JEDI

ATLAS Commencement Spring 2021

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 23:55:11 +0000

ATLAS Commencement Spring 2021 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/02/2021 - 17:55

Despite a challenging academic year, this spring 42 ATLAS students earned BS degrees in Creative Technology and Design, three received MS-Social Impact degrees and 11 received degrees in MS-Creative Industries. Donna Auguste, who earned a PhD in Technology, Media and Society in 2019 and is now the CEO of Auguste Research Group, delivered the guest address.

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T9Hacks attracts more than 70 percent female participants

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 17:03:26 +0000

T9Hacks attracts more than 70 percent female participants Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/30/2021 - 11:03

More than 70 people attended ATLAS Institute's sixth annual T9Hacks on March 19-21, and more than 70 percent of them identified as female, meeting the organizers' goal of bringing in populations underrepresented in hackathons.

Typically held at the ATLAS Institute for 24 hours, this year’s hackathon had a virtual format and was extended to 36 hours. Participants from all over the United States and world took part in the event, with 25 institutions represented, including high schools, colleges and universities. Those partcipating came from diverse backgrounds spanning 34 different majors.

"The online format was a challenge especially for those with a huge time difference (from Mountain Daylight Time), but because of the online format we were able to meet people from different countries," said Océane Andréis, a first-year ATLAS graduate student (CTD-Social Impact) who co-organized the event with Neha Kunapuli, a junior majoring in computer science. "Being able to come together as creators and inventors with different backgrounds was really amazing."

T9Hacks promotes interest in creative technologies, coding, design and making, among college women, non-binary individuals, people of color, those with disabilities and others who are typically underrepresented during hackathons. Student organizers emphasize that no coding or other technical skills are required to participate in the "invention marathon," and that everyone is welcome.

Overall, 72 percent of T9Hacks' 2021 participants identified as female, and half were first-time hackathon participants.

ATLAS faculty, students and alumni were heavily involved in planning and running the event. Thirteen projects were submitted and nine winners selected by a panel of judges that included ATLAS faculty members Ellen Do, Sheiva Rezvani, Shaz Zamore, Justin Gitlin and Aileen Pierce; TAM alumnae Cassandra Goodby, Keren Megory-Cohen and Elsa Roeber; and Julia Uhr, PhD student, Aubrey Shick, ATLAS research affiliate, and Anna Cook, TAM alumna and MS-CTD student. Mentors included Matt Dickey, TAM and CTD MS alumus; Ari Klebanov, TAM alumus and engineer at ToolCASE, LLC and Chris Klette, ToolCASE, LLC engineer.

During the event, Matt Dickey conducted a web development workshop. Assistant Professor Daniel Leithinger and PhD Student Julia Uhr gave a virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) workshop and Annie Margaret, ATLAS instructor, led the participants in meditation.

In addition, a team of ATLAS students, including graduate students Sam Herwig and Emma Petersen (both CTD-Creative Industries) and Fiona Bell, PhD student, won the humanitarian award for their project, "The Disaster Displacement Database."

The organizers would like to extend a big thank you to the event sponsors, including the ATLAS Institute, Trimble, Tortuga AgTech, SparkFun Electronics, ToolCASE, LLC, and echoAR, as well as our partner, InVision.

T9Hacks 2021 Winners

Outstanding Social Impact - Project Global by Mahzabin Rashid Fariha and Humayra Rashid Safa

Outstanding Humanitarian - The Disaster Displacement Database by Fiona Bell, Sam Herwig, and Emma Petersen

Outstanding Maker - Foodie’s World! by Sahana Gokulakrishnan

Outstanding Entrepreneur - Change-My-Name (4 hour of sleep) by Ann Marie, Gwen, Spencer, and Charlotte

Outstanding Developer - Starcrossed Voyagers: The Perilous Planet by Allison Palmer, Jenna Rothe, James Ryan, and Emma Wenzel

EchoAR Award - Lesson mustAR by Ahelee Bhattacharya

Fans’ Choice - CSAG/The Invisible Line Project by Audrey Viland, Spencer Bajcar, and Greg Gassen

Rookie Award - Lively, Lovely (Li(o)vely) by Minso Kim and Catherine Xiao

Outstanding Artist - Poofy by Linh Nguyen & Dan Líu

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ATLAS Distinguished Speaker Maddy Maxey discusses e-textiles

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 04:50:54 +0000

ATLAS Distinguished Speaker Maddy Maxey discusses e-textiles Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/17/2021 - 22:50

Getting from hardware to e-textiles

If you go

Who: Open to all!

