KAREN ALKOBY

                                                        kalkoby@hotmail.com

 

Educations

Present         DePaul University, Ph.D., Computer Science (June 2008);  Dissertation:  An Analytic Model for Handshape Similarity in American Sign Language

2007              Certified Deaf Interpreter,  I am currently pursing the certification.

2000              University of Colorado at Boulder - The Graduate School, ASL Linguistic Structure.

1999              DePaul University,  M.S,. Information Systems.  

1986              DePaul University, Computer Career Program, Certificate

1984              Gallaudet University, B.A., Psychology. 

 

   

Memberships

·         National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS)

 

·         Delta Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society  (UPE)

 

·         The DePaul University American Sign Language Project

 

·         National Association of the Deaf (NAD)

 

·         Deaf Women United (DWU)

 

 

Research Interests

·         Co-founder with Dr. Wolfe – DePaul ‘s ASL Project, www.cs.asl.depaul.edu

 

·         ASL Linguistics

 

 

 

 

 

Experiences

·                ASL instructor, Levy Senior Citizen center in Evanston IL; February 2006 – February 2007

 

·         Technical Analyst, Trans Union, October 2000 – December 2006
Driving IT initiative to align business requirement with technical system implementation.  The position has many functions ranging from leading  new projects , identifying  change requests, coordinating the release,  analyzing, designing, programming, testing and implementing business processes.

 

·         Technical Consultant, System & Programming Resource, Inc.; October 1994 – August 1999.  Consulting and supporting client’s requests ranges from being a team leader, coordinating with a developmental team ranges from analyzing, designing, programming, and testing.

 

·          Programmer Analyst, Illinois Department of Employment Service; March 1992 – October 1994

 

·         Volunteered in teaching at Niv, a deaf school in Tel-Aviv, Israel; September 1984 – January 1985

 

·         Tactile sign language interpreter in ASL for a blind student; Gallaudet University 1982-1984

 

·         Tutored in Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra, and Sex Education; Gallaudet University, 1981-1984

 

 

 

Refereed Conference Proceedings

Rosalee Wolfe, Nora Alba, Stacey Billups, Mary Jo Davidson, Cindy Dwyer, Diana Gorman Jamrozik, Lori Smallwood, Karen Alkoby, Lesley Carhart, Damien Hinkle, Amy Hitt, Brian Kirchman, Glenn Lancaster, John McDonald, Lindsay Semler,  Jerry Schnepp, Brent Shiver, Anna Suh, Jeffrey Young. An Improved Tool for Fingerspelling Recognition. Technology and Persons with Dsabilities Conference 2006. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA March 20-25, 2006.

 

John McDonald, Rosalee Wolfe, Karen Alkoby, Roymeico Carter, Mary Jo Davidson, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Bret Kroll, Glenn Lancaster, Lori Smallwood, Nedjla Ougouag, Jerry Schnepp, Achieving Consistency in an FK/IK Interface for a Seven Degree of Freedom Kinematic Chain. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Interactive Digital Media 2005, Plzen, Czech Republic, February 2005, pp 171-179.

 

Alba, N., Billups, S., Wolfe, R., Dwyer, C., Davidson, M.J., Alkoby, K., McDonald, J., Tsang, R., Toro, J., Young, J., Lancaster, G., Schmidt, P., Mansueto, J., Schnepp, J., Shiver, B. . A Fingerspelling Learning Tool [presentation]. DePaul Science Showcase, Chicago, IL. November 5, 2004.

 

Glenn Lancaster, Karen Alkoby, Jeff Campen, Roymieco Carter, Mary Jo Davidson, Dan Ethridge, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Bret Kroll, Ryan Layesa, Barbara Loeding, John McDonald, Nedjla Ougouag, Jerry Schnepp, Lori Smallwood, Prabhakar Srinivasan, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe. Voice Activated Display of American Sign Language for Airport Security. Technology and Persons with Dsabilities Conference 2003. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA March 17-22, 2003.

 

Jacob Furst, Karen Alkoby, Nedjla Ougouag-Tiouririne, Roymiceo Carter, Juliet Christopher, Mary Jo Davidson, Dan Ethridge, Damien Hinkle, Glenn Lancaster, John McDonald, Lori Smallwood, Jorge Toro, Shuang Xu, Rosalee Wolfe. Making Airport Security Accessible to the Deaf. Proceedings of the Fifth IASTAD International Conference on Computer Graphics and Imaging, Kaua'i, HI, August 2002. pp. 38-43.

 

John McDonald, Karen Alkoby, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Mary Jo Davidson, Dan Ethridge, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Glenn Lancaster, Lori Smallwood, Nedjla Ougouag-Tiouririne, Jorge Toro, Shuang Xu, Rosalee Wolfe, A Direct Method for Positioning the Arms of a Human Model. Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2002, May 27-29, 2002, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 99-106.

 

John McDonald, Jorge Toro, Karen Alkoby, André Berthiaume, Roymieco Carter, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Juliet Christopher, Mary Jo Davidson, Jacob Furst, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Eric Sedgwick, Noriko Tomuro, Rosalee Wolfe: An improved articulated model of the human hand. The Visual Computer 17 (3) May 2001. 158-166.

