Fall 2020 Colloquia
I Went on Tour with a Hologram and All I Got Was a Lousy T-shirt
Speaker: Tara Knight
Tuesday, December 1, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract: Actually, I didn鈥檛 get a T-shirt. But I did get a fascinating backstage view of Hatsune Miku, the singing, dancing hologram who is collaboratively created by hundreds of thousands of people online. In this talk I will showcase three current research projects: massive scale participatory creative projects like Hatsune Miku, working with Astrophysicists to poetically model in VR what it鈥檚 like to feel and hear the earth rotate, and a short animation that non-verbally layers thousands of images to reveal the ecological and economic histories of an American landscape.
Bio: Tara Knight is a filmmaker, animator, and media designer for live performance. Her broad range of media practices includes animated shorts, dance collaborations, world-premiere projection designs, and media installations.听The Floating World, a performance she co-created with Malashock Dance, was awarded an Emmy in 2011. Her听Mikumentary series of films have screened in institutions ranging from pop culture to fine arts, including: New York Comic Con, South by Southwest Interactive panel, Time Warner鈥檚 鈥淔uture of Storytelling,鈥 animation festivals in Britain, Hong Kong, and Mexico, toured with Miku the hologram herself in North America, and at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Current projects include Sound Planetarium, a multidisciplinary project to create an interactive, data-driven 鈥渋nstrument鈥 for both artistic and scientific research, as well as serving as the co-Director of NEST Studio for the Arts.
Experience Media: Moving Towards an Age of Multisensory Digital Interactions
Speaker: Nimesha Ranasighe
Tuesday, November 24, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听When humans interact with the outside world or one another, all of the senses are engaged; a true conversation is considered a full sensory experience. From early ages to the present world, people desire to have multisensory experiences in every aspect of their lives. From trying different foods, going to different places to playing games on virtual reality, they continuously seek sensory stimuli to be a wholesome experience, yet the current technology lacks the inclusion of many essential sensory channels. This talk highlights several research works focusing on 鈥淓xperience Media鈥 that explore possibilities for novel multisensory interactive digital media technologies towards achieving total immersion in day-to-day digital interactions. This talk also emphasizes the need for looking beyond the current 鈥榓ge of information鈥 and step into a new 鈥榓ge of experience听
Bio:听Dr. Nimesha听Ranasinghe is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Information Science and is affiliated with the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at UMaine. He joined the School at the beginning of 2018. Previously, he worked as a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and the New York University (NYU Abu Dhabi).听
Unframed Discussion on the Future of Live Performance
Speakers: Iain Court and Aron Altmark
Tuesday, November 17, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听Iain and Aron听will be free forming through a range of ideas on where live performance may be developing - VR/AR, wearables, xR, and the gamification of performance environments and pervasiveness of versions of immersion - connecting narratives and people using technology without having the technology be overbearing. There is a lot they don't know but they are happy to invent answers to any of your questions.听听
Bio:听Iain Court has been a maker and observer for quite a number of years first in Australia then touring through Europe and now 15 years here in the USA. He has always been attracted to the master storytellers and those who manipulate technology to fit their needs rather than following the accepted best practice. Iain has also been an enabler and teacher throughout his arts practice, encouraging others to step out of their comfort zones, inspired by quotes from the Tiger Lillies鈥 Shockheaded Peter 鈥 鈥淎rt should be fatal, if it isn鈥檛 it鈥檚 no good鈥澨 This has taken him in various teaching roles including Australia鈥檚 National Institute of Dramatic Arts, the Sydney Opera House, consulting on Australia鈥檚 National Standards for the Entertainment Industry, CALARTS and several universities (currently at听CU 糖心Vlog破解版).听
Aron Altmark, creative director and founder of entertainment design firm听, is a听Live Design contributor and technical editor, and an all-around master of wit and currently an all-round dog dad . Altmark's background in dance and theatre as well as clubs and music festivals lends him a wide range of skills in production/lighting design and show programming for the likes of Ti毛sto, Logic, and The Chainsmokers as well as Gerald Casel Dance, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre, and UNLV Opera & Nevada Conservatory Theatre.听
Space, Language, Instruments (not tools)
Speaker: August Black
Tuesday, November 10, 11:30am - 12:30pm听
