undergrad-research

Touching the Sun with Solar Stones

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:52:41 +0000

Touching the Sun with Solar Stones Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/27/2024 - 10:52

ATLAS undergraduate students partnered with NASA's PUNCH mission and the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind to make tactile representations of ancient petroglyphs.

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Anthony Pinter Named i3 Outstanding Mentor

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 17:01:56 +0000

Anthony Pinter Named i3 Outstanding Mentor Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/01/2023 - 11:01

Michael Kwolek

Congratulations to ATLAS teaching assistant professor Anthony Pinter, who was recently honored with the i3 Outstanding Mentor Award for the 2022-2023 cohort.

The iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3) is an undergraduate research and leadership program that prepares students from underrepresented backgrounds for graduate study and careers in the information sciences. Each year, the program selects 25 students from across the U.S. to be i3 Scholars, in which they undertake a full-year research project and two summer institutes hosted by the University of Texas at Austin.

Such experience translates into much higher acceptance and success rates for students who want to pursue graduate degrees, and the program is notable for helping those with non-STEM majors to enter graduate programs in information and computing sciences.

Pinter has worked with i3 in several capacities including teaching fellow, research advisor and core leadership team member. He says, "I've been involved in i3 in some way since 2017, and I genuinely look forward to every opportunity I get to visit the program and interact with i3ers and the surrounding community.”

For the past year, he has mentored a team of three i3 Scholars:

Martia Williams, a 2022 graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in mathematics education and a minor in English
Katha Patel, a junior at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, majoring in political science with a minor in criminology law and society
Janai Adams, a 2023 graduate of Texas State University with a degree in marketing and a minor in philosophy

From left: Dr. Pinter, Dr. Kayla Booth (i3 Director), Martia Williams, Katha Patel, Janai Adams and Dr. Joe Sanchez (i3 Core Leadership Team)

Together they have collaborated on a research project that has yielded an undergraduate first-authored publication, “Music sounds better with(out) you: Curating streaming music as part of post-break-up identity management” (Patel et al., 2023).

Their research explores how people treat music as a digital possession in the context of break-ups, how they save and interact with music post-break-up, and how memories affect people’s listening interactions with that music on streaming platforms. Music connects deeply to memory and experience, and in this context, it acts as a component of post-break-up identity.

The team is hard at work preparing a full paper, first-authored by Martia Williams, that will likely be submitted to the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), which is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of human-computer interaction.

Pinter reflects, “i3 is a one-of-a-kind program in the nation, and the quality of students and research work coming out of i3 is nothing short of incredible—nevermind that it is largely undergraduate driven work! Katha, Martia, and Janai's project with me is no exception. From day one, they've been incredibly involved in the research process. Their investment in the project showed in their iConference poster and in the paper they are currently preparing for submission to CHI. I love working with undergraduate students on research and creative endeavors, and my work with Katha, Martia, and Janai only further underscores how important mentoring and collaboration with students is to me."

The team presented their research findings at iConference.

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CTD student invents new lighting technology for Capstone project

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 20:48:49 +0000

CTD student invents new lighting technology for Capstone project Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/08/2021 - 13:48

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoSD5qq9Mqc]

Four years ago, EO Rafelson became fascinated by a high-end kaleidoscope he purchased at an art fair.

Now a Creative Technology and Design senior at the ATLAS Institute pursuing an engineering degree, Rafelson has fabricated a high-tech kaleidoscope for his capstone project as well as developed a way to project the patterns generated onto a planetarium dome.

Rafelson’s CTD capstone project, “Kaleideo,” was presented at Fiske Planetarium on Nov. 9 for two free shows: “Reset,” intended to be a “grounding experience” with slow, ethereal scenes and “Recharge,” a faster, more uplifting show.

“The audience never sees the same thing twice, and all the visuals are produced in real-time,” said Rafelson before the show.

Rafelson creates such unique images by using high-end mirrors as well as kaleidoscope cells which contain items floating in viscous liquid, and manually controlled LED lights that illuminate the kaleidoscope’s inner cells at different angles.