 

Jorge Toro, Jacob Furst, Karen Alkoby, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Brock Craft, May Jo Davidson, Damien Hinkle, Glenn Lancaster, Ashley Morris, John McDonald, Eric Sedgwick, Rosalee Wolfe. An Improved Graphical Environment for Transcription and Display of American Sign Language. Information 4 (4) October 2001. 533-539.

 

Mary Jo Davidson, Karen Alkoby, Eric Sedgwick, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Brock Craft, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steve Luecking, Ashley Morris, John McDonald, Noriko Tomuro, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe. Improved Hand Animation for American Sign Language. “Technology and Persons with Disabilities” Conference 2001. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA. March 19-24, 2001.

 

Eric Sedgwick, Karen Alkoby, Mary Jo Davidson, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Brock Craft, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steve Luecking, Ashley Morris, John McDonald, Noriko Tomuro, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe. Toward the Effective Animation of American Sign Language. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Interactive Digital Media. Plyen, Czech Republic, February 6 - 9, 2001. 375-378.

 

Brock Craft, Damien Hinkle, Eric Sedgwick, Karen Alkoby, Mary Jo Davidson, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Jacob Furst, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steve Luecking, Ashley Morris, John McDonald, Noriko Tomuro, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe. An Approach To Modeling Facial Expressions Used In American Sign Language. Presented At The 2000 DePaul CTI Research Conference, Chicago, IL November 4, 2000.

 

Mary Jo Davidson, Karen Alkoby, Eric Sedgwick, Andre Berthiaume, Roymieco Carter, Juliet Christopher, Brock Craft, Jacob Furst, Damien Hinkle, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steve Luecking, Ashley Morris, John McDonald, Noriko Tomuro, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe.
Usability Testing of Computer Animation of Fingerspelling for American Sign Language. Presented at the 2000 DePaul CTI Research Conference, Chicago, IL, November 4, 2000.

 

Jacob Furst, Karen Alkoby, Andre Berthiaume, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Mary Jo Davidson, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steven Lytinen, John McDonald, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Jorge Toro, Noriko Tomuro, Rosalee Wolfe. Database Design for American Sign Language.
Proceedings of the ISCA 15th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications (CATA-2000). 427-430.

 

John McDonald, Jorge Toro, Karen Alkoby, Andre Berthiaume, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Juliet Christopher, Mary Jo Davidson, Jacob Furst, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steven Lytinen, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Eric Sedgwick, Noriko Tomuro, Rosalee Wolfe. An Improved Articulated Model of the Human Hand. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Interactive Digital Media. 2000. 306 - 313.

 

Noriko Tomuro, Karen Alkoby, Andre Berthiaume, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Mary Jo Davidson, Jacob Furst, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steven Lytinen, John McDonald, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Jorge Toro, Rosalee Wolfe. An Alternative Method for Building A Database for American Sign Language. “Technology and Persons with Disabilities" Conference 2000. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA March 20-25, 2000.

 

Rosalee Wolfe, Karen Alkoby, Jamita Barnett, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Jacob Furst, Gary Honda, Glenn Lancaster, Frank "Tony" Lavoie, Steven Lytinen, John McDonald, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Carolyn Taylor, Noriko Tomuro, Jorge Toro. An Interface for Transcribing American Sign Language. SIGGRAPH 99 Sketches, August 11, 1999, pp. 229-230.

 

 

Refereed Conference Presentations

  • Karen Alkoby. How many sentences are there? , Presented at the SignWISE Working toward insight, Scholarship, and Enlightment workshop,  August 5-8 2004, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.

 

  • Karen Alkoby. DePaul ASL Synthesizer Project ,  Presented 46th Biennial National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Conference,  Washington, D.C.,  July 3–8, 2002

 

  • Karen Alkoby Contributed and Presented for Davidson, MaryJo. Improved Hand Animation for American Sign Language. “Technology and Persons with Disabilities” Conference 2001. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA. March 19-24, 2001.

 

  • Karen Alkoby and Eric Sedgwick, Using a Computer to Fingerspell. Presented and conducted an initial usability testing at DeafExpo 99, San Diego, CA, November 19-22, 1999.

 

  • Karen Alkoby. Interface for Transcribing American Sign Language.  Presented at ACM SIGGRAPH 99’ - 26th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Technique, Los Angeles CA, August 8-13, 1999.

 

 

DePaul CTI Research Symposium Proceedings

  • Karen Alkoby. Exploring the relationship of geometric data to perception of ASL handshapes.  Poster Abstract at the 2007 DePaul CTI Research Symposium Proceeding, Chicago, IL, May 5, 2007, page 104-105.

 

  • Karen Alkoby. A Survey of ASL Tenses. Presented at the 1999 DePaul CTI Research Symposium Proceeding,  Chicago, IL, November 6, 1999, page 116-123.

 

 

Awards and Grants

·        1978 and 1977 awards to attend Youth Leadership Camp (YLC) in Minnesota.

 

·        1999 William C. Stokoe Scholarship Award.  Support for this award comes from sales of Sign Language and the Deaf Community, a publication of the National Association of the Deaf.

 

·        2004 NSF Travel grant to attend Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research Conference (TISLR 8) in Barcelona, Sep 8 - Oct 2 2004.

 

·        2004 Volunteer Appreciation Award, Illinois Department of Human Services.

 

·        2007 CTI Research Symposium Proceeding - Best Poster Award.