Visitors entering the Human-Centered Computing lab at Clemson University are greeted by a wall covered with sports pennants from an array of colleges. If the visitors are lucky, they also are greeted by Dr. Juan Gilbert, chairman of the lab, with a ready smile and an eagerness to brag about his current and former students whose undergraduate colleges are represented by the pennants.
Gilbert’s pride in his students is only exceeded by his students’ pride in him — and with good reason. On Dec. 12, Gilbert — a 42-year-old computer professor with modest origins — was among nine individuals and representatives of eight organizations at a White House ceremony to receive the 2011 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, or STEM.
Nothing speaks more to Gilbert’s worthiness of this honor than the school pennants in his lab and what they reveal about the personal investment he makes in every one of his students.
Gilbert also is a researcher, scholar, teacher and entrepreneur in the field of Human-Centered Computing, or HCC. HCC, a fairly young discipline, applies computer-based solutions to real-world problems. Through HCC, social problems such as voting accessibility, African-American schoolchildren’s aversion to science and math, potential bias in college admissions and the dangers of texting while driving are identified, while software to correct these problems is designed, evaluated and ultimately sold in the marketplace.
Aside from his mentoring activities, Gilbert’s outlook “is predominantly entrepreneurial,” according to Professor Bryant W. York of the University of Notre Dame, “if you think of entrepreneurs as people who bring innovation to organizations and initiate new enterprises.”
Gilbert “is willing to take risks, and he takes actions to create solutions,” York said, adding: “And he brings these characteristics to his teaching and mentoring activities.”
“It’s nice to have all those characteristics rolled up into one mentor,” York said. “Many students must have multiple mentors in order to get comparable coverage.”
