bae

Sandra Bae, ATLAS PhD Student, Awarded at VIS 2023

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:47:51 +0000

Sandra Bae, ATLAS PhD Student, Awarded at VIS 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/30/2023 - 09:47

Michael Kwolek

Sandra Bae, PhD student and member of the Utility Research Lab and ACME Lab at ATLAS, has been honored with a Best Paper Honorable Mention at VIS 2023 for her research on network physicalizations.

Billed as “the premier forum for advances in theory, methods and applications of visualization and visual analytics”, VIS 2023 will be held in Melbourne, Australia, from October 22-27, and is sponsored by IEEE. The Best Papers Committee bestows honorable mentions on the top 5% of publications submitted.

The paper introduces a computational design pipeline to 3D print physical representations of networks enabling touch interactivity via capacitive sensing and computational inference.

[video:https://youtu.be/uv0Yu0WUeSQ]

A Computational Design Process to Fabricate Sensing Network Physicalizations
S. Sandra Bae, Takanori Fujiwara, Anders Ynnerman, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Michael L. Rivera, Danielle Albers Szafir

Abstract
Interaction is critical for data analysis and sensemaking. However, designing interactive physicalizations is challenging as it requires cross-disciplinary knowledge in visualization, fabrication, and electronics. Interactive physicalizations are typically produced in an unstructured manner, resulting in unique solutions for a specific dataset, problem, or interaction that cannot be easily extended or adapted to new scenarios or future physicalizations. To mitigate these challenges, we introduce a computational design pipeline to 3D print network physicalizations with integrated sensing capabilities. Networks are ubiquitous, yet their complex geometry also requires significant engineering considerations to provide intuitive, effective interactions for exploration. Using our pipeline, designers can readily produce network physicalizations supporting selection-the most critical atomic operation for interaction-by touch through capacitive sensing and computational inference. Our computational design pipeline introduces a new design paradigm by concurrently considering the form and interactivity of a physicalization into one cohesive fabrication workflow. We evaluate our approach using (i) computational evaluations, (ii) three usage scenarios focusing on general visualization tasks, and (iii) expert interviews. The design paradigm introduced by our pipeline can lower barriers to physicalization research, creation, and adoption.

Bae describes potential use cases for sensing network physicalizations:

Accessibility visualization - Accessible visualizations (e.g., tactile visualizations) focus on making data visualization more inclusive, particularly for those with low vision or blindness. However, most tactile visualizations are static and non-interactive, which reduces data expressiveness and inhibits data exploration. This technique can create more interactive tactile visualizations.
AR/VR - Most AR/VR devices use computer vision (CV), but most devices using CV cannot reproduce the haptic benefits that we naturally leverage (holding, rotating, tracing) with our sense of touch. Past studies confirm the importance of tangible inputs when virtually exploring data. But creating tangible devices for AR/VR requires too much instrumentation to make them interactive. Our technique would enable developers to more easily produce fully functional, responsive controllers right from the printer within a single pass.

The work continues as Bae plans to pursue more complex designs and richer interactivity including:

Fabricating bigger networks - The biggest network Bae has 3D printed so far is 20 nodes and 40 links, but this is rather small for most network datasets. She will scale this technique to support bigger networks.

Supporting output - Interactive objects receive input (e.g., from touch) and produce output (e.g., light, sound, color change) in a controlled manner. The sensing network currently addresses the first part of the interaction loop by responding to touch inputs, but she next wants to explore how to support output.

Bae showcased this research along with fellow ATLAS community members at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival earlier this year. We’re excited to see where her innovative research leads next.

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ATLAS Innovators Win Big at RepRap Festival

Anonymous — Mon, 08 May 2023 18:06:22 +0000

ATLAS Innovators Win Big at RepRap Festival Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/08/2023 - 12:06

The first annual Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival (RMRRF) took place in Loveland, CO, and the ATLAS Utility Research Lab crew showed up in a big way.

RepRap is a global movement focused on developing freely-available 3D printers that can produce most of their own components, with the goals of simplifying manufacturing, saving resources and democratizing access to fabrication tools.

The festival brought members of the regional and global 3D printing community together to celebrate innovations and intriguing experiments in replicating rapid prototyping (while enjoying a friendly Battle Racer competition or two).

In all, over 3,500 people attended, including ATLAS community members Michael Rivera, assistant professor and director of the Utility Research Lab; PhD students Sandra Bae, Eldy Lázaro, and Krithik Ranjan; and master’s student William Harris.