What: "Getting from Hardware to E-Textiles," a talk by ATLAS Distinguished Speaker Maddy Maxey

Where: Online, via Zoom

When: Wednesday, March 24, 5 p.m. MST

Cost: FREE

If clothes and textiles are to be digitally enhanced, we have to take the "hard" out of hardware, designing circuitry and components that are indistinguishable from the fabric in which they are embedded.

Working at the forefront of this field, ATLAS Distinguished Speaker Maddy Maxey is the founder and technical lead of the electronic textile company Loomia, where she designs robust, flexible soft circuits and components with unique materials to support the development of functional textiles such as color-changing fabrics, conductive leather and anti-microbial textiles.

Simultaneously creative and technical, her research and product development is highly interdisciplinary, weaving together design, material science and electronics, to name a few. And this pioneering work places her in high demand, holding workshops and building prototypes for companies like North Face, Google, Flextronics and Adidas.

Don't miss your chance to hear about the current state and future of e-textiles.

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Black, queer and an engineer: Meet LeeLee James, BTU Lab student assistant

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 21:29:48 +0000

Black, queer and an engineer: Meet LeeLee James, BTU Lab student assistant Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/03/2021 - 14:29

LeeLee James, BTU's student assistant, is also the "Twirling Tech Goddess" on YouTube. Her show encourages radical diversity and inclusion by making learning tech more fun, accessible and relatable to people underrepresented in STEM.

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Q&A: Student organizers design inclusive hackathon to promote diversity

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 20:35:52 +0000

Q&A: Student organizers design inclusive hackathon to promote diversity Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/23/2021 - 13:35

Océane Andréis, (left) a first-year ATLAS graduate student (CTD-Social Impact), and Neha Kunapuli, (right) a junior majoring in computer science, stand in front of the ATLAS building. The two are co-organizers of this year’s T9Hacks.

ATLAS students will host the sixth annual T9Hacks the weekend of March 19-21, promoting interest in creative technologies, coding, design and making, among college women, non-binary individuals, people of color, those with disabilities and others who may have felt marginalized during hackathons or other technical activities. Student organizers emphasize that no coding or other technical skills are required to participate in the 36-hour invention marathon and that everyone is welcome.

Typically held at the ATLAS Institute, this year’s hackathon will have a virtual format.

Océane Andréis, a first-year ATLAS graduate student (CTD-Social Impact), and Neha Kunapuli, a junior majoring in computer science, are co-organizing this year’s event. “T9” refers to “Title IX,” an amendment to the Civil Rights Act prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education.

In the interview that follows, Andréis and Kunapuli discuss their involvement in the event.

ATLAS: What's new this year?

O: We really wanted to emphasize that we are including everyone, so that’s why the 2021 theme is “Everyone’s a Hacker.” Being a “hacker” doesn't just mean coding–it’s what cool things you can create, design and brainstorm in a set amount of time. Also, because of our inclusive theme, this year we will accept projects that aren’t code-based. We’re open to any solutions that participants can create in 36 hours.

N: It can be intimidating to attend hackathons, especially if you will be coding a lot. So we also changed T9’s tagline from being for “women and non-binaries” to being for “women and traditionally underrepresented students.” We hope to be more inclusive of people of color and those who may have felt marginalized. We want to create a safe space for everyone.

If you go

Who: Open to current college students and recent college graduates. Participants need not be CU ��«��Ƶ students or graduates to attend.

What: T9Hacks, a hackathon designed for women and traditionally underrepresented students, but open to everyone.

Where: Online, via Zoom

When: Friday, March 19, 6p.m. MST, through Sunday, March 21, 9 a.m., MST

Cost: FREE

Register Now

Etc: Optional hardware checkout can be requested during event registration.

Additional ways to participate: Sign up to become a mentor and advise participants with their projects or teach workshops. Volunteer before or during the event and be part of an extraordinary team of students.

Another major change is that this year’s event will run virtually on two platforms, Zoom and gather.town. We’ll use Zoom for opening and closing ceremonies and announcements, as well as for breakout rooms for mentors and sponsors to meet with participants. On gather.town participants will interact with others as avatars. We hope the avatars will bump into each other and start conversations, as participants would during in-person hackathons.

There are also five new tracks this year: underserved populations; health; children and education; Earth protection and sustainable development; and equality. Seminars will be offered before the event so participants can learn about specific issues for each track to help them begin thinking about ideas that could help mitigate those problems.

Also, instead of the usual 24-hour hackathon, we spread the event over three days, so participants can get some sleep!

ATLAS: Tell me about your first experience with T9Hacks.

N: I first participated my freshman year, and my team coded a text-based adventure game. Until that point we had only completed one computer science class, but I felt comfortable because T9 was geared towards beginners. It was a great learning experience because company mentors showed us how to improve the game’s features.