“The coolest thing about the project is that all of the visuals are created physically as opposed to digitally,” Rafelson said.

Teaching Assistant Professor Sheiva Rezvani, who teaches the yearlong capstone course sequence, said Rafelson's project is exceptional.

"Kaleideo is one of those projects that comes along that doesn’t just exceed expectations; it creates a whole new sensory experience that in its inception becomes a new art form in itself," she said. "EO has worked all year to create a new visual instrument of which he is a master. I am so proud to have been involved. I can’t wait to see how his career and creative practice unfolds."

From solo to group experience
Before looking through a high-end kaleidoscope, Rafelson thought they were toys for children. But after becoming enchanted with his art fair purchase, he wanted to find a way that those same visuals could be shared simultaneously by a group, instead of one person looking through a tiny hole.

Rafelson’s kaleidoscope is filled with beads, blown glass, glitter, crystals, gears and “miscellaneous magic,” he says. Instead of using household mirrors where light travels through glass before being reflected, he used front-surface mirrors, which reflect light directly from the mirrors’ surfaces, allowing a more seamless array of symmetrical images.

In children’s kaleidoscopes, each time the end is turned, the pieces of colored plastic move suddenly through dry cells, but Rafelson fills cells with silicon oil so everything moves in slow motion.

Several fader sliders control various modes and colors of LEDs that are built into the kaleidoscope and illuminate the objects from the inside, while a light bucket lined with a strip of LEDs allows other lights to enter from different angles.

He digitally records the visuals with a smartphone camera using an enclosure he fabricated. Using special software to move the live footage from his phone to a computer, the image is compiled by a second software program that streams imagery to the digital projector.

Each of Tuesday’s sets at Fiske included a short introduction by Rafelson. Performances were about 20-minutes long, followed by an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and interact with Kaleideo.

“My primary goal is that the audience experiences a state of awe,” Rafelson said. “And depending on which show they came to, I hope they experienced being reset, recharged or both.”

CTD senior EO Rafelson has fabricated a high-tech kaleidoscope for his capstone project as well as developed a way to project the patterns generated onto a planetarium dome. His project, “Kaleideo,” will be presented at Fiske Planetarium on Tuesday, Nov. 9 for two free shows.

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CTD junior chosen as Grace Hopper Research Scholar

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 18:47:13 +0000

CTD junior chosen as Grace Hopper Research Scholar Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 09/15/2018 - 12:47

Jolie Klefeker, a TAM junior and Unstable Design Lab researcher, was recently chosen as a Grace Hopper Research Scholar, a national program that aims to increase the number of undergraduate women with an interest in computing research.

As a scholar, Klefeker’s travel expenses will be covered to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration in Houston, September 26-28, where she will present her research and have the opportunity to build relationships with other women in computing.

“I am super-excited to interact with fellow students and professionals and to learn about their research and exchange ideas,” says Klefeker.

An example of Klefeker’s research, “String Figuring: A Story of Reflection, Material Inquiry, and a Novel Sensor,” brings together material studies and cultural reflection, critically looking at our culture's norms and ideas on fiber arts and craft, to describe the design of a new and novel sensor. The string figure sensor is an early prototype for a string-based sensor that can “know something of its own shape” by measuring changes in resistance generated from knotting or crossing the string. The paper, co-authored by Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information science with the ATLAS Institute and director of the Unstable Design Lab, was published in the Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and presented by Klefeker in Montreal in April during the conference.

"Jolie's String Figures project is about reflecting on what it means to work with materials and let the materials 'lead' the design," Devendorf says. "Her project shows that this process led to interesting and novel outcomes, as well as ideas for what kinds of playful interactions might emerge when we pay attention to existing behaviors and cultural games with yarn."

Klefeker says that because the conductive thread is so flexible, it could be embedded in various types of sensors in clothing. A wide range of ideas have been proposed for its use, including creating sensors that support gesture-based communication and choreographing an abstract dance using the movement of clothing in a dryer.

