David Gibbs, professor of computing and new media technology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), is putting his prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant to work overseas in Malta. He was invited to share his expertise with staff at the U.S. Embassy in Malta to give a talk on the implications of exponential technological change.

"My talk focused on my research in using speech recognition and speech synthesis in distance learning," said Gibbs. "Technology is ever changing and its applications in the classroom, indeed all of society, give academicians greater flexibility as they prepare students for a global marketplace."

Gibbs is teaching several computing courses at the Malta College of Art, Science and Technology on the island of Malta during the 2007-2008 academic year. He is sharing his research interests with computing professionals and taking part in curricular development.

He was named a scholar by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in 2007. The Fulbright Scholar program, established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, builds mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world and operates in over 150 countries worldwide. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

On the UWSP faculty since 1999, Gibbs’ areas of expertise are applied mathematics, computer science and computer programming. In 2004 he established the UWSP Student Web Speech Research Group, whose mission is to research the functionality and usefulness of computer-based voice input and output.

Gibbs chaired UWSP’s Computer Information Systems Curriculum Committee from September 2002 through May 2003. Gibbs has been an active member of campus governance at the departmental level. In addition, he is a member of the advisory board for the Dushkin/McGraw-Hill Annual Editions collection of articles for "Computers in Society," tenth edition. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University, and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

-30-

tm/vc/Malta lecture 08