Juan Pablo Hourcade, Computer Science  Photo by Tom Jorgensen.
When one of Juan Pablo Hourcade’s graduate students approached
him about doing research on multi-touch displays, the UI
computer science professor said, “Well, you know, we need to
find a useful application for this beyond doing neat things in
news broadcasts.”  Many people had seen the technology, which
can sense multiple finger touches on a display at one time,
because of its use in the 2008 presidential elections.  Hourcade
focuses his research on human-computer interaction, and more
specifically on using technology and computing to help people
outside of the mainstream—largely children and older adults. He
began talking to colleagues about how to use the multi-touch
displays. One of his colleagues in developmental psychology, who
has a son with Asperger’s syndrome, thought it might be useful
for children with autism spectrum disorders.  Since then,
Hourcade has developed free, open source software designed for
multi-touch displays. The softwa