Overview
Background
Dr Jessica Korte is passionate about the ways good technology can improve lives. To ensure technology is “good”, she advocates involving end users in the design process; especially when those people belong to “difficult” user groups - which usually translates to “minority” user groups. Her philosophy for technology design (and life in general) is that the needs of people who are disempowered or disabled by society should be considered first; everyone else will then benefit from technology that maximises usability. Her research areas include Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and Participatory & Collaborative Design.
Jessica was drawn to research by a desire to explore some of the ways technology and design can empower and support people from marginalised groups. She has worked with Deaf children and members of the Deaf community to create a technology design approach, and successfully organised and run international workshops on Pushing the Boundaries of Participatory Design, leading to the World’s Most Inclusive Distributed Participatory Design Project.
Jessica has recently been awarded a TAS DCRC Fellowship to create an Auslan Communication Technologies Pipeline, a modular, AI-based Auslan-in, Auslan-out system capable of recognising, processing and producing Auslan signing.
Jessica is currently looking to recruit research students with an interest in exploring topics in an Auslan context, including machine learning, natural language processing, chatbots, video GAN, or procedural animation.
Availability
- Dr Jessica Korte is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Information Technology, Griffith University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University
Research interests
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Auslan Communication Technologies Pipeline
Sign language recognition, human-like artificial sign production, sign language processing
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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) / Computer-Human Interaction
The many ways humans interact with and use technologies.
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Collaborative Design / Participatory Design / Co-Design
Designing with, rather than for, the users of a new technology means that technology should be better suited to the users' needs, abilities and expectations. I am particularly interested in co-design with children and marginalised groups.
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Design with Deaf children
There is relatively little educational technology designed for young Deaf children and their families. By undertaking collaborative design with Deaf children, their families and educators, my research can create technologies to assist with early learning.
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Women in STEM
Women remain under-represented in STEM fields.
Research impacts
Working with members of marginalised groups in the design of new technologies helps to ensure the technologies created address the needs, expectations and abilites of members of that group. This can in turn support their involvement and empowerment in every day life.
Research (including my own) has shown that children benefit from involvement in collaborative design activities. Such benefits can include increased language skills, increased confidence, improved teamworking skills and increased technological skills.
Works
Search Professor Jessica Korte’s works on UQ eSpace
2012
Conference Publication
Designing a mobile video game to teach preliterate Deaf children Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
Korte, Jessica , Potter, Leigh Ellen and Nielsen, Sue (2012). Designing a mobile video game to teach preliterate Deaf children Australian Sign Language (Auslan). British Computer Society Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Birmingham United Kingdom, 10-14 September 2012. Swindon, United Kingdom: BCS Learning & Development.
2012
Conference Publication
Sign my world: lessons learned from prototyping sessions with young Deaf children
Potter, Leigh Ellen, Korte, Jessica and Nielsen, Sue (2012). Sign my world: lessons learned from prototyping sessions with young Deaf children. 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 26 - 30 November 2012. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/2414536.2414613
2011
Conference Publication
Seek and sign: an early experience of the joys and challenges of software design with young Deaf children
Potter, Leigh Ellen, Korte, Jessica and Nielsen, Sue (2011). Seek and sign: an early experience of the joys and challenges of software design with young Deaf children. 23rd Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, Canberra, Australia, 28 November - 2 December 2011. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/2071536.2071577
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Jessica Korte is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Available projects
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Auslan Recognition
A machine learning project to recognise Auslan signing.
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Entropy-based video segmentation
An AI approach to video segmentation, using the entropy of movement to identify signs and sign segements in Auslan video and live stream.
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Auslan processing
Applying natural language processing techniques to Auslan
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Auslan production: Animation
Designing a platform to generate Auslan signs through procedural animation
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Auslan production: GAN
Applying the technology behind DeepFakes to create synthetic Auslan communication
Supervision history
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Women¿s Empowerment: Saudi women¿s perceptions of strategies and policies in relation to women¿s employment in the IT industry
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Jessica Korte directly for media enquiries about:
- Auslan
- co-design
- Collaborative design
- Deaf children
- Deaf community
- Deaf education
- participatory design
- sign language technologies
- technology design
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