Subject: Recommendations for ways to conduct interdisciplinary research using the EEG and Eye Tracker machine, and to increase the usage of these machines.

Purpose

The purpose of our proposal is to recognize different ways that students can conduct interdisciplinary research by using the EEG cap and Eye Tracker machines. We have also included ways in which we can increase the amount of research that is done using these machines.

Summary

There are big problems in the world such as: healthcare, education, and climate change, to name a few. Mark McBeth and Kandi Turley- Ames deans of the College of Arts and Letters at ISU, and founders of the Integrated Research Center, have proposed a plan to solve these big problems. Through Integrated research and collaboration between professionals from many fields. By taking down these "silos", integrated research is able to take place and open up so many more doors than ever imagined. This is an exciting new center, and with access to state of the art technologies such as the EEG cap and Eye Tracker there is incredible potential for users at the IRC.

An EEG cap is a piece of technology that can greatly benefit the department of psychology and health sciences by studying the impact of the brain and learning about many brain disorders. An Eye Tracker can be used in a variety of fields such as computer science, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, advertising, and much more. Several students at ISU have worked together to present this proposal, Ahmad Alobaidali majoring in electrical engineering, Husina Aldossary, Karlie Kjerstad majoring in Health Education, and Taylor Raschke majoring in Health Sciences. By hiring full-time staff members for the IRC, this will make the center more accessible to students. Training multiple employees on how to use the EEG and Eye Tracker will be crucial, so they can help avoid any conflicts with the equipment. Having the IRC create a video tutorial and website with step by step instructions on how to use these technologies will increase awareness of the equipment available and make them more useful on our campus. Finding volunteers to spread the word about this center and what it has to offer through social media will help get the Integrated Research Center up and running in no time.

Introduction

The problem that lies within the IRC, is not the potential that can be done within the center, but it is that not enough people are aware of the IRC. The IRC hosts many high-scale technological machines that can be used to do numerous types of research. The problem with these machines, is that users are unaware of how to use them, and what can be done with them. The purpose of this proposal is to inform Dr. Kandi Turley-Ames, and Dr. Mark McBeth about all of the types of interdisciplinary research that can be conducted using the Eye Tracker,
and the Electroencephalogram (EEG) Cap. We would also like to persuade these two on ways to increase the usage of these machines, which would be hiring staff to work in the IRC. The staff members would then be able to create videos and a website on how to use these machines.

Since not many people know about the IRC, and these two pieces of equipment specifically, there is not a lot of interdisciplinary research being done. If we take the opportunity to hire staff, and create numerous sources on how to use these machines, we can increase the amount of research that is being conducted here at ISU. Our sources of information come from numerous different websites and people.

These sources include: a research paper about eye tracking in education, a director of the Eye Link 1000 eye tracker machine, an article from the Johns Hopkins Medicine staff, an article from the staff at the Mayo Clinic, and lastly a website that was created to inform users of the Eye Tracker machine.

The scope of this proposal is to recommend a few ways in which Dr. Mark McBeth and Dr. Kandi Turley- Ames can increase the amount of interdisciplinary research conducted by using the Eye Tracker and the EEG cap. This proposal will also inform different ways that these machines can be used. By recommending ways to increase the usage, the IRC will see a growth in students using their research center.

We will be using an informative organizational pattern on ways to conduct interdisciplinary research using the EEG cap and the Eye Tracker. We will also be using a persuasive organizational pattern to propose ways that the IRC can increase the amount of people using these machines. The key terms that will be used in this proposal include: IRC= Integrated Research Center and EEG= electroencephalogram cap.

Proposed Plan

Research on ways to conduct interdisciplinary research using the EEG and Eye Tracker machines:

1. The Eye Tracker has been studied in non-computer fields.

2. Eye tracking is also used for research across multiple academic disciplines.

3. Eye tracking has also been used by numerous industries, all of which have benefitted greatly by using the eye tracker.

4. The EEG cap has been used in several ways other than detecting abnormalities in the brain.

5. Lastly, an EEG test can be used to diagnose disorders that have an impact on brain activity.

Ways to increase the usage of these machines:

Task 1: Hire a few staff members for the IRC that are able to work down in the research center.

Task 2: Begin training staff members on how to use the EEG and eye tracker.

Task 3: Make a "how to" tutorial video on how to use the EEG and eye tracker.

Task 4: Create a word processed document with pictures and step-by-step instructions on how to use the eye tracker as well as the EEG.

Task 5: Create a website for the IRC with links for each piece of equipment.

Task 6: Find volunteers who would be willing to explain more about the process of eye tracking, and the EEG cap to the people on campus.