Jonathan Lazar
Professor Jonathan Lazar PhD, LLM (CHAIR)
Jonathan Lazar, PhD, LLM is a professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where he is the executive director of the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility (MIDA), and is a faculty member in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Dr. Lazar has over 25 years of experience in research and teaching in human-computer interaction, with a focus on
technology accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, web accessibility, and law and public policy related to accessibility and HCI. Dr. Lazar has authored or edited 16 books, including Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (2nd edition, co-authored with Feng and Hochheiser), Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy (co-authored with Goldstein and Taylor), and Accessible Technology and the Developing World (co-edited with Stein). His 17th book, Foundations of Information Law (co-authored with Jaeger, Gorham, and Greene-Taylor) will be published in Fall 2023. Dr. Lazar has published over 200 refereed articles in journals, conference proceedings, edited books, and magazines, and has received research funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Google, and Adobe. He is the recipient of the 2020 ACM SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility and the 2016 ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award, is a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy, and he served as the general chair of the 2021 ACM ASSETS conference.
Alan Penn
Professor Alan Penn
Alan is a former Dean of the Bartlett faculty of the Built Environment (2009-19), founding director of Space Syntax Ltd, a UCL knowledge transfer spin out with a portfolio of over 100 applied projects per year, including whole city masterplans, neighbourhood development plans & individual buildings. A member of the Space Syntax Laboratory within The Bartlett School of Architecture. He was the Chair of the Architecture, Built Environment & Planning sub-panel 16 and a member of Main-panel C for Research Excellence Framework 2014. A founding trustee of the Shakespeare North Trust a charity which has built a new Shakespearian theatre & educational centre in Prescot. Between 2019-2021 he was Chief Scientific Advisor at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, & then the Department for Levelling-Up Housing & Communities. He has now returned to UCL as Professor of Architectural & Urban Computing.
His research focuses on understanding the way that the design of the built environment affects the patterns of social & economic behaviour of organisations & communities. How is it that architecture & urban design matter for those that inhabit them? How is it that the spatial design of cities & neighbourhoods leads to the generation of cultural & community identity? Under what conditions do vital & thriving creative communities occur, & under what conditions does crime develop? In order to investigate these questions he has developed both research methodologies & software tools. These are known as ‘space syntax’ methods. Current research includes the development of agent based simulations of human behaviour, the development of spatio-temporal representations of built environments, investigations of urban spatial networks & the application of these techniques in studies of urban sustainability in the broadest sense.