cbruns

Radically Interdisciplinary Research on Display at ATLAS Open House

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:51:30 +0000

Radically Interdisciplinary Research on Display at ATLAS Open House Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/11/2023 - 14:51

Michael Kwolek

The ATLAS Institute is one of 12 research centers at CU ��«��Ƶ, each of which is uniquely positioned to cut across the vertical hierarchy of colleges, departments and programs. Institutes are deliberately interdisciplinary, drawing faculty from several departments to embark on unconventional lines of inquiry.

Some of the most valuable research takes place in the overlaps, intersections and margins. “We believe really interesting stuff happens in the spaces between disciplines,” says Mark D Gross, ATLAS Director. The institute aims to find and explore more of these often-overlooked areas as they tend to attract amazing people—those who could easily work in conventional departments, but whose interests are broader and more disparate.

At ATLAS, we have researchers from computer science, mechanical engineering, information science, music and the humanities working in close proximity. Gross explains, “As a community, our backgrounds are quite diverse, and you’ll see that as you visit our labs and meet our faculty and their students. I like to say that we breed and attract technology visionaries and virtuosos: people who have wild ideas and the technical ability to realize those ideas themselves.”

We’ve seen this approach pay dividends. Of our eight research-active faculty members, three have NSF CAREER grants, considered among the most prestigious awards for teacher-scholars.

The ATLAS community has also recently garnered national media attention for a number of projects. Carson Bruns, director of the Laboratory for Emergent Nanotechnology, has been recognized for his work on tattoos that embed new technologies in the skin. Michael Rivera, director of the Utility Research Lab, has been spotlighted for research on transforming spent coffee grounds into a compostable 3D printing medium.

In addition, ATLAS member-authored papers won awards at leading conferences this year including VIS 2023 and CHI 2023.

We make tangible and digital tools and methods that shape how people interact with the world: things you can hold, wear, hear and play with; materials designers can use to realize their own visionary ideas; systems that change the way you interact with computers and the way computers interact with you. This manifests in disparate ways—from complex woven forms to innovative biomaterials to haptics that respond with emotion-driven gestures to music improvisation with sonified brainwaves.

Explore for yourself at the ATLAS Research Open House
Once a year, ATLAS opens its doors so the community can go hands-on with the radically inventive projects we pursue. The ATLAS Research Open House is a chance for lab teams to directly engage with colleagues, potential collaborators and those curious about boundary-breaking research. Stop by to discover what our labs are working on in the spaces between disciplines.

ATLAS Research Open House
Friday, October 20, 2023
3-5 pm
Part of CU ��«��Ƶ’s Research and Innovation Week
Cost: Free!

Some of the most valuable research takes place in the overlaps, intersections and margins. At ATLAS, we aim to find and explore more of these often-overlooked areas to uncover surprising discoveries.

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How this celebrity tattoo artist created a tattoo you can turn on and off at will

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 19:10:36 +0000

How this celebrity tattoo artist created a tattoo you can turn on and off at will Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/03/2022 - 13:10

Bang Bang—who has inked the likes of Rihanna and LeBron—teamed up with research scientists Carson Bruns and Jesse Butterfield to develop a new kind of light-sensitive ink.

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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 PhD candidate Kailey Shara wins top award in NVC 2022

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 23:46:48 +0000

ATLAS PhD candidate Kailey Shara wins top award in NVC 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/15/2022 - 17:46

First-place New Venture Challenge winner, Chembotix, was awarded $45,000 for its work on speeding up the pace of chemistry research and development. Making molecules in current laboratory settings is typically time-consuming and dangerous; Kailey Shara's automation makes the process faster and safer.

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Augmenting Books With Tangible Animation

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 19:01:10 +0000

Augmenting Books With Tangible Animation Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 01/31/2022 - 12:01

SIGGRAPH sat down with Purnendu, a PhD student in the ATLAS Institute and a researcher at Meta Reality Labs, to talk about his team’s SIGGRAPH 2021 Labs project, “Electriflow: Augmenting Books With Tangible Animation Using Soft Electrohydraulic Actuators.” The team's actuator technology strives to augment animation within physical books.

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High-tech tattoos may help prevent skin cancer

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 19:18:06 +0000

High-tech tattoos may help prevent skin cancer Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/15/2021 - 12:18

Carson Bruns, assistant professor and director of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, and his research team are collaborating with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus to test a tattoo ink that’s completely invisible—and could lower the risk of skin cancer, much like a “permanent sunscreen."

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Origami comes to life with new shape-changing materials

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 21:52:25 +0000

Origami comes to life with new shape-changing materials Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/22/2021 - 15:52

Imagine opening up a book of nature photos only to see a kaleidoscope of graceful butterflies flutter out from the page. Such fanciful storybooks might soon be possible thanks to the work of a team of designers and engineers at CU ��«��Ƶ’s ATLAS Institute.

