​Name: Daniel Leibman

Hometown: Sante Fe, NM

Year in the program: 2nd year

Research Interests: Exoskeletons, Human-Robot Interaction

Career Aspirations: Industrial or Regulatory research involving Human-Robot Interaction, Automation, or Artificial Intelligence.

Fun Fact: Has a twin brother.

Advice to younger students: Grad school is for more than just work. Get out and meet people in the program, hang out, make friends, collaborate. Networking well will take you far. 

Chapter Members Eleanor Foster, Nicholas Garcia, and McKenna Tornblad volunteered at the Guadalupe Community Center on March 5th, 2021. The group spent the day assisting the youth center with a variety of activities. Those activities included cleaning windows and picking up garbage around the facility and playground to ensure a clean environment for the kids attending the community center. The chapter would like to give a special thanks to the Guadalupe Center for having us, Nick and McKenna for volunteering, and Eleanor for planning such a great volunteer opportunity!

Name: Daxton Mitchell
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Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas

Year in program:   2nd Year

Research Interest: My research interests center around virtual reality and its application to the realms of human-robot interaction and visual attention. I'm especially interested in how people's perception, cognition, and behavior change around robots while they are immersed in a virtual environment. Understanding the potential changes to these aspects of human workers could help us design more effective and safer training programs for people that work closely with robots.

Career Aspirations: After completing my education at Texas Tech, I plan to help develop the next generation of virtual and augmented reality headsets as well as using extended reality to assist in training workers across many domains.

Fun Fact: One of my pet cats loves to sit in my lap during virtual meetings and classes so that he can take a nap while I work!

Advice to younger students: Take time for self-care, whatever that may look like for you. Graduate school has many academic and professional challenges, but personal development can be just as important as professional development.

We'd like to thank all who support the HFES Student Chapter at Texas Tech. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we've had a incredible fall semester! We'll see you in the Spring!