparent Design for Wellbeing will lead to new related Standards.

We hope you enjoyed the talk and if you were not able to attend it, that you make time in your day to watch the recording.

The officers of the IEEE Albuquerque section would like to thank to Khandakar for organizing the talk.

Sincerely,

Gilberto

Albuquerque Section Treasurer.