Name: Ben Sawyer ’14MS ’15PhD

Position(s): Associate professor of industrial engineering and director of The Readability Consortium

Why are you interested in this research?
My mother was a children’s librarian focused on building collections, and my father was a high school teacher, and then a professor of education. My own early work was focused on attention and distraction, and I became fascinated by how people get information out of machine systems, and into their minds. My present research centers around human performance in reading: how can we best move information into your awareness, so you can do something with it.

Are you a faculty member or student conducting research at UCF? We want to hear from you!

Who inspires you to conduct your research?
I’m inspired by people working hard to understand [information, including] children, soldiers, analysts, physicians, and older adults all looking to find the information they need to get them to their goal and keep them safe on the way. My father worked with children with dyslexia, and it’s amazing how much parity I see between the struggles of those kids and the struggle of a physician trying to move through a 60-year medical history in a clunky interface in time to make a good decision for an anxious patient. I’m inspired by that struggle, which all of us face to a greater degree every day.

How does UCF empower you to do your research?
UCF provides access to a brilliant community of students and collaborators. Industrial engineering is a friendly and collaborative faculty. I’ve met so many fascinating students in my classes and have been privileged to have some of them join my research group. I have graduated a few of these as scientists and engineers. I love the [variety] at UCF: people from every imaginable walk of life are on this campus, and the perspectives they bring to this research make it possible. Moreover, I like the people I get to work with, and I wake up every day happy to see them and excited to move our work forward. I feel very lucky in this.

What major grants and honors have you earned to support your research?
My readability research is primarily funded by industry. The consortium’s founding members Adobe and nonprofit Readability Matters provided the initial foundation for a community that now notably includes Google and Monotype. We also are beginning to work with these companies to attract state funding directly, including a 2023-24 $1 million appropriation from the State of Florida.

Why is this research important?
Billions of readers have too much to read. The information age is only as miraculous as our individual abilities to access infinite information. The written word, one of the great engineering accomplishments of human history, was literally developed on reeds and animal hide. This research is founded in the idea that writing and reading, is due for an update. Rebuilding the written word to help humans of the information age is also an opportunity for languages that have not benefited so strongly from the digital revolution. Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali and other scripts are underserved by modern Latin alphabet centered digital infrastructure but are receiving large investments as billions of these readers move online. Our readability research provides an opportunity to build equity in these languages, while working from evidence-based first principles of readability.

Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering �������Sawyer ’14MS ’15PhD and his team are working to make it easier for people to read digital text at a high speed with increased comprehension. The readability technology isn’t just about making words easier on the eyes, it’s about helping people consume and comprehend a high volume of information quickly while not being overwhelmed.

“Helping students and professionals to read better through technology is vital, especially during a pandemic,” Sawyer says of the work that began in response to the initial COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. “Children, college students, and physicians alike are struggling to keep up with information, and our team’s readability tech can help.”

The potential applications are far reaching, especially during a pandemic. Examples include:

• Doctors rapidly comprehending patient histories to deliver better care
• Students shifted to online learning better handling increased reading loads
• Scientists conducting research while keeping abreast of developments in their field
• Business leaders understanding swiftly changing competition more efficiently

Sawyer is leading the research, a collaboration with Adobe and non-profit Readability Matters, the awardee named in Fast Company. The Virtual Readability Lab was launched in 2020 and in less than a year Sawyer has led this interdisciplinary team to become leaders in the evolving field. Adobe’s Max 2020 Creativity Conference showcased the work as a part of the company’s continuing efforts toward creating products that empower people to change the world, such as its recent collaboration with a UCF-spin-off, the nonprofit Limbitless Solutions. The growing readability research community now includes researchers at Brown ����ֱ��, ����ֱ�� of Toronto, ����ֱ�� of Arizona, Stanford ����ֱ�� and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fast Company, read by Fortune 500 company leaders, started the World Changing Ideas awards five years ago to recognize businesses, policies, projects, or concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation good for society and the planet, according to a company press release. The magazine’s summer issue will highlight the awardees and is available on newsstands this week.

Sawyer received a master’s in industrial engineering in 2014 and a doctorate in applied experimental and human factors psychology from UCF in 2015. He completed his post-doctoral work at MIT and worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711^th Human Performance Wing, before returning to UCF as faculty in 2018. His work is focused on the information exchange between humans and machines. His interdisciplinary team works at the intersection of engineering, psychophysics, and applied neuroscience.

Other than being able to change font size and background lighting, digital readers are left with few options. That’s why the ����ֱ�� is partnering with global software company Adobe and others to improve the technology. This partnership is being highlighted today at the Adobe Max 2020 Creativity Conference that’s being held online this year.

UCF specifically is working with Adobe on a digital reading project that aims to reduce information overload. The project is part of Adobe’s continuing efforts toward creating products that empower people to change the world, such as its recent collaboration with a UCF-spin-off, the nonprofit Limbitless Solutions Inc.

The initiative includes a consortium of industry, nonprofit and university collaborators, including Readability Matters, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford ����ֱ�� and the ����ֱ�� of Arizona.