“The project was about creating something novel, fun and playful,” Klefeker says.

Klefeker is also the music director at Radio 1190 KVCU, the campus radio station, where she coordinates all new music, curates the KVCU music library and rotation, and hosts volunteer events.

Jolie Klefeker was chosen as a Grace Hopper Research Scholar, a national program that aims to increase the number of undergraduate women with an interest in computing research.

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"The Show" explores relationships through dance and digital technology

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 18:23:28 +0000

"The Show" explores relationships through dance and digital technology Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 12:23

Emily Daub is fascinated by human interactions: How people change while in or out of relationships; how they value themselves in the context of their relationship status; how changes in relationships affect us; and how each relationship differs from another.

On May 4, Daub brings her fascination to life in an ambitious dance performance that features a wide spectrum of dance styles and handmade costumes equipped with embedded computational and wireless communications technologies.

Titled “The Show,” the performance is billed as a variety dance performance that “tells the story of how we shape and mold others (and vice versa),” writes Daub, who graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree from the ATLAS Institute’s Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program, along with a minor in theatre and dance.

Masterminding both the art and engineering is a comfortable role for Daub, which strikes some as unusual. “I've almost always been an outlier,” Daub says. “TAM fosters that spirit, allowing it to become an asset rather than a handicap.”

Daub entered CU ��«��Ƶ as a chemistry major with plans to attend medical school, but soon decided it wasn’t the right path for her. A member of the Fashion Design Student Association (FDSA), she found her way to the TAM program via the Makers Collective, another student group. “Someone from the Makers Collective reached out with a project that involved inserting lights in clothing,” says Daub. “That caught my interest.”

She worked on a swing dance skirt, inserting an accelerometer and 70 LEDs in the hem and coding them so the LEDs would light when the wearer spun. Soon after, she became the president of the Makers Collective, and because club activities happened in the ATLAS Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab, she learned about the TAM program. Since then, she’s created more than 20 pieces of wearable technology of varying levels of complexity, “The Show” being her most ambitious project to date.

Daub says she couldn’t have reached this point without support, including funding from an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant which covered all the materials. And working under the mentorship of Ben Shapiro as a member of the ATLAS research group, The Laboratory for Playful Computation, meant she was surrounded by a group of supportive graduate students. “Annie Kelly was so, so helpful,” says Daub, referring to a PhD student in the lab.

“The Show” has kept Daub busy since January, designing and sewing costumes, embedding microprocessors, sensors and NeoPixel LEDs, and programming each with unique light patterns that respond to movement and the wearer’s proximity to other dancers over time.

In addition, she’s encoded a matrix of affinities between dancers, so that when characters with mutual attraction dance together, light patterns in their costumes reflect the personal chemistry and gradually converge. At the same time, analogous changes take place in the pair's dance styles, Daub says.

While the technical side of her work tends to draw the most attention, Daub prefers to be known for her artistry in a more holistic sense. She’s choreographed “The Show,” and will perform alongside six other dancers, and she’s proud of her costumes and how the embedded technology looks and works. “How finished products look is very important to me,” she says. “I've gotten to this point mostly because the things I make are beautiful and functional, not because they are technically complex,” says Daub.

It’s the same way she’s always approached her projects, forming one coherent vision and then solving problems in order to realize it. “I’m motivated to achieve a specific outcome, not to just push my skills,” she says.

If you go

Who: Open to everyone!
What: “The Show,” a variety dance performance
When: Friday, May 4, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Black Box Experimental Theater, Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., ��«��Ƶ
Cost: Free, but donations for the dancers will be accepted during the performance.
Registration required

Photo album
UROP Video
Inspiration and promise mark CU ��«��Ƶ graduating class (Daily Camera)

TAM senior Emily Daub is fascinated by how people are changed by their relationships. In her ambitious dance performance, she explores these ideas, featuring a wide range of dance styles and dance costumes that she designed with embedded wearable technology.

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