Pioneering UMD Lab Celebrates 35 Years on Forefront of Humane Technology

College Park, MD – The Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) is pleased to host its 35th Annual Symposium on May 24, 2018 on the campus of University of Maryland, College Park, and invites visitors to participate in an exciting day on designing technology for humans. This year, the symposium will take a close look at online privacy for Facebook and similar platforms.

Founded in 1983, the HCIL is a world-leading research lab working on the frontier of humans and technology. The hyperlink, the touchscreen, and the appscreen are just some of its innovations, many of which have found their way into the smartphones, tablets, and personal computers we use on a daily basis. The core mission of the HCIL has from the beginning been putting a human face on technology to make computers work for everyone, regardless of their background, knowledge, age, gender, and ethnicity.

The annual symposium, now in its 35th year, is a celebration of the research and service that the HCIL has conducted over the past year. During the day-long event, more than 200 visitors from all over the nation will attend talks, panels, workshops, tutorials, and demonstrations of some of the exciting technical innovations that the students, faculty, and staff of the HCIL has designed, built, and evaluated over the academic year.

This year, the HCIL is particularly proud to announce that the keynote will be given by its very own Dr. Jennifer Golbeck, a world-renowned expert and frequent speaker on social media, privacy, and security on the web. Dr. Golbeck’s keynote is titled “The Frontier of Privacy and Manipulation Online” and covers the double-edged sword that is artificial intelligence as applied to our online, digital personas. Drawing on the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica debacle, Dr. Golbeck will tell the story of the heights of possibilities as well as the depths of dangers that artificial intelligence offers in an increasingly networked world.

Registration for press is free; $190 for industry/government/faculty; $115 for UMD staff; and $35 for students.

To learn more about the HCIL Symposium and register, please visit:

To learn more about the HCIL, please visit:

For inquiries, please email Rashida Bandy (HCIL coordinator) at hcil-info@cs.umd.edu

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About the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park is the state’s flagship university and one of the nation’s preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 40,000 students, 10,000 faculty and staff, and 280 academic programs. As one of the Nation’s top producers of Fulbright scholars, its faculty includes two Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners and 56 members of the national academies. The institution has a $1.9 billion operating budget and secures $514 million annually in external research funding. For more information about the University of Maryland, College Park, visit www.umd.edu.