Using Adobe’s Liquid Mode technology, a reader can adjust text aspects — such as font size, style and character spacing — on PDFs that were previously set to a fixed text style and layout. UCF researchers, meanwhile, are building tools to match readers to reading formats that enhance their speed and comprehension.

“In early studies we have been able to accelerate some adults’ reading by more than 25 percent,” says Ben Sawyer, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Systems leading the research at UCF.

“If your job requires you to read multiple hours a day, this is a huge potential workload reduction,” he says.

Reading is important for job success and civic engagement as poor reading skills are associated with unemployment, lower wages and voter apathy, according to studies from the National Center for Education Statistics.

With the advent of the pandemic, people are reading more electronic books, and remote learning has meant an increase in instruction and assignments through digital documents with fixed text.

But large screens, such as on personal computers, are not always readily available for people reading documents remotely, says Rick Treitman, entrepreneur in residence at Adobe, and Zoya Bylinskii, a research scientist at Adobe. Treitman and Bylinskii are facilitating the research.

Instead, people may have to use a tablet or smartphone if they don’t have their own computer or if they have to share a single computer with other family members.

“We are seeing that a lot of remote learning is happening on phones because someone else in the household may be using the only computer,” Treitman says. “It’s yet another device, and so if we can make the PDF experience on the phone better, then one student could do their reading on the phone, while another uses the laptop.”

Furthermore, when text is fixed into a certain style and layout in a document, it can cause problems as everyone sees text differently, so one text format doesn’t fit all, Treitman says.

For instance, one person may see normally spaced text as all scrunched together, thus hindering their reading. However, with digital text, this is a problem that can be easily addressed if readers can create their personal reading formats, as they can in Adobe Reader’s Liquid Mode.

For instance, even on older digital documents that may be already set in a small font size with tight spacing, a reader using the technology could adjust the text to suit their needs.

This takes control of the text display from the designer and gives it to the user, Treitman says.

“We’re flipping the script,” he says. “And that’s why we’ve turned to UCF and others to start this research. Text has always been designed by the author or by the publisher, and now we’re letting the reader design it. That’s a whole new paradigm.”

Sawyer’s team is currently collecting readability data from a large number of readers through the lab’s research website, Readabilitylab.xyz.

Sawyer says they hope to soon bring some of their participants into the lab for electrophysiological monitoring to record the electrical activity of the brain while a person reads; track people’s eye movements as they read digital text; and measure people’s reading speed and comprehension of different passages of digital text.

“COVID-19 is a challenge to in-person research, so we are testing 3D-printed eye-and-brain activity trackers and webcam reading tracking, all in an attempt to collect lab-quality data from people in their homes,” Sawyer says.

Current study participants are adult readers, but the researchers plan to expand their work to include younger and older readers, as well as non-English readers.

“Our initial research has told us that there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” he says. “Like a pair of prescription eyeglasses, we want to provide a reading experience personalized to an individual.”

Some of the lab’s findings have already been incorporated into existing Adobe software.

Sawyer’s collaborators include Benjamin Wolfe, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, and Jonathan Dobres, a consulting psychophysics scientist with a doctorate in cognitive sciences. Esat Boucaud and Sarah Minion, laboratory assistants in Sawyer’s Virtual Readability Lab, are also supporting the initiative. Boucaud is a sophomore majoring in computational physics, and Minion is a junior majoring in electrical engineering, both at UCF.

Sawyer says not only will the research efforts help workers and students read digital documents better, it will also help reduce information overload.

“Nothing about the modern world is trending toward delivering us less information,” he says. “These technologies can provide some relief from that and can give people help with reading.”

Sawyer received his doctorate in human factors psychology and master’s in industrial engineering from UCF and completed his postdoctoral studies at MIT. He joined UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Systems, part of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 2018. He is also director of LabX, an applied neuroscience group addressing human performance, and a joint faculty member of UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training, School of Modeling Simulation and Training.

Each year the Graduate Council Program Review and Awards Committee reviews college nominations and recognizes graduate students for the ����ֱ�� Graduate Awards of Excellence and Awards for Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral students. The nominations are very competitive and the selection is especially challenging.

Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching
Arielle Gaudiello, College of Sciences.

Arielle Gaudiello is a doctoral student in the Mathematics PhD program. Gaudiello is a dedicated teacher who creates a welcoming environment in which students feel comfortable seeking her help and advice. Her teaching style is highly effective and students perform exceptionally well in her classes. Gaudiello also relates mathematical concepts to everyday uses and tries to integrate interesting and relatable topics into her lesson plans.

College Winners
Mohamed Awwad – College of Engineering and Computer Science
Grant Bohl – College of Arts and Humanities
Heidi A. Eisenreich – College of Education and Human Performance
Bradley A. Lang – College of Business Administration
Jill E. Plumer – Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Award for Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant
Soheil Salehi Mobarakeh, College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Soheil Salehi Mobarakeh is a doctoral student in the Computer Engineering PhD program. Mobarakeh was described as the most effective, responsible, innovative and caring GTA his adviser has ever had. He helps students have a better understanding of computer organization via hands-on experience. Mobarakeh’s teaching style is highly effective, and in fact, it is so innovative that a paper outlining his pedagogy has been accepted for presentation to the American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Section Conference.

