Robin R. Penner, Ph.D.

Cognitive Scientist
Iterativity, Inc.
612-722-4493
Research Areas

Understanding and application of the principles of human cognitive architectures to automated reasoning, emphasizing the process of dynamic compositional design, the structure and content of domain semantic and conceptual models, methods to achieve adaptive human computer interaction, and techniques for automated decision support.

Application Areas

Military intelligence and dynamic decision-making, industrial process control and building management, complex systems design and specification, military and avionics planning and scheduling, home automation, control room and cockpit design.

Practical Specialties

User interface design, usability engineering (including task and requirements analysis, system design, and prototyping), software design and modeling, software development and management processes, UML/Java/Together, experimental design and evaluation.

Education

1/90 Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology (minor: Robotics), University of South Florida
6/82 M.A. Experimental Psychology, University of South Florida
6/80 M.A. Theoretical Linguistics, University of South Florida
6/79 B.A., Russian Linguistics, University of South Florida

Professional Experience

3/00 to present
Chief Executive Officer
Iterativity, Inc.
Minneapolis, Minnesota

3/00 to 12/00
Visiting Research Scientist
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota

9/83 to 2/00
Research Cognitive Scientist
Honeywell Technology Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Major Competitive Grants

MAGIC: (classified customer) $350K (March 2000 - June 2001)
DIGBE: Honeywell Technology Center Home Run Grant: $1.4M (2000 - 20001)
DARPA HCI Program: $1.3M (June 1995 - March 1999)
DIG: Honeywell Technology Center 3 year Research Grant: $250K (1995 - 1998)

Publications

Penner, R., Hayes, C., and Steinmetz, E. (2001) JointAdvisor: A Bayesian Reasoner for Intelligence Analysis. To appear in the Proceedings of 2001 Army Federated Laboratories Advanced Displays Consortium, March.

Penner, R., Steinmetz, E., Soken, N., Nelson, K., and Whitlow, S. (2000) Model-Based Design Automation for Mixed-Initiative Interactions with Complex Digital Control Systems. Submitted to International Journal of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

Hayes, C.C., Penner, R., Tu, N., Ergan, H., Lu, L., Asaro, P., and Jones, P. (2000) Model Based Design of Decision Support for Real Time Information Assessment. Submitted to International Journal of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

Penner, R., Hayes, C.C., and Wang, L., (2000) Automated Phase Design and Timing Adjutment for Signal Phase Design. To appear in Applied Intelligence.

Hayes, C., Penner, R., Ergan, H., Lu, L, Tu, N., Jones, P., N. Tu, Asaro, P., Bargar, R., Chernyshenko, O., Choi, I., Danner, N., Mengshoel, O., Sniezek, J., and Wilkins, D. (2000) CoRAVEN: Model-Based Design of a Cognitive Tool for Real-Time Intelligence Monitoring and Analysis. Proceedings of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Nashville, TN, October, 2000.

Penner, R. and Steinmetz, E. (2000) Dynamic user interface adaptation based on operator role and task modeling. Proceedings of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Nashville, TN, October, 2000.

Penner, R. and Steinmetz, E. (2000) DIGBE: Adaptive User Interface Automation. AAAI Spring Symposium, March, 2000, Stanford, CA.

Penner, R. (1998) Automating User Interface Design (1998) 1998 Proceeding of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, San Diego, California, Oct., 1998.

Penner, R. (1998) Automated Design of Interaction Environments. Proceedings of the Human Centered Systems Development Conference, Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 1998.

Nelson, K., Penner, R., and Soken, N. (1998) A multi-agent architecture for collaborative command and control. Proceedings of the 2nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, Jan. 1998

Penner, R., Nelson, K., and Soken, N. (1997) Facilitating Human Interactions in Mixed Initiative Systems 1997 Proceedings of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Orlando, Florida, Oct. 1997.