Abstract: In this talk, I'd like to highlight a few of the metaphors that motivate my work in software - namely, space, language, and instrument. I plan to show some older work as well as some work-in-progress. One older work I'd like to show is called the Underweb. I wrote it in 2007-2010 as a critique of and alternative to the (then) current World Wide Web. One super-alpha-stage-but-working-enough-to-show software I'd like to demo is called Mezcal.听 It's a mobile web application that can mix and stream audio from multiple sources/formats in both broadcast and peer-to-peer configurations with low latency (think radio mixer for your thumb).听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
Human-Robot conversations
Speaker: Hooman Hedayati
Tuesday, November 3, 11:30am -12:30pm MT
Abstract:听This work aims to improve human-robot conversational groups, in which a robot is situated in an F-formation with humans. With a naive look, each robot consists of input devices e.g., sensors, cameras, etc. logic and decision making blocks e.g., face detection algorithm, NLP, etc. and output devices e.g., actuators and speakers, etc. These components connect serially. Each component is prone to errors; therefore, each error feeds into the next component and decreases the overall efficiency of the system. For example, if the camera cannot see a person because of being obstructed by an object, then the human detection algorithm cannot detect that person and then the robot won't consider that person in the interaction. These types of errors decrease the efficiency of the system and also negatively impact human-robot interaction. In this work, we propose four systems that aim to help understand human-robot conversational groups better, reason about them, and find the mentioned errors and overcome them. First, we look at the difference between human-human conversational groups and human-robot conversation groups. Second, we propose an algorithm to detect conversational groups (F-formations). Third, we look at how to detect missing people in the conversational groups and validate human-detection algorithms. Last, we propose an algorithm to detect the active speaker based on visual cues and help robots听 behave normally in conversational groups.
Bio:听Hooman Hedayati works in human-robot interaction, machine learning and robotics, seeking more seamless, safer and intuitive ways for people to interact with computationally-controlled devices. A member of the IRON Lab since 2016, he is a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science. His work includes studying the interactions between flying robots and humans, developing algorithms to support more socially sensitive behavior for robots, and using augmented reality to make working with robots more productive and safer.
Dynamic Drawings for Art, Design, and Communication
Speaker: Rubaiat Habib
Tuesday, October 27, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract: How can we make animation as easy as sketching?
How can we create dynamic contents in real-time, in the speed of thought?
How will dynamic graphics shape our real-time communications and language?
In this talk, I'm going to present my research on animation, storytelling, and design, including the design of Sketchbook Motion that was crowned as "The best iPad app of the year 2016" by Apple.
Most of us experience the power of animated media every day: animation makes it easy to communicate complex ideas beyond verbal language. However, only few of us have the skills to express ourselves through this medium. By making animation as easy, accessible, and fluid as sketching, I intend to make dynamic drawings a powerful medium to think, create, and communicate rapidly.
Bio:听Rubaiat Habib is a Sr. Research Scientist at Adobe Research. His research interest lies at the intersection of Computer Graphics and HCI for creative thinking, design, and storytelling. His research in dynamic drawings and animations turned into products that reach a global audience. Rubaiat received several awards for his work including Apple App of the year 2016, three ACM CHI Best Paper Nominations, ACM CHI and ACM UIST Peoples choice best talk awards, and ACM CHI Golden Mouse awards for best research videos. For his PhD at the National University of Singapore, Rubaiat also received a Microsoft Research Asia PhD fellowship. Prior to Adobe, he worked at Autodesk Research and Microsoft Research.听
APPAREL DESIGN WITH JJ COLLIER - Crafting a future-proof design career
Speaker: JJ Collier
Tuesday, October 20, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract: My mission is to inspire and guide designers, brand builders, and the market toward a more conscious -and more stylish- future in apparel design.
In 20 years designing for Ralph Lauren, Spyder, Salomon, Triple Aught Design and other brands, I have had the pleasure of creating great product and working within 鈥搊r leading- teams of incredible people. The challenge of late has been the clothing industry鈥檚 previously-invisible decline into commoditized product lines, a lack of innovation in design and sustainability, and a slow reaction to new sales and marketing models that much of the world 鈥揳nd consumers- had already adopted.
The economic impact of Covid-19 revealed how fragile many non-adaptive brands and retailers were and the industry is in a critical period of reflection. Challenges abound, as do opportunities for positive change. I love this work and believe the next iterations of creation, production, and engagement will be far more interesting than the previous model had become.
Going forward:
-What do we want for our industry and careers within it?
-What tools are required to evolve it most positively?
-How can we prepare students and professionals for their next chapter in apparel design and development?
