We have a lot going on in the SPoCC Lab this semester! We are continuing to work on our face-to-motion study, which we collected a mountain of data for last semester. We want to collect follow-up data and to analyze and potentially present at one of Miami’s research forums.

In other news, Nathan has started collecting data for their dissertation project now that they have completed comps! Congratulations to Nathan! Their dissertation will look at how we can use postural sway analysis to improve VR technology.

Hannah has started collecting data for their MA thesis project on the affordances of online English language teaching. They are in the process of collecting interview data from English language teachers, with the goal of starting to analyze data by the end of the semester.

Finally, a wild Lyric has joined the lab as a graduate student!

Now that we are under stay at home orders – data collection has been stopped for now (come on fall).

However, the lab still has amazing things to celebrate:

Two of our alum Hannah Walter and Spencer Rosario both received their Ph.D.!!! Congrats to Dr. Walter and Dr. Rosario!! Another lab alum Drew Ford just received his M.D.!!! Congrats Dr. Ford!!

This brings our total up to 7 undergraduate alums that have gone on to earn their Ph.D./M.D. – so proud of you all!!

Among our current grad students – Max Teaford successfully defended his dissertation proposal and will begin data collection in the fall!!

Also Tony Drew Received the Dorothy Jean Smith award for his research on predicting motion sickness in virtual environments and Max Teaford was awarded Psi Chi Graduate student of the Year (second year in a row)!!

While many conferences have been cancelled – our undergrads put together several posters based on our recent work and were able to present at our department’s virtual Hinkle Memorial poster session!

As the semester comes to an end I couldn’t be prouder of our  group standing long and prospering even in the midst of a pandemic!!

Dr. Hassebrock successfully defended his dissertation this summer becoming the 8th Ph.D. from the SPoCC lab! Dr. Hassebrock’s research involves exploring how people detect and use information about other’s actions to guide coordination in natural and virtual environments.

Dr. Hassebrock will be joining the faculty at Miami University as a visiting assistant professor of psychology in the fall!

Great work Dr. Hassebrock!!!

We would like to congratulate all of our Seniors who are graduating this semester! We wish you all the best of luck and know you will go on to do great things.

Emma Feld will be pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Cincinnati

Maddie Filipkowski will be pursing a Ph.D. in Physical Therapy at Cleveland State  University

      Leah Sprock will be pursing a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Cleveland State University

We would also like to congratulate Max Teaford  for winning the Psi Chi Graduate Student of the Year Award

Maddie and Max at presenting a poster at the 2019 Hinkle Poster Session

Very happy to announce that Tony Drew, MS successfully completed comprehensive exams this semester! Job well done!

Mr. Drew’s research focuses on developing behavioral and physiological markers that can predict changes in cognitive (attention) or physical state (postural instability, motion sickness) in real-time.

Tony Drew presenting at a recent ISEP meeting

Thanks to lab member Tony Drew, MS – we will be adding mobile EEG technology to the lab. Tony was awarded a competitive Tech Fee award from the university to purphase a mobile EEG recording system that can be used in conjunction with our existing motion capture and VR capabilities.

This is exciting as it will increase both the types of studies we can run and look at different aspects of behavior at the same time.

Well done, Mr. Drew, well done!

As always – “Stand long and Prosper”

JS