One of the first hires under the University of Florida’s Preeminence Initiative less than a year ago, Dr. Juan Gilbert has been named chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering.
Gilbert, a pioneer in the field of Human-Centered Computing, came to UF as the Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and the Associate Chair of Research Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department. He left Clemson University’s School of Computing and brought four of the school’s six Black computer science faculty members with him to UF.
Gilbert, 46, gained national recognition for developing an electronic voting system that enables people with disabilities to use standard voting machines. He was a recipient of the 2011 Presidential Award for STEM mentoring and had been named a 2002 Emerging Scholar as selected by Diverse (then known as Black Issues in Higher Education).
He and his students are currently exploring robotics, smart car systems, and controlling drones with brain waves, among other things.
