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Dipl.-Ing. Rolf Black MSc

Research Assistant

Queen Mother Building (Google map, campus map - download pdf)
Office: Room 2.03 (second floor to the right)
Email: rolfblack@computing.dundee.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1382 386530

Welcome to my School of Computing pages. You will find University related information on this page, please follow the links at the bottom of the page for details about my other work.

Current Projects:

• 'Pst!' The PhonicStick Technology Transfer Project (for more details please visit the project page).
• Providing Access to Life Stories for Adults with Communication and Language Impairment - CHRONICLES (for more details please visit the project page).

Past Projects:

• "How was school today…?" – Supporting narrative for non-speaking children, a feasibility study (for more details please visit the project page).
  Please check out our news page - we had fantastic reactions to our press release, including reports on BBC Reporting Scotland.
• STANDUP - System to Augment Non-speaker's Dialogue Using Puns (for more details please visit the project pages).
  The Joking Computer is now also available online.

Selected Papers and Other Output:

• At ASSETS 2011 I managed to scoop first price at the Student Research Competition with my PhD work: The PhonicStick – A Joystick to Generate Novel Words Using Phonics ;o)
• "Using NLG to help language-impaired users tell stories and participate in social dialogues", E. Reiter, R. Turner, N. Alm, R. Black, M. Dempster and A. Waller, 12th European Workshop on Natural Language Generation (2009), Association for Computer Linguistics, pp.1-8. 30-31 March, Athens, Greece. (pdf)
• "Evaluating the STANDUP Pun Generating Software with Children with Cerebral Palsy", A Waller, R Black, DA O'Mara, H Pain, G Ritchie, R Manurung. ACM TransAccessComp (TACCESS) 1(3) (2009). Download your free copy here:
  
  Evaluating the STANDUP Pun Generating Software with Children with Cerebral Palsy

  Annalu Waller, Rolf Black, David A. O'Mara, Helen Pain, Graeme Ritchie, Ruli Manurung
  ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), 2009
• "Introducing the PhonicStick: Preliminary evaluation with seven children", R. Black, A. Waller, G. Pullin and E. Abel, ISAAC 2008 13th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (2008), pp.424. Montreal, Canada, 2-7 August.
• Invited presentation at the ACE Centre North Network Day on STANDUP (Download the slides from the ACE Centre North website: Network Day 2007)
• "Evaluation of joke-creation software with children with complex communication needs", R. Black, A. Waller, G. Ritchie, H. Pain and R. Manurung, Communicaton Matters, 21(1) (2007).  ISSN: 0696 9554 (pdf)
• I had a brief appearance as specialist subject mentor on the CBBC show "My Genius Idea". It was great fun to discuss the idea of a talking glove with one of the young inventors.
• Interview on the BBC World Service, 25 August 2006: "The World Today" (Excerpt of the podcast, listen to the mp3 here or download with right click)

• View all publications authored/co-authored by me

Discussion Groups, Resources, etc.:

• A must for everyone involved with switch accessibility: OneSwitch Blog
• CM AAC Forum: This email list is designed to allow people to share information, experiences and any other information about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Other work:

• Motico - Motion & Communication: I aim to provide consultancy for all aspects of Assistive Technology (AT). I have recently added publishing to my job description and launched the first book: Stand Proud - Standing and Walking for Children with Movement Disorders. From the business name you might guess that my main interests lie in mobility aids - in particular walking aids - and communication aids. The former lead to co-founding EO-Funktion GmbH (now called: "Made for Movement") in Germany in 1999 when we established the dynamic walking and standing orthosis "the NF-Walker" in the German market and Health System.
• I have done some teaching as a tutor for Medical and Design students.
• I support Annalu Waller with her AAC Module for the lecture Research Frontiers at the School of Computing.
• Finally - when my family life allows it - I am involved in some charity work: As a member of ITCH (IT Can Help) I provide computer support for people with disabilities in Fife and Tayside.