I will share concepts on digital product creation, regionalized production, authentic sustainability missions and more in answering those questions.
Bio: J.J. Collier is a design and thought leader in technical and lifestyle apparel. Mr. Collier鈥檚 experience ranges from design leadership for large, wholesale-driven brands to the more modern, direct-to-consumer brands of today. Driven by authentic experience for the end-user, his work combines highly technical design and development knowledge paired with classical good taste鈥nd always an edge.
How queer was Aunt Helen? - Textiles, Reparative Histories, and Community Development
Speaker: Steven Frost
Tuesday, October 13, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听Textiles are a powerful medium -- their association with the body and garments evoke tactile memories. How can we use this association to form new communities, strengthen existing ones, and dig deeper into our pasts? In this talk I will show how I used traditional and non-traditional fiber materials to summon specific narratives and stories, referencing aspects of my family history, the history of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement, and the role of queer people in pop culture as well as demonstrate how I use critical theory, interdisciplinary projects, workshops, and public performances to spur conversation and build community with my creative research.听
Bio:听Steven Frost has been featured in solo projects at the Denver Museum of Art (Denver, CO), the 糖心Vlog破解版 Museum of Contemporary Art (糖心Vlog破解版, CO), and the Creative Arts Coalition to Transform Urban Space (Long Beach, CA) and in group exhibitions at Union Hall Gallery (Denver, Colorado), the Center for Visual Arts (Denver, CO), Alto Gallery (Denver, CO), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA), Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art (Rancho Cucamonga, CA), Imersten (Vienna, Austria), ACRE Gallery (Chicago, IL), Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago, IL), and the AU Museum at the Katzen (Washington, DC) among other venues. He鈥檚 recently taught workshops at the Art Students League (Denver, CO), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), and the Haystack School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME). Frost is the founder of the Colorado Sewing Rebellion (now called the Colorado Sewing Workshop), an offshoot of the original Sewing Rebellion founded by Frau Fiber (Carole Francis Lung). He is a co-founder of the Experimental Weaving Residency with Dr. Allison Anderson and Dr. Laura Devendorf (糖心Vlog破解版, CO). He is an instructor in the Department of Media Studies and the University of Colorado, 糖心Vlog破解版 and the Faculty Director of the B2 Center for Media, Arts, & Performance at the Atlas Institute (糖心Vlog破解版, CO) and a Library Commissioner for the City of 糖心Vlog破解版, CO. Frost is a recipient of several other honors including the Lenore G. Tawney Fellowship and the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Fellowship. He holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics & Design at Alfred University.
MOSAIC Viewer: A Visual Analytics Approach to Debugging Cooperative, Autonomous Multi-Robot Systems鈥 Worldviews
Speaker: Sandra Bae
Tuesday, October 6, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract: Autonomous multi-robot systems, where a team of robots shares information to perform tasks that are beyond an individual robot's abilities, hold great promise for a number of applications, such as planetary exploration missions. Each robot in a multi-robot system that uses the shared-world coordination paradigm autonomously schedules which robot should perform a given task, and when, using its worldview鈥搕he robot's internal representation of its belief about both its own state, and other robots' states. A key problem for operators is that robots' worldviews can fall out of sync (often due to weak communication links), leading to desynchronization of the robots' scheduling decisions and inconsistent emergent behavior (e.g., tasks not performed, or performed by multiple robots). Operators face the time-consuming and difficult task of making sense of the robots' scheduling decisions, detecting de-synchronizations, and pinpointing the cause by comparing every robot's worldview. To address these challenges, we introduce MOSAIC Viewer, a visual analytics system that helps operators (i) make sense of the robots' schedules and (ii) detect and conduct a root cause analysis of the robots' desynchronized worldviews. Over a year-long partnership with roboticists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we conduct a formative study to identify the necessary system design requirements and a qualitative evaluation with 12 roboticists. We find that MOSAIC Viewer is faster- and easier-to-use than the users' current approaches, and it allows them to stitch low-level details to formulate a high-level understanding of the robots' schedules and detect and pinpoint the cause of the desynchronized worldviews
Bio:听Sandra Bae leans towards things at the intersection of computation and design. She likes to work on projects as a developer and designer with a focus on information visualization. She is interested in how interactive visualizations can help break down complex topics and promote creativity, storytelling and insight. Broadly speaking, she is interested in projects that promote the interplay of human, machine and data. Sandra is co-advised by听Danielle Szafir and听Ellen Do, and she is a member of both the听VisuaLab and听ACME Lab. She holds a BA in human-computer interactions and an MS in computer science, both from University of California, Davis.
