Ivan Allen College Labs Present Computing Demos at GVU Center Research Showcase

Posted May 2, 2017

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts faculty and students demonstrated several interdisciplinary computing projects during Georgia Tech’s biannual GVU Center Research Showcase. The event was held on April 13, 2017, at the Tech Square Research Building.

Projects spanned research in human-computer interaction, civic and social computing, and artificial intelligence. The Ivan Allen College was mainly represented by students and faculty from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication’s Digital Media graduate program. The program is closely affiliated with the GVU Center.

Following are some of the DM project highlights featured in the GVU 's official recap of the showcase:

In Her Footsteps: Sweet Auburn Digital Media Initiative

Lab: Design and Social Interaction Studio

Researchers: Nassim JafariNaimi, Alyssa Rumsey, and Horyun Song

Research Focus: Civic Computing, Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing, Social Computing

Details: The Sweet Auburn Digital Media Initiative informs and engages communities through the mediation of shared public spaces, digital media, mapping, and storytelling. The initiative seeks to contribute to neighborhood revitalization and highlight/preserve the important history as a vital center of innovation, commerce, and community among African Americans and center of the Civil Rights Movement during the era of segregation. The project explores the potentials and challenges of civic and participatory media, investigating a set of research questions that probe the relationship between technology, place, storytelling, and community engagement.

(T)racing Eyes and Hearts: An Installation to Explore the Physiology of Empathy

Lab: Design and Social Interaction Studio

Researchers: Anne Pollock, Nassim JafariNaimi, Lewis Wheaton, Regan R. Lawson, Shruti Rajeev, Udaya Lakshmi Tattamangalam Ananthanarayanan

Research Focus: Human-Computer Interaction, Information Visualization, Perception

Details: The project brings together humanities scholars and physiology scholars to create an art installation that uses representation, tracking, and visualization to investigate and reflect upon the physiology of empathy. The installation renders video of eye movements and audio of heart rate of a virtual person, and tracks the eye movements and heart rate of an observing user. We anticipate a mirroring, empathetic physiological response from the user, in which their heart rate also speeds and slows in conjunction with the virtual person. A recording of the experience is available to users.

Giants in the Sky: The Life of Stars

Lab: ADAM Lab

Researchers: Brian Magerko, Pedro Arevalo

Research Focus: Cognitive Science, Collaborative Work, Educational Technologies

Details: Giants in the Sky is a tangible user interface (TUI) that explores the role of mass and gravity in the life and death of exosolar systems. With the use of various tangibles with different physical attributes, this TUI aims to teach basic concepts of astronomy in science museums. These tangibles allow users to create and manipulate digital celestial objects in a sandbox simulation.

• Read more about Interactive Demo Day here
• Learn more about the Digital Media program here 
• Learn more about the GVU here