Humanities News
IPRO 343 PLACES THIRD IN PROCESS AND IMPROVEMENT TRACK ON IPRO DAY
by Halcyon Lawrence
"Did they just call my name?"
We all know that announcements in train stations and airports are difficult to understand. This is because public announcements lack standards for talker characteristics. Talker characteristics may include a combination of variables like rate, pitch and duration, language, accents, and gender.
During the Spring 2009 semester, IPRO 343 extended their research begun in the Fall 2008 semester to recommend standards for announcements in noisy and distracting environments. This award-winning IPRO, guided by assistant professor Matthew Bauer (Humanities), investigated three factors that affect speech intelligibility in public announcements: words per minute, pitch, and duration. The team included co-team leaders Shavanna Pinder (ARCH) and Kevin Arnold (SSCI); Jessie Bauer (EECE), Brian Bjerke (EECE), Hyemin Choi (ARCH), Karen Hong (ARCH), Scott Justus (BCPS), Justo Moraga (EECE), Crystal Reynolds (PSYC), and Nor Tanapura (MMAE); and teaching assistant Halcyon Lawrence (Ph.D. student, TECH).
IPRO 343 Team Members [from left]: Prof. Matthew Bauer, Jessie Bauer, Karen Hong, Hyemin Choi, Shavanna Pinder, Kevin Arnold, Crystal Reynolds, Scott Justus, Nor Tanapura, Brian Bjerke, Justo Moraga, Halcyon Lawrence.
Standards and codes exist in almost every built or designed environment--for example, building codes addressing fire safety concerns and accessibility standards for the physically disabled. But there are no standards for talker characteristics on public announcement systems. The lack of standards for talker characteristics introduces the possibility that these important and sometimes life-saving announcements can be misunderstood. The goal of IPRO 343 was to address the lack of standards for talker characteristics in public announcement systems. More >
Spring 2010 Graduate Communication Courses
Graduate Communication Courses offered for Spring 2010 by the Lewis Department of Humanities (10/23/2009)
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Stolley Receives Digital Production/Scholarship Award
Karl Stolley, assistant professor of technical communication, received the Computers and Composition Michelle Kendrick Outstanding Digital Production/Scholarship Award in June at the Computers & Writing Conference. (08/27/2009)
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IIT students profiled on CNN Small Businesses
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Congratulations to the Winners of the 1st Annual Lewis Prize for High School Journalism on Technology, Science, or Business
The Allen C. Lewis Prize is designed to encourage high school journalism students to think critically and write clearly for the general public about complex topics and issues in technology, science, or business. (05/29/2009)
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2009 IIT Commencement
Congratulations to recent Lewis Department of Humanities graduates. (05/27/2009)
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Congratulations to the Winners of the 44th Annual Campus-wide Writing Contest
A reception for all entrants and awarding of prizes was held on Wednesday, April 22, in the MTCC Collens Welcome Center. (05/04/2009)
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1st Annual John D. Root Award for History of Science and Technology Scholarship
The Humanities Department sponsored the first John D. Root Award for History of Science and Technology, in memory of a former professor of history and department chair. The award went to two student entries in the Chicago History Fair, which recognizes scholarship by Chicago-area students in grades 6-12. (05/04/2009)
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Maciukenas wins STC Chicago Chapter Award of Excellence
Maciukenas was honored with an Award of Excellence at the Society for Technical Communication (STC) Chicago Chapter’s 37th Annual Technical Publications, Art, and Online Communication Competition Awards Banquet on March 10. (03/25/2009)
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