Peter Hartzbech, founder and CEO of iMotions, and Francesca Marchionne, Senior Strategic Account Manager at iMotions, visited with Romain College of Business students and faculty on Tuesday afternoon in Dr. Nicolas Jankuhn's Marketing of Services class. iMotions is an IT company which specializes in human behavior research software such as Eye Tracking, Facial Expression Analysis and more. iMotions technology can be found in the Biometrix Discovery Lab and is used to conduct research by both USI faculty and students.
Hartzbech and Marchionne discussed iMotions Online -- a brand new browser-based online data collection platform that features online eye tracking technology. The University of Southern Indiana will be one of the first universities to pilot this program as students will be able to perform biometric research on any laptop with a webcam.
They also talked with students about the differences between traditional and biometric research, different biosensors, multimodal research, different lab setups and how biometric research is being used for everything from search engines to airlines. Students also had a chance to tour the Biometrix Discovery Lab and try some of the technology that's offered in the facility.
Students were excited to learn about the different technology that's offered and are looking forward to being able to experiment with eye-tracking research away from a lab setting with iMotions Online. "There's obviously a lot more being developed than I thought," said senior finance major Jacob Schmidt. "It's crazy there's so many tools that are being developed and this is one I really feel is going to boom. It's cool that we're one of the schools that gets to use it."
For Hartzbech and Marchionne, they welcomed the opportunity to visit USI's campus as part of a long partnership that began in 2017 with the creation of the UPCI (User Perception, Cognition and Interaction) and the recently renamed Biometrix Discovery Lab. It was special for both of them to see just how much the lab has grown over time during that span.
"I think it's very clear that we need to find ways that universities can differentiate themselves -- you want to attract the best talent. It's a fight to get the best students to your school. I think this is a very interesting differentiator for schools to show they have these technologies and it makes sure the students leave with a real tool that can make a difference," Hartzbech said. "With USI being one of the first schools to use the online education web-browser tool, they're a big pioneer. It's really exciting."
Marchionne added: "It's something that I've got to experience from research to really becoming a pioneer in the education space today by being the first ones to really adopt these tools for education and teaching purposes in a classroom setting. It's really exciting to be part of this journey with them."
