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Touchscreens Are Out, and Tactile Controls Are Back
(spectrum.ieee.org)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Professors don't always teach in their actual area of expertise. I had a German language professor whose PhD was in Philosophy and activity published in that field, in English, German and French journals. It does seem like an odd combination, but probably not a lot of students signing up for a class in usability of buttons, even from the fields you would expect to study them .