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Technology deeper focus on the technology, but we can see needs and help work on projects that are significant to the business world." Participating faculty members Left: Anthony Hendrickson, associate dean and associate professor of management information systems, helps student Lauren Damme while associ- ate professor Tony Townsend demonstrates the Virtual Reality Applications Center. Above: Devices such as this wearable computer with a miniature viewscreen from MicroOptic are a focus of study in Iowa State's new degree programs in human computer interaction technologies. New Programs in HCI at ISU spring, will place Iowa State with Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech as the only universities offering grad- uate degrees in this discipline, say school representatives. Students who enroll in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program will be the first doctoral candidates to matriculate through the ISU College of Business. HCI refers to the way electronic Management information system (MIS) faculty from the Iowa State Univer- sity College of Business in Ames have teamed up with faculty from the university's colleges of agricul- ture, design, education, engineering, and liberal arts and sciences to launch masters and doctoral pro- grams in Human Computer Interac- tion (HCI). The programs, which begin this technologies affect and shape peo- ple's daily lives. Students and faculty in the program will explore areas such as the design of user interfaces on Web sites and in software, the 62 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2004 ies programs will train researchers and practitioners to meet the chal- lenges faced by the rapid emergence of human computer interaction and its ultimate impact on nearly every facet of business and everyday life," says Anthony Hendrickson, the Col- lege's associate dean for academic programs and a member of the HCI graduate pro- gram faculty. The College of Busi- ness will work especially closely with the College of Engineering to apply technology to business functions, says Anthony Townsend, associate pro- fessor of MIS. "They're creating marvelous things in the College of Engi- neering, but they need an understanding of the business user's require- ments in the corporate environment," he empha- sizes. "Engineering has a use of computer operating systems, the implementation of electronic voting machines and online libraries, and voice control of computers. "Iowa State's new graduate stud- emphasize that HCI technologies can be applied to fields as diverse as database management, psychol- ogy, and architecture. One likely area of research will examine how businesses can make better decisions by improving their capability to gather and analyze data collected electronically at points of sale. Getting New Technology to Market D ATA B I T At its recent inaugural NUS-SME Conference, the National University of Singapore signed technology licensing agree- ments with five small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs). The five SMEs include Cyclect Holdings, BrooklynMedia, DecisionWare Sim- ulations & Games, Biomimetico, and RidgeWave Technologies. Each com- pany will bring to market technolo- gies developed at NUS research labs. The five companies In a recent survey of 192 companies, the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, found that 92 percent monitor employees' use of e-mail and the Web. In addition, 26 percent monitor their employees' electronic activities all the time. However, few companies have checks in place to protect employees' privacy or to ensure such monitor- ing is not abused. will be working with INTRO, a unit of the NUS Enterprise Cluster. INTRO manages a port- folio of approximately 140 technologies avail- able for commercial use. Available NUS technolo- gies include an adsorp- tion chiller, which uses waste heat from equip- ment such as personal computers to generate cooling power; real-time mixed reality software, which merges physical and virtual worlds in an interactive gaming envi-