Introduction
Vignette of a day in the trim lab
In the morning, Trimmy attended the proposal development class, which is the last class she has to take to fulfill her PhD coursework. She has already got waiver for three courses, which she took in her previous MS program. Then, Trimmy moved to Gilbert Place to participate in the Center for Human-Computer Weekly Seminar. She came back to the lab in Whittemore to prepare for her experiment using the driving simulator and the large language model with her undergrad research assistants. In between, she submitted a registration request for the upcoming Human Factors and Ergonomics Conference, in which she will present her papers. A few months ago, she also attended the AutoUI Conference, where she co-hosted the workshop on empathic in-vehicle agents with international collaborators. In the afternoon, she will attend the all-hands lab meeting, which is held biweekly to discuss her research progress and other ideas with everyone in the lab.
Conference venues
One of the most important and valuable experiences the trim labbers can have is attending various flagship conferences to present their work, organize workshops and tutorials, chair the sessions, participante in the doctoral colloquiums, and expand their network with other professionals. We attend ACM/IEEE HRI (Human-Robot Interaction), ACM CHI (Computer-Human Interaction), IEEE VR (Virtual Reality and 3D Interfaces), ICAD (International Conference on Auditory Display), ACM AutoUI (Automotive User Interfaces), and HFES (Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, now called, "ASPIRE"). We have attended other design and HCI conferences, incuding UIST, CSCW, PersuasiveTech, UbiComp, HCII, ISMAR, RO-MAN, and many more conferences.
After obtaining degrees
PhD students in ISE typically graduate in 4 years and those in CS graudate in 5 years as recommended by each department. The trim alumni are working in industry as a senior H/F researcher/consultant, or developer (e.g., Google Health, GM, Amazon, SAE, Ltd., Nuro, SAE Limited - Forensic Engineering and Consulting firm), as well as in academia as a faculty member (e.g., professors at University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, Hanyang University - Erica in South Korea; a research scientist at MIT, and postdoc researchers at MIT, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Texas A&M University) or as a graduate student (e.g., Cornell, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, University of Virginia, Purdue University, University of Southern California, University of Toronto).