Human Factors : The home of people-friendly technology

Georgia Southern University

Jim Bradford—Mini Bio
Text Box: Education I earned my doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo (one of Canada’s major research universities, “The MIT of the North”). My academic specialization focuses on human-computer interaction and in particular, how to design complex systems that are easy to use. Private Sector Experience My first job after graduation was as a research scientist (later, scientific team leader) at Bell-Northern Research (the research arm of NorTel). While there I focused on the design of user interfaces for NorTel’s proprietary computer-aided design software. Later, I transferred to the company’s human factors department where I led a research team developing advanced user interfaces. Academic Experience I returned to academia when I accepted an associate professor appointment in the Computer Science department at Brock University. I taught and conducted research in that position for several years before I accepted the position of Departmental Chair. While serving in that capacity I met and married my wife (an American citizen). I subsequently moved to the United States to lead a large Computer Science department at Western Illinois University (at the rank of full professor). Four years after I joined Western Illinois, the university President asked me to accept a one year appointment as Special Assistant to the President with responsibility for reorganizing and revitalizing campus computer services. In that position I had responsibility for academic computing (which handled the campus networks, the computer labs, and academic user services), administrative computing (which included the mainframe operation as well as a group of programmers who handled the business computing needs of the university), and technology transfer (a new department which I created to commercialize the university’s intellectual property). After a year, the President asked me to stay on and a new position—Associate Vice President for Technology—was created for me. In that role my duties were similar to that of a corporate CIO. In 2003 I moved to Georgia Southern University to become the Founding Dean of a new College of Information Technology. In that capacity I oversaw the final construction details of a new $32,000,000 facility that houses the departments of Computer Science, Information Systems, and Information Technology. The college has successfully completed its startup phase and in the Fall of 2008, I returned to the faculty ranks to pursue the teaching and research lifestyle that first drew me to the academic world.