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ATLAS research spins off to Catalyze CU

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:32:34 +0000

ATLAS research spins off to Catalyze CU Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/21/2021 - 12:32

Of the six companies selected to participate in Catalyze CU over the summer, two are teams from the ATLAS Institute.

Catalyze CU is a highly selective, summer-long startup accelerator that combines world-class mentorship, funding and dedicated co-working space. The program helps the most promising ventures from across the CU ��«��Ƶ campus reach escape velocity–providing some funding without taking any equity.

CHROMAPRAXIS, a tattoo ink innovation company with research developed in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab and founded by Assistant Professor Carson Bruns and Jesse Butterfield, a mechanical engineering PhD student, has been accepted. The company has two product lines:

Dermadaptive Ink enables tattoo artists to pioneer a new form of body art as dynamic as the body itself, with color-changing pigments that morph tattoos’ appearance in different lighting.
Invelanin Ink lowers skin aging and skin cancer risk by providing permanent, invisible sun protection. Unlike sunscreen, a one-time, minimally invasive Invelanin procedure provides years of protection without ever making the skin sticky, oily, or shiny.

Also accepted is LoopSketch, a remote, real-time collaborative software platform for "sketching" musical ideas with friends using user-recorded loops, AI-recommended loops and AI-created loops. With research developed by ATLAS PhD Student Darren Sholes in the ACME Lab, LoopSketch focuses on group flow and brainstorming, allowing for a remote experience that feels more like an in-person jam session. It makes it possible for musicians in different locations to collaborate and quickly build rich, multilayered recordings. Sholes pitched LoopSketch to judges during CU ��«��Ƶ’s New Venture Challenge 14 Prize Night on March 17, winning first place in the newcomer competition (event video here), which came with $5,000 in funding.

Catalyze CU has helped founding teams go from idea to impact, and from prototype to production. Catalyze alumni have a strong track record of being accepted to top tier accelerators like Techstars, raising funding, winning grants and launching successful Kickstarters. participants will be with a cohort of other highly performing teams.

ATLAS Board of Advisors member Kyle Kuczun is one of the coaches for this cohort.

Two teams from the ATLAS Institute were selected to participate in Catalyze CU, a highly selective, summer-long startup accelerator that combines world-class mentorship, funding and dedicated co-working space.

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ATLAS @ CHI 2021

Anonymous — Fri, 14 May 2021 20:19:27 +0000

ATLAS @ CHI 2021 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/14/2021 - 14:19

ATLAS researchers presented 10 published works and one special interest group at the 2021 Human Factors in Computing Conference, the world’s preeminent forum for the field of human-computer interaction. The conference, commonly referred to as CHI, was held virtually May 8-13, 2021.

Researchers affiliated with Danielle Szafir's VisuaLab authored four of the nine ATLAS papers admitted to the conference, two of which received awards, including "Best Paper" and "Honorable Mention." The Unstable Design Lab had two papers accepted, while the THING, Emergent Nanomaterials, Superhuman Computing, and Living Matter labs each had one. An additional paper was co-authored by alumna Andrea DeVore TAM '18, who is not associated with an ATLAS lab.

In all, 2,844 papers were submitted to CHI 2021, 28 of which were selected for the "Best Paper" award and 114 received "Honorable Mention." In 2020, CHI accepted nine ATLAS papers, including four from the Unstable Design Lab and one each from the Superhuman Computing, Living Matter, VisuaLab, ACME and IRON labs.

CHI 2021 papers, position papers and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

VisuaLab

Understanding Data Accessibility for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. [Best Paper Award].
Keke Wu (PhD student, ATLAS), Emma Petersen, (CTD MS student, ATLAS), Tahmina Ahmad, (Computer Science BS student), David Burlinson (PhD Computer Science, University of North Carolina), E. S. Tanis (faculty, CU Denver–Anschultz), and Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
Researchers conducted a web-based mixed-methods experiment with 34 participants with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) to identify their differences in reading data and summarized the findings into four accessible visualization design guidelines.

Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback (workshop paper)
M. Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and Danielle Albers Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This paper on Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback was accepted to the Evaluating User Experiences in Mixed Reality Workshop at CHI 2021.

VisuaLab Collaborations

Grand Challenges in Immersive Analytics
Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Matt Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and 22 other international experts.
A diverse group of 24 international experts developed 17 key research challenges, providing a systematic roadmap of current directions as well as the impending hurdles to facilitating productive and effective applications for Immersive Analytics.

danceON: Culturally Responsive Creative Computing for Data Literacy [Best Paper Honorable Mention]
Willie Payne (BS/MS alumnus Computer Science/Music Composition), Mary West (PhD student, Computer Science), Carlie Charp (CTD BS student, ATLAS), Ben Shapiro (faculty, Computer Science), Edd Taylor (faculty, Education).