Penner, R. (1996). Multi-agent societies for collaborative interaction. Proceedings of the 1996 40th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Part 2 of 2. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sept. 2, 1996.

Penner, R. (1995). Session on User Interfaces to Petroleum Processes (Symposium organizer). Proceedings of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers Petroleum Division Symposium on Computers in Engineering, Houston, Texas, Jan. 1995

Penner, R. (1994). Multimedia interfaces for building management. Proceedings of the 2nd Biennial European Joint Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis, London, July 4, 1994.

Penner, Robin R. (1994). Multimedia interfaces for process control. Proceedings of the Energy-Sources Technology Conference, ASME Petroleum Division, New Orleans, LA, Jan. 23, 1994.

Penner, R. (1993). Developing the process control interface. Proceedings of the 5th IFIP Conference: Engineering for Human Computer Interaction, Ellivuori, Finland, 10 Aug. 1992, Elsevier Scientific Press.

Cockton, G., Harrison, M., Kwasnik, B., Penner, R., Procter, R. (1993). HCI: Whose Problem is it, anyway? Proceedings of the 5th IFIP Conference: Engineering for Human Computer Interactions, Ellivuori, Finland, 10 Aug. 1992, Elsevier Scientific Press.

Penner, R. and Soken, N. (1993). Consistent Honeywell Interface: Tools for developers. Scientific Honeyweller, pp 106-109.

Penner, R., and Bloom, C. (1991). Service technician’s toolkit. Proceedings of the Society of Applied Learning TechnologiesInteractive Multimedia 1991 Conference, Washington, D.C.

Penner, R. (1988). Speech I/O in the Honeywell Home Automation Laboratory. Proceedings of Speech Tech 88, New York, NY.

Isle, B., Harp, S., Marschall, G., Marwaha, S., Penner, R., and Wolff, A. (1986). Failure projection and remote diagnostics systems for maintenance of mail processing equipment. Proceedings of the U.S. Postal Service Advanced Technology Conference.

Mountford, S.J., Penner, R., Bursch, P. (1986). Pilot command interfaces for discrete control of automated nap-of-the-Earth flight. Proceedings of the AIAA/IEEE 6th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, pp. 386-392, Baltimore, MD, Dec. 3, 1984.

DeMaio, J., Harman, C., Strybel, T., Penner, R., Brock, J. (1985) Evaluation of helmet display formats. Proceedings of the IEEE 1985 National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, Dayton, Ohio, May 20, 1985.

Technical Reports

Penner, R. and Steinmetz, E. (1999) DIGBE Final Report. 1999 Joint Project Internal Report, Honeywell Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN.

Nelson, K., Penner, R., Steinmetz, E., and Whitlow, S. (1999) Shared Human computer Interaction Environment Final Report. DARPA/AFRL Contract # F30602-95-C-0177

Penner, R. and Steinmetz, E. (1998) Dynamic Interface Generation. 1998 Initiatives Reports, Honeywell Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN.

Penner, R. and Nelson, K. (1997). User Interface Generation. 1996 Initiatives Reports, Honeywell Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN.

Bloom, C.P., Bullemer, P.T., Nasiruddin, M., Ray, J., and Penner, R. (1992). Artificial Intelligence in Training. Publication AL-TP-1992-0010 (April), Armstrong Laboratories, Human Resources Directorate, Technical Training Research Division, Brooks Air Force Base, TX.

Penner, R. (1992). Consistent Honeywell Interface Design Concept for Building Management. Minneapolis, MN: Honeywell Inc., Sensor and System Development Center.

Penner, R. (1988). Graphical Operator Interface Concept for the DeltaNet Building Management System. Minneapolis, MN: Honeywell Inc., Corporate Systems Development Division (Report No. CSDD-I6219-88-2).

Patents Filed

1992 R Penner, T Cochran, J Mannering. Method and Process for User-Responsive Interactions.

1998 R. Penner. Method and Process for Automatic Synthesis of Interactions.