Most exciting of all, when it came time to announce awards, ATLAS swept three of the four categories:

Favorite 3D Print: Will Harris, Cryogenic System Protection Flexure
Most Innovative Project: Mike Rivera, Spent Coffee Grounds for Sustainable 3D Printing
Most Useful/Functional Project: Sandra Bae, Multi-Material Capacitive Touch Sensor

West 3D and Community Innovation Fund sponsored the awards - check their blog for complete details.

The team reports making numerous connections among enthusiasts as well as industry and business leaders in this burgeoning space, further solidifying ATLAS and the Utility Research Lab as leading innovators in digital fabrication technology, tools and techniques.

Their highlights:

Cocoa Press and their 3D chocolate printer
Protopasta, a maker of a wide array of brilliantly-colored filaments
Prusa Research printers, parts and software
Voron Kits, which came to RMRRF with a life-size working replica of R2D2
Rep-Raptor, a vintage 3D printer preservationist

Michael Rivera, Spent Coffee Grounds for Sustainable 3D Printing

Michael Rivera heads up the Utility Research Lab at ATLAS, with a focus on inventing and investigating digital fabrication technologies. His spent coffee grounds research came out of a frustration with the materials we currently have for 3D printing. PLA, the most commonly-used medium, is sold as “compostable,” but it is actually extremely difficult to break down. As a result, waste PLA usually ends up in landfills, where it takes up to 1,000 years to decompose.

While brainstorming alternate 3D printing materials, Rivera learned that an estimated 15 million tonnes of spent coffee grounds are generated annually, much of it going to landfills despite its rich composting properties. When chatting with the team at Arriviste Coffee in Pittsburgh, PA, he came up with the idea to test coffee grounds in 3D printing. Arriviste happily agreed to provide all the spent grounds used in Rivera’s research.

Rivera has since experimented with various types of grounds (espresso provides better printing resolution due to its finer grind) and precise ratios of grounds to readily-available food-grade binders (xanthan gum and carboxymethylcellulose) to ensure the material can be easily extruded. Most recently, he has been testing print speeds to more quickly build 3D forms.

So what does one create with a coffee grounds-based 3D printing material? Espresso cups, naturally. Rivera lined his current prints with beeswax to make them water-tight, though he plans to test carnauba wax, which may work better with hot drinks as it has a higher melting point.

Once his research is published, Rivera plans to make it all open-source. Until then, he says,

“It’s validating to be around a community passionate about the work you’re doing. It’s a breath of fresh air having gone to the festival and seen a thriving community excited about 3D printing.”

When you’re so often heads-down in academic research, it’s great to witness how your work connects with an enthusiastic audience at a gathering like the RepRap Festival.

Sandra Bae, Multi-material Capacitive Touch Sensor

Sandra Bae’s award-winning project uses computational design and multi-material 3D printing to create capacitive touch sensors within complex, non-planar objects (e.g., 3D networks). This technique can support multiple touchpoints using a single wire connection.

She said, "It was an amazing experience to talk about my research with a completely different audience than I'm used to addressing at research conferences. It was definitely worth connecting with industry members such as ProtoPasta and Prusa Research, whose products made my research possible. It was so great to see their reactions to my work! Before, I had a lot of questions about whether I was on the right track or not, but the RepRap festival was incredibly affirming. Industry, hobbyists and other academics were throwing possible application ideas left and right at me on how to further this research and provided great community feedback."

Will Harris, Favorite 3D print

Will Harris, who had a series of projects on display, said, “I had such a good time at the RepRap festival. It was my first time presenting my work in person, and I met so many people whom I admire from the community. Some of my projects got more attention than I expected, which encouraged me to publish them. I hadn't considered that earlier.” You can check out more of his work on his website.

For fellow 3D printing aficionados, the Midwest RepRap Festival will be held June 23-25 in Goshen, IN.

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ACM C&C'22: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Data and Materiality

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 21:45:57 +0000

ACM C&C'22: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Data and Materiality Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/20/2022 - 15:45

Researchers from ATLAS Institute’s ACME Lab presented one pictorial and two graduate student symposium papers at the 14th ACM Creativity & Cognition (C&C), which took place June 20-23 in Venice, Italy. The theme of this year's conference was "Creativity, Craft and Design."

Graduate Student Symposium Paper

ACME Lab

Toward a Deeper Understanding of Data and Materiality, authored by Sandra Bae, (ATLAS PhD student).

