This award is under the International Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research at foreign centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Diane H. Sonnenwald of Rutgers University to work with Dr. Annelise Mark Pejtersen at Risoe National Laboratory in Roskilde, Denmark for ten months and with Dr. Heinz-Dieter Boecker at GMD-IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany for two months. Their research project proposes to validate a descriptive human computer system design model (Sonnenwald, 1992) that characterizes communication among users, designers, and developers and expand it to include strategies which may help design participants interact more effectively while creating human computer systems. The model, developed through a qualitative analysis of an expert system design project and telecommunications network management system design project, describes design roles, themes, and intra- and intergroup communication networks and their evolution during the design process. Hypotheses, based on the model, will be generated to predict participants' interactions in design situations. An empirical test strategy, using multiple groups in real design projects, will be used to determine the validity of the predictions. The result will be a proposed predictive design model that may ultimately improve the quality of design outcomes and lead to the development of a more comprehensive design curriculum. The award recommendation provides funds to cover international travel, a stipend for twelve months, a dependent allowance for Dr. Sonnenwald's family, and an allowance for travel within country to meet with study participants.
