Bilal Ghandour, assistant professor of psychology, was voted the 2017 Gerald Francis Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year by the SGA. 

Ghandour’s professional and scholarly experience combined with a notable passion for teaching have helped him to foster in students an appreciation for the significance of course topics under investigation, while his research work was furthermore noted for its relevance to the mental health of college students.

Ghandour was furthermore acknowledged for demonstrating great commitment to student development through mentoring occurring outside of the classroom. He was recognized for being readily available to his students and for showing great interest in forming more impactful mentoring relationships. 

In addition to mentoring students in undergraduate research, Phillips wrote of Ghandour’s use of the Take a Student to Lunch Program as revealing of his proactive effort to develop other impactful relationships and wrote of his willingness to discuss a range of topics and provide mentorship in multiple domains.

The work investigated the potential effects of a proposed visual pedestrian signals change on signal visibility and identification accuracy by pedestrians with varying levels of visual acuity, including acuities that by World Health Organization definitions represent no impairment, low vision, or legally blind status. 

Specifically, the work highlights that a potential signalization change in which the flashing don’t walk interval would be signaled by the presence of the orange countdown numerals alone (as opposed to the current standard in which the countdown is presented concurrently with the flashing upraised hand symbol) results in significant negative effects on interval identification accuracy, confidence, and response time for those with moderate visual acuity impairment. Critically, the levels of acuity tested represent a sizable pedestrian population that regularly relies upon the visual information when making crossing decisions.

The paper was additionally authored by Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet Barlow, the principals of Accessible Design for the Blind, a research, education and advocacy group committed to improving the safety and accessibility of public spaces for blind or otherwise disabled pedestrians.

The work investigated the potential effects of a proposed visual pedestrian signals change on signal visibility and identification accuracy by pedestrians with varying levels of visual acuity, including acuities that by World Health Organization definitions represent no impairment, low vision, or legally blind status. Specifically, the work highlights that a potential signalization change in which the flashing “don’t walk” interval would be signaled by the presence of the orange countdown numerals alone (as opposed to the current standard in which the countdown is presented concurrently with the flashing upraised hand symbol) results in significant negative effects on interval identification accuracy, confidence, and response time for those with moderate visual acuity impairment. Critically, the levels of acuity tested represent a sizable pedestrian population that regularly relies upon the visual information when making crossing decisions.

The paper was additionally authored by Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet Barlow, the principals of Accessible Design for the Blind, a research, education and advocacy group committed to improving the safety and accessibility of public spaces for blind or otherwise disabled pedestrians.

The first paper, “Nonvisual cues for aligning to cross streets,” reports evaluations of the effectiveness of various underfoot tactile surfaces and additional potential cues for providing necessary information to blind pedestrians regarding the orientation of crosswalks with respect to curb ramp starting positions.

In “Walking between the lines: Nonvisual cues for maintaining headings during street crossings,” Dr. Scott and his colleagues detail their findings related to the effectiveness of in-road tactile cues and audible beaconing technologies designed to provide heading information to blind pedestrians during the course of street crossings. The articles appear in Volume 105, Issue 10 (Oct-Nov, 2011).

Both articles were jointly authored with Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet Barlow, principals of Accessible Design for the Blind, David Guth and Richard Long of Western Michigan University, and Christopher Cunningham of the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University.