College Winners
Aline Zghayyar Abassian – College of Education and Human Performance
Vierne E. Placide – College of Health and Public Affairs
Sara Raffel – College of Arts and Humanities
Sara Ann Sacra – College of Sciences

Award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis
Jared Church, College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Jared is from the Environmental Engineering program and was mentored by Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee.

Jared’s thesis is titled: Dishwashing Water Recycling System and Related Water Quality Standards for Military Use.

Church’s thesis focused on recommending water quality standards for dishwater recycling for military use. In remote locations with limited water supply, such as those in military instillations, it is imperative to conserve freshwater. The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy have been working on standards for greywater and they have requested his paper for future consideration. Church has published his results in several national conferences and also in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Church is continuing his studies in the Environmental Engineering PhD program at UCF and he has received the NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium doctoral fellowship for 2015-2016.

College Winners
Kaylin A. Ratner – College of Sciences
Emily C. Brennan – College of Arts and Humanities
Massimo M. Villinger – College of Optics and Photonics
Mattan Hoffman – College of Education and Human Performance

Award for Outstanding Dissertation:  Juneyoung Park, PhD, College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Juneyoung Park, PhD is a graduate of the Civil Engineering PhD program and was mentored by Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Aty.

Dr. Park’s dissertation is titled:  Exploration and development of crash modification factors and functions for single and multiple treatments.

Dr. Park’s research focused on a critical assessment of the newly developed Highway Safety Manual. He identified critical flaws in the manual and provided novel solutions to rectify numerous issues and improve the prediction of traffic accidents. His work has already been incorporated into the CMF Clearinghouse and will impact the future version of the Highway Safety Manual. Saving lives and suffering is the utmost objective for engineers, and his work will achieve that.

College Winners
Ashley J. Blount, PhD – College of Education and Human Performance
Kumel H. Kagalwala, PhD – College of Optics and Photonics
Veethika Pandey, PhD – College of Medicine
Leandra Preston-Sidler, PhD – College of Arts and Humanities
Benjamin D. Sawyer, PhD – College of Sciences
Travis J. Wiltshire, PhD – College of Graduate Studies

Two faculty members are selected each year that show great dedication and guidance in the mentorship of doctoral students for the Award for Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students in the following disciplines: Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Business, Fine Arts and Health Sciences and Engineering, Physical Sciences and Life Sciences.

This year, the two faculty members recognized for their excellence in mentoring doctoral students are Robert Peale, PhD and Carey Rothschild, PhD.

Dr. Peale is with the Department of Physics. His students describe Dr. Peale as an outstanding mentor and great physicist. His eagerness to teach his students has been described as extraordinary. Dr. Peale’s vision and support have enabled his students to become managers and leaders in their chosen professions, whether in academia or industry.

Dr. Rothschild is from the Physical Therapy program. Her students describe Dr. Rothschild as a model of research expertise. She provides guidance and assistance where needed, yet allows students the autonomy to complete their research goals. She believes that professionalism refers to upholding the core values of the physical therapy profession: altruism, excellence, caring, ethics, respect, communication and accountability.

The following faculty were nominated in the following categories by their graduated doctoral students.

Engineering, Physical Sciences and Life Sciences Nominees
Deborah Altomare — College of Medicine
Zenghu Cheng — College of Optics and Photonics
Ronald DeMara — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Steven Duranceau — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Ahmad Elshennawy — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Xun Gong — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Florencio Hernandez — College of Sciences
Dmitry Kolpashchikov — College of Sciences
Juin Liou — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Robert Peale — College of Sciences
Michael Proctor — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Talat Rahman — College of Sciences
Nazanin Rahnavard — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Mehmet Tatari — College of Engineering and Computer Science
Subith Vasu — College of Engineering and Computer Science

Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Business, Fine Arts and Health Sciences Nominees
Christopher Blackwell — College of Nursing
Thomas Bryer — College of Health and Public Affairs
Mary Ann Burg — College of Health and Public Affairs
Susan Chase — College of Nursing
Thomas Cox — College of Education and Human Performance
Anne Culp — College of Education and Human Performance
Juli Dixon — College of Education and Human Performance
David Gay — College of Sciences
Peter Hancock — College of Sciences
Atsusi Hirumi — College of Education and Human Performance
Jay Hoffman — College of Education and Human Performance
Bruce Janz — College of Sciences
Mary Little — College of Education and Human Performance
Barry Mauer — College of Arts and Humanities
Rudy McDaniel — College of Arts and Humanities
Elsie Olan — College of Education and Human Performance
Carey Rothschild — College of Health and Public Affairs
James Szalma — College of Sciences
Stacy VanHorn — College of Education and Human Performance
Stephanie Vie — College of Arts and Humanities
Carolyn Walker-Hopp — College of Education and Human Performance
James Wright — College of Sciences