Data physicalization enables people to represent and interact with data physically rather than digitally. Physical representations afford visual analysis in comparable ways to traditional, desktop-based visualization by introducing new capabilities, such as facilitating tactile manipulation, accessible interactions, and immersion, that are beyond traditional 2D visualizations. However, physicalization has historically been a niche aspect of visualization research due to its unique challenges. In this paper, the author discusses the current challenges of data physicalization and addresses three areas where data physicalization can aid other research thrusts: broadening participation, supporting analytics and promoting creative expression. The paper exemplifies each approach through the lens of the author’s work.

Publication

S. Sandra Bae. 2022. Towards a Deeper Understanding of Data and Materiality. In Creativity and Cognition (C&C '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 674–678. https://doi.org/10.1145/3527927.3533734 (June 20-23, 2022—Venice, Italy).

In this paper, ATLAS PhD student Sandra Bae discusses the current challenges of data physicalization and addresses three areas where data physicalization can aid other research thrusts: broadening participation, supporting analytics and promoting creative expression. The paper exemplifies each approach through the lens of the author’s work.

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ACME LAB @ ACM C&C

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:33:59 +0000

ACME LAB @ ACM C&C Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/02/2022 - 14:33

Researchers from ATLAS Institute’s ACME Lab will present one pictorial and two Graduate Student Symposium papers at the 14th ACM Creativity & Cognition (C&C), which will take place June 20-23 in Venice, Italy. The theme of this year's conference is "Creativity, Craft and Design."

Professor Ellen Yi-Luen Do, director of the ACME Lab, who is serving on the steering committee for the C&C conference series, is also the co-chair for the conference’s Graduate Student Symposium and co-chair for publicity. Besides being a co-author of the Tinycade paper, Do will also chair Session 7 on Sound and Music. Do also received a NSF grant (Award Abstract # 2225941) to support bringing graduate students to the conference.

Held every other year in an international location since 1993, C&C serves as a gathering place for a diverse community of researchers, designers, engineers and artists who provide a cross-disciplinary perspective on creativity and cognition as well as technological innovation. It serves as a premier forum for presenting the world's best new research investigating computing's impact on and ability to promote creativity in all forms of human experience.

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Ellen Yi-Luen Do and Carson Bruns win graduate school awards for outstanding mentorship

Anonymous — Wed, 04 May 2022 19:10:41 +0000

Ellen Yi-Luen Do and Carson Bruns win graduate school awards for outstanding mentorship Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/04/2022 - 13:10

Praised by their graduate students for their scientific competence, work ethic, creativity and compassion, two ATLAS professors received Outstanding Faculty Mentor awards from CU ��«��Ƶ’s Graduate school on May 3, an honor bestowed this year on only 18 faculty members campus-wide.

Ellen Yi-Luen Do, professor of computer science and director of the ACME Lab, and Carson Bruns, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, were both honored for outstanding contributions to mentoring individual graduate students and the quality of their interactions with them.

Their nomination materials showcased their many contributions in mentoring graduate students and supporting the mission of graduate education, while supporting their students’ career development and individual growth.

Carson Bruns
Bruns’ research focuses on emergent nanomaterials—engineering matter at the smallest of scales to create materials with particular properties. His group has received wide recognition for its work on “smart tattoos," which have the potential to impart new properties to skin.

Jesse Butterfield, an ATLAS-affiliated PhD candidate and alumnus of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, said that Bruns regularly comes up with “brilliant ideas for impactful scientific work.” One such idea—the use of invisible tattoo inks to protect skin from UV light and the cancers it causes—forms the backbone of Butterfield’s PhD studies.

“He spends more time with his grad students than any other advisor that I’m aware of, and with some of them by orders of magnitude,” Butterfield said. “He gives each of us his full attention.”

Bruns always pushes his students to work on their career goals, even when it slows progress within the lab, Butterfield adds, including when two students wanted to take time out to intern with companies of interest, and when Butterfield wanted to teach an undergraduate class.

Butterfield said Bruns’ kindness has been unwavering since they began working together in 2017. “I give the strongest recommendation possible for awarding Carson, in large part due to his capabilities and strengths in his work, but also for his personal qualities, which allow him to continuously raise up the people around him. He is one of those rare people who constantly makes those around him better.”

Ellen Yi-Luen Do
In Ellen Do’s ACME Lab, students are engaged in a wide range of projects, from alternative game control, to immersive musical jam sessions, to robotics for wellness, to visual analytics, toys to promote child development and generative art.