Computational approaches to human-centered research
Speaker: Ching-Hua Chuan
Tuesday, September 29, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听Recent technology advances, especially in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, have dramatically re-defined our everyday experience. These intelligent systems not only provide convenience but also aim to understand human behavior, preference, and even creation in a more profound manner. For example, nowadays we have intelligent systems that can create a music playlist for a specific user with songs that match his or her current mood, and systems that can accompany an original melody while mimicking an artist鈥檚 style.听
This presentation reveals the secrets behind these intelligent systems through three research projects: automatic music generation, gesture recognition for American Sign Language, and chatbots for health communication. I will describe how we can define such human-centered topics as scientific problems, and give examples of my approach to interdisciplinary research.听听
Bio: Ching-Hua Chuan is a research associate professor of interactive media at University of Miami. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, and her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University. Dr. Chuan鈥檚 research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, music information retrieval and audio signal processing. She has served on the program committees of many organizations including AAAI and International Society of Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR). Her recent work on interdisciplinary projects with researchers in communication has won the faculty paper award from the Public Relations Society of America (2018) and the American Academy of Advertising research fellowship (2020).
Kosmorganic art in the digital Age
Speaker: Angie Eng
Tuesday, September 22, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听Frequency distribution of numbers such as the Fibonacci sequence and Benford鈥檚 law has been found in real-world data sets to detect internet bots in social media, stock market predictions, top 40 musical hits, tax fraud, and a beautiful face.听 The Pythagorean school summed it up by concluding life is but frequency and pattern.听 Artists like Kandinsky and Mondrian added aesthetics and Theosophists, such as Steiner and Blavatsky associated spirituality to frequencies.听 Kosmorganic art, coined by artist, Ph.D. student of Intermedia arts, Writing and Performance program at CU 糖心Vlog破解版, follows these neo-platonists to examine wellness in relation to sound/color frequency and patterns.
Please join us for the听Tuesday ATLAS seminar/colloquium on September 22nd when Angie speaks of theory and structure of her installation that includes: vibrating walls, geometric patterns, reflexology, and contemplative slow/flow art.
Bio:听Angie Eng is a visual artist who works in experimental video, conceptual art and time-based performance. Eng was born in San Francisco California. She was trained as a painter (UC Santa Barbara) in the post-classical tradition. In 1993 she moved to New York City and soon discovered time-based arts. She became involved in the downtown electronic arts scene where she experimented with video sculptures, interactive installation and live video performance. She collaborated on numerous video performance projects and was involved in the first wave of new media art/web based art in the late 90鈥檚 with commissions from Turbulence (New Radio and Performing Arts) and the former Alternative Museum. Her experimentation with interactive installation began during her first solo show at Artists Space in 1997. She does not limit herself to one medium nor genre, but chooses the one that best fits her concepts ranging from nomadicism, psychogeographics, liminality, ecology, rituals and synchronicity.
Wireless Robotic Materials
Speaker: Nikolaus Correll
Tuesday, September 15, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract: How can we engineer functional matter from identical (or a few different) units? What might sound like a highly suboptimal approach is nature's solutions to all living things, many of which orders of magnitude more functional than any engineered system. In this talk, I will provide an overview on this field spanning swarm robotics, ethology and computer science, as well as our work at CU to implement functional versions of "robotic materials", ranging from shape changing beams and robotic skins to particle systems that can self-organize to camouflage and play Tetris.
Bio: Nikolaus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Theme on Multi-functional Materials. He obtained his PhD in CS from EPFL in 2007 and spent two years as a post-doc at MIT CSAIL working with Daniela Rus. He is the recipient of a NSF CAREER award, a NASA Early Career Faculty Fellowship, and a Provost Faculty Achievement award.
Startup Idea to 100+ interviews, an iCorps Journey
Speaker: Ram Narayanswamy
Tuesday, September 8, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听Starting a business seems like an exciting adventure. We assume we have something of value to offer and there are customers to buy it.听 How do we state this value-proposition, validate it with potential customers, and work up a plan to develop and sell the product?听 Wouldn't it be great to learn how to do this is a systematic manner? Let us make new mistakes, not repeat the ones which are well known not to work.