Since I had such a great first experience, I became involved in planning T9 my sophomore year, taking charge of T9’s logistics, including the finances, catering and photography. I ran around during the event making sure mentors had what they needed and everyone was having a good time. It was definitely a busy day, but it was really fun.

ATLAS: You're very busy students. Why did you decide to organize the 2021 T9Hacks?

O: I really, really wanted to feel connected with ATLAS in a more profound way than just my classes, and I thought T9Hacks would be a great opportunity to connect with other CTD students and professors. Because this is my first year as a grad student, and because everything is remote, I didn’t know anyone. Through joining T9 Hacks, I met other grad students. Our T9 meetings are not like our usual Zoom class conversations about homework; it's about how we can make this experience more fun for everyone. I appreciate that it’s a different conversation. And I really like that T9 is for everyone.

N: I just loved running around last year talking to different people and helping where needed. I wanted that experience again, although this year it will be different because the event is virtual.

I was super-excited to get on board. Honestly, I just like the environment of T9Hacks. Everybody on our team is on top of things and passionate about what they are doing, which is really exciting.

ATLAS: What are your hopes for the 2021 T9Hacks?

N: Last year we had a great turnout, with more than 50 percent women and non-binary folks. I am hoping we get at least the same numbers this year, and that people of color, the LGBT community and other underrepresented groups participate.

O: I hope participants gain confidence from realizing they can create an awesome project in little time. I also hope they will have fun and learn new skills. And though it’s an online format, I still hope people make great connections with other participants.

ATLAS students will host the sixth annual T9Hacks the weekend of March 19-21, promoting interest in creative technologies, coding, design and making, among college women and others traditionally underrepresented in hackathons.

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ATLAS Distinguished Speaker: Forest Young

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 20:37:18 +0000

ATLAS Distinguished Speaker: Forest Young Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/20/2021 - 13:37

Auto-reverse: Time Travel and Design

[video:https://vimeo.com/522178069]

How can designers and creative technologists effectively bridge technical and cultural divides in the world? Watch this talk from Forest Young, global chief creative director of Wolff Olins, to discover answers to this question and others. The talk is followed by a community Q&A, with answers to questions like, "How can students prepare for jobs in the creative industries," among others.

Forest Young

Forest Young is a design leader, educator and speaker. As the global chief creative officer at Wolff Olins—recently named Fast Company’s "Most Innovative Company for Design"—Forest leads initiatives for some of the world’s most influential companies. Prior to joining Wolff Olins, he was executive creative director at West, leading design across a portfolio of early-stage companies. Forest is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art, where he is also a distinguished alumnus. His work has received the highest design accolades including the Gold Design Lion at Cannes and the ADC Black Cube.

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Seeding change: MS students' paper on cycles of poverty in rural India accepted by international conference

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 21:20:58 +0000

Seeding change: MS students' paper on cycles of poverty in rural India accepted by international conference Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/17/2020 - 14:20

When three first-year ATLAS master's students in the Social Impact track of the Creative Technology and Design master’s program learned of the staggering suicide rate of male farmers in rural India and the suffering that ensues for their surviving family members, they wanted to explore effective interventions.

The three students, Kearney Newman, Aarjav Chauhan and Ricky Marton, began working on the project as part of a Fieldwork Methods class taught by Heather Underwood, a lecturer and ATLAS PhD alumna.

Their research focuses on the high suicide rate of male farmers across rural India, which can be attributed in part to familial debt. To afford seeds and fertilizers farmers frequently need to take out loans, but when crops fail and debts can’t be repaid, the result is often mounting financial insecurity, anxiety and increased rates of suicide. Saddled with repaying debt and dependent on income from their farms, widows are often left to provide for their families alone—a challenge made worse by the fact that women already face many gender-based barriers in traditional Indian society.

They presented the program that they ultimately designed in “Designing for Women: Radio-Based Seed Saving Education for Widowed Female Farmers in India," a paper accepted for publication by the IEEE Global Humanitarian and Technology Conference. Underwood and two other women taking the Fieldwork Methods class are included as co-authors: Janice Higuera and MS-CTD alumna Rona Sadan.

In their paper, the students shed light on the complex barriers faced by surviving family members, particularly widowed farmers in India, and how the empowerment of female farmers could help address some core issues. The central component of their proposed program is the creation of community seed libraries. There, farmers could borrow seeds and later return new seeds saved after harvest, a process that would then be accompanied by free, ongoing skills-based training via AM/FM radios, a technology many farmers already have.

“The target agrarian communities for our study are patriarchal in nature, so we wanted to shift this paradigm towards women being the drivers of change,” Chauhan says. “Our proposed solution has women in charge of running the seed libraries and disseminating information through radio broadcasts.”