Despite the breadth of their work, she tells her nine PhD and two master’s students that she is always available: “only an email or door away.”

And on any given day, the ACME Lab is a busy central hub, buzzing and flowing with undergraduate and graduate students, says ATLAS PhD Student Sandra Bae. “Ellen has cultivated a lab culture where her students warmly welcome any student interested in research to join our weekly lab meetings, directly mentor undergraduate or master’s students for their capstone projects or simply invite others to socialize. She understands the importance of a social support system where the lab functions as a family.”

Bae points out that Do is excellent at harnessing and directing the interests of her students. “Her mentoring strength comes from how observant she is,” says Bae.

“As a PhD advisee of Ellen’s, her influence is imprinted on my life,” Bae said. “She is my academic mentor, who listened to my first conference presentation five times in a row; my senior, who taught me how to treat friends and myself with compassion; my spiritual leader, who motivates me with her delightful energy; my personal role model, who helps me, another Asian-American woman, be more confident that I belong and can succeed in academia.”

ATLAS Community Members Receiving 2022 Graduate School Awards

Fiona Bell, ATLAS PhD student, member of the Living Matter Lab; Dissertation Completion Fellowship, (one academic semester of financial support).

Carson Bruns, assistant professor, ATLAS Institute & Mechanical Engineering; Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

Ellen Yi-Luen Do, professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science; Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

Sasha de Koninck, PhD candidate in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance, member of the Unstable Design Lab; Graduate School Summer Fellowship ($6,000); Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant ($1,000).

Varsha Koushik, PhD'22, Computer Science, member of the Superhuman Computing Lab; First-place, Three-Minute Thesis Competition Winner.

Anthony Pinter, PhD'22, Information Science, ATLAS lecturer and incoming teaching assistant professor; Second-place, Three-Minute Thesis Competition winner.

Purnendu, ATLAS PhD student; Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant ($1,000).

Praised by their graduate students for their scientific competence, work ethic, creativity and compassion, two ATLAS professors received Outstanding Faculty Mentor awards from CU ��«��Ƶ’s Graduate School on May 3, an honor bestowed this year on only 18 faculty members campus-wide.

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ATLAS@CHI2022

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 16:14:11 +0000

ATLAS@CHI2022 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/28/2022 - 10:14

ATLAS researchers will present six published works and two workshops at the 2022 ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), the world’s preeminent forum for the field of human-computer interaction. The conference, commonly referred to as “CHI,” will be held hybrid-onsite April 30-May 6, 2022 in New Orleans.

Researchers affiliated with Laura Devendorf’s Unstable Design Lab will be presenting two workshops, one full paper and one journal article; Mirela Alistar’s Living Matter Lab authored two papers, one of which received a Best Paper Honorable Mention award. The ACME Lab collaborated with the VisuaLab (formerly with the ATLAS Institute) for one paper and ATLAS associated PhD students also will present one paper.

CHI Papers are publications of original research in the field of Human Computer Interaction that are read and cited worldwide, and have a broad impact on the development of HCI theory, method, and practice. It's a prestigious honor for papers to be accepted to CHI; within the last decade, the overall acceptance rate for CHI has only been 20-27 percent.

CHI 2022 papers, journal articles and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

Living Matter Lab

ReClaym our Compost: Biodegradable Clay for Intimate Making. [Best Paper Honorable Mention Award].
Fiona Bell, (PhD student, ATLAS); Netta Ofer, (research master’s student, ATLAS); Mirela Alistar, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).
This paper presents ReClaym: a clay-like material made from the makers’ own compost, reflecting the makers' relationship with food, applied manual fabrication techniques and design explorations. Through a process of Intimate Making with an intimate material, researchers used ReClaym to create a collection of applications, including garden paraphernalia, games and personal household items.

Biomaterial Playground: Engaging with Bio-based Materiality (interactivity paper)
Fiona Bell, (ATLAS PhD student); Netta Ofer, (research master’s student, ATLAS); Hyelin Choi (undergraduate student, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology); Ella S McQuaid (undergraduate student, Mechanical Engineering); Ethan Frier (MS, CTD—Creative Industries '21); Mirela Alistar, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).
In this work, researchers introduce a range of sustainable biomaterials including ReClaym, a clay-like material made from compost; Alganyl, an algae-based bioplastic; Dinoflagellates, bioluminescent algae; SCOBY, symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast; and Spirulina, nutrient-dense blue-green algae to create unique interactive interfaces. The researchers will present the biomaterials at CHI, where conference participants can engage with the biomaterials.