The National Science Foundation conducts an entrepreneurship boot camp called NSF iCorp.听 I recently mentored听 "Team Salty Spoon" which has a technology to enhance human tastes by electrically stimulating the tongue. In this talk, I would like to present our journey and our learnings.听 In the process, we will discuss key concepts like the application of the "scientific method" to entrepreneurship, the Business Model Canvas, and how to "get out of the building" and speak to customers.
Bio:听Ram Narayanswamy works at the forefront of digital imaging and computer vision. He has held technical and management leadership roles from start-up to Forture100 companies. Early in his career, he developed the benchmark test for cameras commonly known as the 鈥渟lanted-edge MTF test,鈥 now widely used all over the world. He was an early member of CDM Optics, a start-up acquired by Silicon Valley-based OmniVision Technologies that pioneered the field of computational imaging. While at On-Semiconductor, Intel-Labs and Occipital, he developed multi-camera systems for 3D sensing and immersive experiences. His work at Intel Labs led to one of Intel鈥檚 RealSense multi-camera systems which won the "Best of CES 2015" award. Currently, Ram is president of Teaq Innovations, a company dedicated to bringing the advances in imaging and data analytics to a range of industries including robotics, healthcare, fintech and infrastructure.
Socially Assistive Agents - Asset-based tools for Tele-Therapy and Education
Speaker: Aubrey Shick
Tuesday, September 1, 11:30am - 12:20pm MT
Abstract:听Bring your Android tablets and Phones! We will do a fun remote听 creating a socially assistive agent co-present with you for a shared presence experience!听听听
Socially assistive agents offer a judgement-free social relationship to support communications, therapy and education. Years of experience deploying programs with hundreds of individuals through 鈥婩ine Art Miracles, Inc.鈥 has shown how robots can lengthen engagement and significantly increase verbalization and rapport building. This is especially valuable in new child-adult relationships or when children are working through social and emotional challenges. We have seen particularly powerful progress working with children on the autism spectrum and older adults with dementia and alzheimers. PEERbots open-source software allows us to essentially create specialized 鈥媝uppets鈥, where the facilitator; a therapist, teacher or caregiver is completely in control and ensures appropriate responses to the individual or class. It's easy for non-technical individuals to create, edit and share content in advance. This means an expert educator or therapist can scale their impact by sharing with others (or create content that could be taken and used at home or in other locations for 鈥媍ontinuity鈥 and 鈥媟einforcement鈥). The relationship with the agent allows for continuity and consistency of care even when the robot is being operated by different caregivers. This talk will discuss the background and applications of socially assistive agents and the opportunity to scale educational and therapeutic outcomes. PEERbots software is built in Unity and supports mobile, VR, robots (like Misty), Mac, PC, Arduino and iOS coming soon. We鈥檙e recruiting student researchers, creatives, designers, and developers to participate in creating user interfaces, physical bodies, digital characters, service design or whatever inspires and makes the world a better place!
Bio:听Aubrey Shick is a product designer and researcher, specializing in socially assistive agents (Robotics, AI, VR;听,听,听 ), wearable computing ( and glasses;听,听 - IP acquired by听), and medical devices. Past roles include Head of Human-Robot Interaction and UX at听Embodied, Product User Experience Lead at Intel, and Sr. Human Factors Design Engineer at Medtronic. She consults digital health and consumer devices, serves as Head of Technology and Research at听., and as Executive Director of听PEERbots, a software nonprofit providing free tools to support therapy and education for social, emotional and developmental challenges. Aubrey studied at Carnegie Mellon University, earning degrees in Industrial Design, HCI and working as a Design Researcher in the Robotics Institute.
Making Magic with Creative Technology and Design
Speaker: Ellen Do
Tuesday, August 25, 11:30am - 12:30pm MT
Abstract:听ATLAS is an interdisciplinary institute for radical creativity and invention. Our synthesis of design and technology amplifies innovation in engineering and the arts. We believe the best way to shape the future is to invent it. We promote rigorous, curiosity-driven investigation in a thriving academic community that is supportive, energetic and playful.听 In this talk, Ellen will introduce projects from the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado听 糖心Vlog破解版.
Bio:听Ellen Yi-Luen Do is a Professor and Director of Partnership and Innovation in the ATLAS Institute, at 糖心Vlog破解版. She invents at the intersections of people, design and technology. She holds a PhD from Georgia Tech, a MDesS from the Harvard GSD and a BArch from NCKU in Taiwan. She has served on the faculties of University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech, and co-director of the Keio-NUS CUTE Center in Singapore before joining CU 糖心Vlog破解版.