Until the pandemic put an end to travel, the team planned to apply for funding from the Global Innovation Fund to support on-site research in gauging the widows’ interest in seed libraries and radio-based education programs. Although COVID-19 travel cancellation were a big disappointment for the team, Kearney Newman still presented their paper on November 1 at the virtual conference, and they are proud of their work. “It’s a big accomplishment for first-year master’s students to have work accepted to an international conference of this caliber,” says Underwood. “They worked hard as a team and earned their place in the proceedings. I'm very proud of their efforts.”

When three first-year ATLAS master's students in the Social Impact track of the Creative Technology and Design program learned of the staggering suicide rate of male farmers in rural India and the suffering that ensues for their surviving family members, they wanted to explore effective interventions.

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Engaging Underrepresented Students (funded by Google exploreCSR)

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 21:23:54 +0000

Engaging Underrepresented Students (funded by Google exploreCSR) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/22/2020 - 15:23

This project aims to engage under-represented undergraduate students in the Living Matter Lab's research through a series of online workshops led by the lab's graduate students, as well as hands-on sessions where participants will build some of our prototypes. We will also guide participants in finding good graduate programs and the application process. The workshops are projected to run in spring 2021, with more information coming soon. Anyone interested can contact Lab Director Mirela Alistar.

Associated Researchers: Luis Mieses, Netta Ofer, Sasha Novack, Fiona Bell, Ella McQuaid

This work was partially funded by an unrestricted gift from Google, through the exploreCSR program: research.google/outreach/explore-cs

This project aims to engage under-represented undergraduate students in the Living Matter Lab's research through a series of online workshops and hands-on sessions, as well as guides participants through finding good graduate programs and the application process.

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Shaz Zamore interviewed on My Fave Queer Chemist

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 03:02:46 +0000

Shaz Zamore interviewed on My Fave Queer Chemist Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/03/2020 - 21:02

Shaz Zamore (they/them), STEAM Outreach Coordinator at the ATLAS Institute, talks about their graduate and postdoctoral research, why science communication is so important, their experiences as a queer, non-binary POC and so much more.

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Opening Doors

Anonymous — Mon, 06 May 2019 19:11:58 +0000

Opening Doors Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/06/2019 - 13:11

The dissertations of all five 2019 graduates of the ATLAS Institute's PhD in Technology, Media & Society program emphasize empowering groups that tend to be less engaged in engineering fields. The five graduates are all women, itself a group that is underrepresented in engineering.

“There are opportunities to make our learning systems more equitable, empowering and inclusive of the amazing diversity in the human experience,” says Abigale Stangl, a graduating PhD student who researched how to make media and information systems more accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired. “We need to think about how to change social conversations about what’s possible for people of all different abilities.”

Women, people with disabilities, and most minority groups, including African Americans, Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives are all underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E), according to the 2019 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities Report by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The proportion of the underrepresented groups is lowest in engineering, computer sciences and physics.

Mark Gross, director of the ATLAS Institute, points out that ATLAS PhD students embrace many topics and this clustering is a little unusual, but that ATLAS is a place that seeks to empower everyone to engage with technology and engineering. “Historically, engineering and computing have been dominated by white men like me," says Gross. He references the research of this year's ATLAS graduation speaker, inventor Leah Buechley, a CU ��«��Ƶ alumna with a PhD in computer science from the College of Engineering and Applied Science; she pointed out in a paper that of the 36 covers of Make Magazine published to date, 85 percent featured white males. None were people of color.

"Until we change those numbers, we’re missing out on great talent. Our graduating PhD students exemplify that talent," adds Gross.

In their dissertations, Donna Auguste and Simone Hyater-Adams sought to broaden African American participation in STEM fields, Auguste via researching the bond between STEM learning and STEM identities and Hyater-Adams through using performing arts and digital media to attract underrepresented students; Stangl examined how to make media and information systems more accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired; Hyunjoo Oh created design tools that enable children to design and build mechanical systems, drawing children in by making those systems playful and engaging; and Brittany Kos researched the barriers women and non-binary students face in participating in hackathons.

For her dissertation defense, Hyater-Adams began by reading a poem about her personal struggle to balance her passion for both the arts and physics while simultaneously two dancers interpreted and performed her story.

“I have always been a scientist and an artist, and that intersection has always been important to me,” Hyater-Adams said.

Auguste plans to use what she learned from her doctoral research to encourage African American youth to enter STEM fields. Auguste worked with families to monitor air quality with sensors to identify possible triggers of asthma attacks and other health issues.

“While the PhD is wonderful, my successful outcome will be reaching the kids,” Auguste says. “ I want to reach them by the thousands.”

ATLAS PhD students seek to empower groups not traditionally engaged in engineering.

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