ACME Lab—Workshop Papers

Augmented Personification of Intelligent Music Tools for Creativity and Collaboration
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 47: Intelligent Music Interfaces: When Interactive Assistance and Augmentation Meet Musical Instruments .
Torin Hopkins (ATLAS PhD student), Rishi Vanukuru (ATLAS PhD student), Suibi Che-Chuan Weng (Creative Industries master's student), Amy Banic, (Visiting Associate Professor, Computer Science), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science).

Designing and Studying Social Interactions in Shared Virtual Spaces using Mobile Augmented Reality
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 46: Social Presence in Virtual Event Spaces
Rishi Vanukuru, (ATLAS PhD student), Amarnath Murugan, Jayesh Pillai, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science).

What to Design Next: Actuated Materials and Soft Robots for Children
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 39: Actuated Materials and Soft Robotics Strategies for Human Computer Interaction Design.
Chris Hill (ATLAS PhD student), Ruojia Sun, (ATLAS PhD student), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science).

ACME Lab and VisuaLab* collaboration

Making Data Tangible: A Cross-disciplinary Design Space for Data Physicalization
S. Sandra Bae, (ATLAS PhD student), Clement Zheng, (ATLAS post-doctoral research associate, PhD; Technology, Media & Society ‘20); Mary Etta West, (PhD student, Computer Science); Ellen Yi-Luen Do, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science); Samuel Huron, (faculty, Telecom - Institut Polytechnique de Paris); Danielle Albers Szafir (UNC Chapel Hill, former ATLAS faculty).
Physicalizations are more than just physical representations of data. Each physicalization is also (un)consciously a product of different research communities physicalization is part of, specifically of their research perspective and values. But research currently lacks a synthesis across the different communities data physicalization sits upon, including their approaches, theories, and even terminologies. To bridge these communities synergistically, ATLAS researchers present a design space that describes and analyzes physicalizations according to three facets: context (end-user considerations), structure (the physical structure of the artifact), and interactions (interactions with both the artifact and data).

*Following Danielle Szafir's departure last summer, the ATLAS VisuaLab was closed

Unstable Design Lab

The Eco-Technical Interface: Attuning to the Instrumental
Maya Livio (PhD student, Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science).
This paper introduces the concept of the eco-technical interface— which represents the sites at which human, non-human and technological interfaces overlap—as a critical zone at which designers can surface and subvert issues of multispecies relations, such as nonhuman instrumentalization.

Examining Narrative Sonification: Using First-Person Retrospection Methods to Translate Radio Production to Interaction Design (journal article)
Jordan Wirfs-Brock (PhD candidate, Information Science); Alli Fam (reporter, New Hampshire Public Radio); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Brian C Keegan (faculty, Information Science).
This first-person, retrospective exploration of two radio sonification pieces illuminates the role of narrative in designing to support listeners as they learn to listen to data.

Sketching Across the Senses: Exploring Sensory Translation as a Generative Practice for Designing Data Representations (workshop)
Jordan Wirfs-Brock , (PhD candidate, Information Science); Maxene Graze (Data Visualization Engineer, MURAL), Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Audrey Desjardins, (faculty, University of Washington); Visda Goudarzi (faculty, Columbia College Chicago); Mikhaila Friske, (PhD student, Information Science); Brian C Keegan (faculty, Information Science).
This workshop engages synesthesia to explore how translating between sensory modalities might uncover new ways to experience and represent data.

Making Access: Increasing Inclusiveness in Making (workshop)
Verena Fuchsberger (Post Doc, Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg), Dorothé Smit (Research Fellow, Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg), Nathalia Campreguer França (Research Fellow, Center for Human-Computer Interaction,University of Salzburg); Georg Regal (Scientist, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology); Stefanie Wuschitz (Mz. Baltazar’s Lab); Barbara Huber (Mz. Baltazar’s Lab); Joanna Kowolik (project manager, Happylab); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Elisa Giaccardi (faculty, Delft University of Technology); Ambra Trotto (Research Institute of Sweden).
In this one-day workshop, organizers aim to counteract the phenomenon that access to making (e.g., in makerspaces, fablabs, etc.) is not equally distributed, with certain groups of people being underrepresented (e.g., women*).