Dance provides opportunities for embodied interdisciplinary learning experiences that can be personally and culturally relevant. danceON's system supports learners to leverage their body movement as they engage in artistic practices across data science, computing and dance. It allows users to bind virtual shapes to body positions in under three lines of code, while also enabling complex, dynamic animations that users can design working with conditionals and past position data. The work identifies implications for how design can support learners' expression across culturally relevant themes and examines challenges from the lens of usability of the computing language and technology.

Unstable Design Lab

The Fundamental Uncertainties of Mothering: Finding Ways to Honor Endurance, Struggle, and Contradiction
Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science), Laura Kristina Andersen, (faculty, Eindhoven University of Technology/Department of Industrial Design), Aisling Kelliher, (faculty, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University/Computer Science).
Parent-focused smart devices and data-tracking platforms frame the responsible parent as one who evaluates, analyzes and mitigates data-defined risks for their children and family. In this article, the researchers turn away from self-improvement narratives to attend to their own experiences as mothers and designers through creating Design Memoirs, speaking directly to the HCI community from their positions as both users and subjects of optimized parenting tools.

Late-breaking work
From The Art of Reflection to The Art of Noticing: A Shifting View of Self-Tracking Technologies’ Role in Supporting Sustainable Food Practices
Janghee Cho, (PhD student, Information Science), Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science) and Stephen Voida (faculty, Information Science).
This paper explores using self-tracking technologies that might help people draw attention to the impact of their food practices on the environment and promote sustainable food habits.
Video

Living Matter Lab

Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light
Fiona Bell, (PhD student, ATLAS), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), and Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science)
More information
While staining happens unintentionally (e.g., spilling coffee), this paper introduces “destaining” as an intentional design tool that can be used by HCI practitioners and designers alike to selectively degrade stains on textiles in aesthetic ways.

Superhuman Computing Lab

Exploring Technology Design for Students with Vision Impairment in the Classroom and Remotely
Vinitha Gadiraju (PhD student, Computer Science), Olwyn Doyle (BA Computer Science and Political Science '20) and Shaun K. Kane (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This work explores how classroom technology design can imitate the instructional strategies educators use to teach visually impaired students the academic and behavioral skills outlined by the Expanded Core Curriculum.

THING Lab & Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials

Soft Electrohydraulic Actuators for Origami Inspired Shape-Changing Interfaces
Purnendu (PhD student, ATLAS),Eric Acome (Keplinger Research Group), Christoph Keplinger, (faculty, Mechanical Engineering), Mark D. Gross (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Carson Bruns (faculty, ATLAS/Mechanical Engineering) and Daniel Leithinger (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).
This work introduces electrohydraulic actuators capable of producing sharp hinge-like bends that can be used to actuate existing objects or fold origami creases.

OTHER

Parental Mediation for Young Children’s Use of Educational Media: A Case Study with Computational Toys and Kits
Junnan Yu (INFO PhD Candidate), Andrea DeVore (ATLAS Undergrad Alumna), Ricarose Roque (INFO Faculty)

Special Interest Group

Microbe-HCI: Introduction and Directions for Growth
Raphael Kim (Queen Mary University), Pat Pataranutaporn (MIT), Jack Forman (MIT), Seung Ah Lee (Yonsei University), Ingmar Riedel-Kruse (University of Arizona), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez (UC Davis), Katia Vega (UC Davis) Roland van Dierendonck (Studio Roland van Dierendonck), Gilad Gome (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Oren Zuckerman (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Angela Vujic (MIT), David Sun Kong (MIT), Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab), Hiroshi Ishii, (MIT), Misha Sra (UCSB), Stefan Poslad (Queen Mary University).

Microbes bring a distinct set of functional, practical and ethical ramifications in interaction design. This special interest group addresses the various forms that microbial integration in human-computer interaction can take. The sessions are engaging, focused and orientated conversations around microbes acting as agents of interaction.

ATLAS researchers have 10 published works and one special interest group associated with the CHI 2021 conference, the world’s preeminent conference for the field of human-computer interaction. Held virtually, CHI 2021, also known as ACM’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, took place May 8-13.

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Assistant Professor Carson Bruns receives Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant from the Colorado OEDIT

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 22:30:13 +0000

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns receives Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant from the Colorado OEDIT Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/02/2020 - 15:30

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns received $142,080 from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT)'s Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant Program for the project, Invisible Melanin: Permanent Transparent Tattoos that Reduce Skin Cancer and Aging Rates.

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