University of Florida professor Juan Gilbert was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) by President Joe Biden at the White House this week.
The NMTI award is the highest honor in the nation for technological achievement and is given to innovators by the President for outstanding contributions to America’s economic, environmental and social well-being, according to a UF news release. The award also recognizes those who have helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce and contributed to America’s standard of living, competitiveness and quality of life through technological innovation.
Gilbert was given the honor for developing a universal, open-source voting system that makes voting more reliable and accessible for everyone and increases diversity in the computer science workforce. The UF release states that the user-friendly voting interface accommodates voters with varied abilities by allowing them to cast their ballot using touch, voice or both.
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The voting system, named Prime III, accommodates individuals with physical disabilities and ensures the reliability and security of each vote. Prime III began in 2003 when Gilbert was at Auburn University and was the first open-source voting system to be used in the nation’s federal, state and local elections.
“In the future, everyone is going to use technology to vote, and it will definitely be inspired by our work,” he said in the release. “People have died in this country for the right to vote, and we’re committed to making voting more accessible for everyone.”
About the awardee
Gilbert began exploring voting security in 2000 after the presidential election exposed flaws in the nation’s voting technology, questioning how being unable to vote was any different from not having the right to vote. He has dedicated the majority of his career to finding ways to improve election technology with the goal of protecting democracy.
Gilbert is an educator and researcher, teaching computer science and acting as chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at UF. He is also an Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and is a Fellow of organizations including the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the IEEE and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
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He leads UF’s Computing for Social Good Lab and has worked to develop technologies relating to human conditions, such as software that uses artificial intelligence to address issues of diversity in admissions and hiring, as well as created an app that allows police officers to video chat with the driver they have pulled over.
He has received a plethora of recognitions and awards, including the 2021 ACM Social Impact Award, the 2018 Computer Research Association’s A. Nico Habermann Award, and the AAAS 2014 Mentor Award. He was also named a 2015-2106 AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, Speech Technology Luminary by Speech Technology Magazine and a national role model by Minority Access Inc.
In 2011, Gilbert also received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama.
He attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In 2000 he was the first black person at the University of Cincinnati to receive a doctorate degree in computer science, which sparked his journey into academia. Since then, he has worked to diversify the technology field and encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue graduate degrees, participating in outreach at organizations like the UF chapter National Society of Black Engineers.
“The mission of the research enterprise at the University of Florida is to make a positive difference in the lives of people in the state, the nation, and the world, both in the present and in the future,” said UF President Ben Sasse in a press release. “Dr. Juan Gilbert is doing just that. We could not be more pleased.”