The campus community is invited to attend the first 2016-2017 Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Tuesday, October 18, at 4 p.m. in the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Building.

Professor Donald Fisher, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, will present “The Eyes Have It: A Window into the Mind.”

A common thread links long-standing questions in cognitive science, gerontology, transportation, and health care. Cognitive scientists want to know whether we really need to put aside our cell phones while driving. Gerontologists want to know whether some of our cognitive processes can be spared as we age. Transportation specialists want to know why younger and older drivers crash so often. Health care officials want to know why some 100,000 deaths each year are attributed to medical errors. In seeking answers to these and other questions, we need to understand how to use information that arrives at the eyes in order to shed light on the latent cognitive processes that govern performance. This lecture will show how such an understanding can help answer these questions and why such an understanding is essential in a time when machines (e.g., autonomous vehicles) are seemingly making such understanding ever less necessary.

At the conclusion of the lecture, Professor Fisher will be presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor bestowed to faculty by the campus.

This lecture is free and open to the public, with a reception immediately following the lecture.

Additional information about the 2016-2017 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series is available at http://www.umass.edu/faculty-lecture.