QED CTO, Dr. L. Miguel Encarnação recognized at the GVU 25th Anniversary Impact Awards

QED’s Chief Technology, and Innovation Officer, Dr. L. Miguel Encarnação, was recently chosen to be in the exclusive list of awardees at the 2017 GVU Impact Awards presented by the Georgia Tech GVU Center. The Impact Awards were presented to 14 individuals to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the GVU Center. Each recipient was finalized after an extensive nomination and selection process.

The awards recognize the recipients for their significant contributions in the past quarter-century since the center started in 1992. According to GVU, Miguel and the others in the list “embody the interdisciplinary mindset and commitment to a real-world impact that is a hallmark of GVU’s identity. Through their leadership, service, and research excellence, they have changed the way we use computing technology, advanced the frontiers of knowledge, and strengthened the GVU community at Georgia Tech.”

The entire QED family is honored by one of our own receiving such recognition and proud to have Miguel as a member of our leadership team.

GVU Center Research Showcase 

GVU is a world leader in R&D of human-centered design and development in the context of human-computer interaction. The exhibition showcased over 100 innovative ideas, interfaces and devices which are people-centered and are developed to enhance and positively impact communities and our day-to-day lives through technology. The event’s industry-sponsor program included notable information and technology firms such as Google, Amazon, Steelcase, IBM, Intel, SAIC, and many others.

The event provided an open access to the latest works of researchers in Human-Computer interaction tools and technologies and had alumnus keynote speakers from Amazon Alexa (an intelligent, natural-language driven personal assistant developed by Amazon), Carnegie Mellon, and University of Washington.  With Miguel’s attendance at events such as this one and networking with industry and academic leaders and representatives and high-powered sponsors, it provides QED with ample opportunities to explore, understand, and render prospects for future collaboration with specialists, particularly in the field of Innovation, Data, and Technology – to support and aid QED and its staff advance in their professional services and increase the value they provide to QED clients. Examples of such promising technologies and methodologies include, but are not limited to:

  • Social skill-sharing platforms to recruit and connect local field staff
  • Mobile technology for understanding approaches to women’s health research & education
  • User-driven content creation for VR for education and awareness building and creating empathy
  • Mobile data collection and analytics for directed health initiatives
  • Design guidelines for stakeholder engagement through technology, balancing power dynamics (possibly also towards SDG involvement)
  • Public safety visualizations for International Development and M&E planning
  • the application of conversational agent technology to in-situ guidance, coaching and training of local M&E staff

During the two-day event Miguel also attended GVU’s Advisory Board as a long-time member of the board. This gathering of senior members of industrial advisors and partner representatives to GVU provided information on latest research trends at GVU in the field of human-centered technology design as well as discussed challenges and opportunities for collaborations between industry and academia.

As an incubator of research boosting new partnerships with business, national research agencies and other academic experts, the Georgia Tech GVU Center inspires and enables interdisciplinary research in people-centered computing technology, creating new innovations for society. By engaging with thought leaders like GVU, QED ensures its continuing leadership role at the forefront of human-centered innovation in international development.