Human-Centered Computing News

MAS students create 3D animation; bring international awareness to ocean plastics issue

Students in the fall 2020 NEWM-N441 3D Team Production class taught by Media Arts and Science (MAS) faculty Albert William and Zebulun Wood built a 3-minute animation of a sea turtle, Mr. Bubbles, based on Herminia Din’s book, “Our Plastic Ocean, Our Clean Ocean.” Din is an artist/author at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, currently living […]

Virtual film production provides real-world skills for School of Informatics and Computing students

(original story by Kirk Johannesen, published May 4, 2021) Hollywood could be a future stop for some IUPUI students who learned skills and technology that have become increasingly important in the filmmaking industry after they teamed up on a unique School of Informatics and Computing project. A team of five students in Zebulun Wood’s N420 […]

Sports Analytics grad student calls stats for March Madness

Demi Johnson played basketball as an undergraduate and now studies sports analytics at the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI as a graduate student. Recently she had a unique opportunity to put all her knowledge to work as a live stats caller at the mens’ NCAA basketball tournament in Indianapolis. Johnson was at the […]

Andrew Miller receives National Science Foundation award

Andrew D. Miller, Ph.D., has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The assistant professor in the Human-Centered Computing department at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI is working to design breakthrough technologies that will help families to collaborate during a health crisis.

Students can earn Rasa AI Assistant Developer Certificate

Students studying artificial intelligence at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI now will earn a Rasa AI Assistant Developer Certificate when they successfully complete a course in AI Bots and Cognitive Automation. Plans are in the works that will allow students to earn additional professional AI certificates as part of SoIC’s Bachelor of Arts in AI degree.

Abhinav Sikharam continues to demonstrate talent for pitching innovative ideas

Abhinav Sikharam, a master’s student in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) program at the School of Informatics and Computing, has a talent for cultivating new ideas and sharing them with others. In April of last year, he won the 2020 Jagstart Pitch Competition at IUPUI and then in fall 2020 he was runner up in the […]

Rock star informatics grad earns dream gig at Rockstar Games

Silvia Lawson-Vilches, a December 2020 graduate of the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, is an associate lighting artist for Rockstar Games, a prestigious award-winning studio in the video game industry that’s responsible for highly acclaimed series such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. A casual gamer growing up, Lawson-Vilches played […]

Creativity on display during Informatics’ virtual capstone event

(original story by Kevin Fryling, published January 12, 2021) (feature image created by student Nathan Ekema) Although things looked a bit different from past years’ capstone events, students at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI recently closed out 2020 with a traditional end-of-semester celebration—despite the challenges of physical distancing due to the […]

Chakraborty awarded NSF grant to develop AI approaches for identifying dynamic clinical data patterns, causal links in text

Sunandan Chakraborty, assistant professor of data science at SoIC, received a $174, National Science Foundation grant for his project to use artificial intelligence to mine text, aiming to identify dynamic clinic data patterns. Chakraborty’s research will seek to discover little known symptoms and signals of the rare disease Sjögren’s Syndrome by mining research articles and clinical notes.

MAS alumnus crosses the finish line with Resilience Racing

When Clark Knittle was ready to take his video career to another level he said he chose the master’s program in Media Arts and Science because it was not only top-notch, but also convenient for adult students. For his thesis project, the motor racing fan shot and edited video, created a short documentary, and developed social media content for Resilience Racing. The program is designed for and by a team of disabled veterans, who train to drive specially equipped cars.

Isabel Lopez, IUPUI LiFT Scholar, takes part in highly selective i3 program

Isabel Lopez, an Informatics student and LiFT Scholar at SoIC, was chosen from a nationwide pool of applicants for the iSchool Inclusion Institute. She has attended special classes and worked on a team research project about the impact of abandonment in social media, which was presented online to the iConference 2020 in Sweden.

Two School of Informatics and Computing researchers receive prestigious NSF CAREER grants

Two SoIC faculty members were awarded 5-year CAREER grants by the National Science Foundation. Khairi Reda, assistant professor of data science and human-computer interaction, and his team will develop tools to aid in assessing the reliability of data patterns. His $538,140 grant project aims to help broaden the adoption of visual analysis tools. Jingwen Yan, assistant professor of bioinformatics, and her team will provide new perspectives on handling multi-omic data, which can be used discover disease biomarkers, through her $549,909 grant project.

MAS intern uses art and technology to promote healing via digital storytelling

Mary Fitzpatrick wanted to combine her appreciation for visual communication and social media with her passion for teaching art to children, switching from majoring in education to a degree in Media Arts and Science. Her specialization in digital storytelling took her to a unique internship experience with Ascent 121. Mary currently works as a Graphic Designer.

Students win Tech to Protect Challenge, innovate informatics solutions for first responders

The team of Swarnamouli Majumdar, Mayur Srivastava, Aamir Khan, I Ting (Tiffany) Tseng, and Bhavani Prasad Rao Ejanthkar (pictured above left to right with advisor Sonny Kirkley) recently returned from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where they successfully competed in the Tech to Protect Challenge sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). […]

MAS graduate student creates seamless online experiences for Walmart shoppers

In the summer of 2019, media arts and science grad student Xiaochen Yu interned at Walmart Design as a UX designer, working with a cross-functional team to re-envision creation of a seamless user experience for the Search and Browse space on Walmart apps. As a junior designer, Yu collaborated with domain experts in design, research, and analysis to iteratively finalize design decisions.

Students’ “Essential Care for Every Baby” app wins at AMIA

) An award-winning digital tool to help babies, new mothers and caregivers resulted from work by a team of graduate researchers including BioHealth Informatics student Anushri Singh Rajapuri and Human-Centered Computing student Radhika Ravindran. By reducing the decision-making workload for neonatal nurses, this app can improve care and essential intervention for newborns and their mothers.

Students help preserve endangered species for future generations with AR app

A team of four informatics and computing students, led by Drennen Dooms, has been working for University of Massachusetts professor Duncan Irschick to create an educational app for Irschick’s library of 3D models of animals, some of which are endangered. "Duncan goes all over the world scanning these endangered species, and now Drennen and his team are digitizing them and making a scavenger app that can go to zoos and conferences to generate awareness for Duncan and his mission to digitally preserve all these species that are about to disappear."

Mobile App UX Competition participants demonstrate their “drive” for solutions

Ten Indiana high school teams gathered on a recent Saturday to compete in the sixth annual Mobile App UX Competition at the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI. Teams were given approximately eight hours to concept, design, code and present a solution to a specified challenge. Travis Faas, Media Arts and Science faculty member […]

Bolchini receives NSF grant to explore navigating technology without screens

Davide Bolchini, Ph.D., an IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI associate professor, has received a 3-year grant of $499,876 from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Human System program. Bolchini, is principal investigator for the project, “Manipulating Text in Screenless Environments” and will explore how wearable and sound-based technologies can increase accessibility for people who are blind.