Associated PhD Students

Augmented Reality and Robotics: A Survey and Taxonomy for AR-enhanced Human-Robot Interaction and Robotic Interfaces
Ryo Suzuki (ATLAS/PhD Computer Science '20; assistant professor, University of Calgary); Adnan Karim, (MS student, University of Calgary); Tian Xia, (BS, Computer Science, University of Calgary); Hooman Hedayati, (ATLAS/PhD Computer Science ‘21), Nicolai Marquardt (faculty, University College London).
Researchers surveyed 460 research papers, formulating key challenges and opportunities that guide and inform future research in AR and robotics.

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Sandra Bae receives ARCS and KASF scholarships

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:02:26 +0000

Sandra Bae receives ARCS and KASF scholarships Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/08/2021 - 18:02

ATLAS PHD Student Sandra Bae recently received a $6,500 Achievement Reward for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship for the 2021-2022 academic year on behalf of CU ��«��Ƶ's College of Engineering & Applied Science. In early August, Bae also received a $2,000 scholarship from the Korean American Scholarship Foundation (KASF).

ARCS^® Foundation is a nationally recognized nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization started and run entirely by women who boost American leadership and aid advancement in science and technology. To address the country's need for new scientists and engineers, it provides unrestricted funding to help the country's brightest graduate and undergraduate students create new knowledge and innovative technologies. KASF is a nonprofit organization established to help meet the financial needs of Korean-American students seeking higher education.

Bae is co-advised by Danielle Szafir and Ellen Do, and she is a member of both the VisuaLab and ACME Lab. She holds a BA in human-computer interactions and an MS in computer science, both from University of California, Davis.

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ATLAS PhD students take home top student design awards from TEI’21

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 16:59:41 +0000

ATLAS PhD students take home top student design awards from TEI’21 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/23/2021 - 09:59

Sandra Bae

Fiona Bell

Two ATLAS PhD students, Sandra Bae and Fiona Bell, took home top awards from the 15th ACM International Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) Student Design Challenge, which ran Feb. 14-19.

Bae, who won the Craft Award for her Cyborg Crafts e-textile swatch entry is co-advised by Assistant Professor Danielle Szafir and Professor Ellen Do, and she is a member of both the institute’s VisuaLab and ACME Lab. Mary Etta West, co-recipient of the Craft Award and a PhD student in computer science who collaborated with Bae on the Cyborg Crafts project, is also a member of the VisuaLab.

Bell, who won the Inspiration Award for her Undyeing Swatch project, is a member of the Living Matter Lab, directed by Assistant Professor Mirela Alistar.

The Undyeing Swatch utilizes a combination of visible Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and photocatalytic nanoparticles to diminish the color of organically dyed textiles. As such, this swatch explores ‘undyeing’ as a design process that utilizes light and dye as materials for controlled interaction. When the LEDs are turned on, the light activates the nanoparticles, which in turn break down the organic matter (the dye).

“This swatch provides a proof of concept for the ‘undyeing’ process, which I believe could be an interesting area of future exploration for HCI researchers and artists alike,” Bell said.

Cyborg Crafts blends techniques from the fiber arts with cyborg-inspired technologies (e.g., open-source biosensing EEG headsets and RFID implants). Second SKIN (Soft Keen INteraction), intended to support this practice, is a handmade collection of four modular soft wearable sensors—momentary switch, pressure sensor, pinch sensor, and a gesture-detecting, capacitive touch sensor— and a temperature-dependent dynamic display. Each sensor has a unique outer shell texture based on non-woven textile techniques, and each supports a different sense.

“This swatch was awarded the CRAFT AWARD for its well crafted visual effect which sets it apart from similar skin-like designs. The final sensors are indeed uncanny, yet a notable balance of playfulness offsets the often creepy nature of silicone skin, to make them compelling,” wrote one of the jurors.

Each year TEI invites students to submit physical examples of their craft and to communicate their experiments, expertise and approaches through its Student Design Challenge. The annual call is for the “small solutions that make projects possible.”

Publications
S. Sandra Bae and Mary Etta West. 2021. Cyborg Crafts: Second SKIN (Soft Keen INteraction). In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 87, 1–3. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3430524.3444705 (Salzburg, Austria (virtual) Feb. 14-19, 2021). [Craft Award]

Fiona Bell. 2021. The Undyeing Swatch. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 86, 1–3. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3430524.3444704 (Salzburg, Austria (virtual) Feb. 14-19, 2021). [Inspiration Award]

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