Human-Centered Computing News

Informatics student Keegan Briskey part of winning Tech SOS Challenge team

The pandemic changed summer internship and job plans for many college students, among them Keegan Briskey, a junior majoring in informatics at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI. The Techpoint S.O.S. (Summer Opportunity for Students) Challenge  was created to support over 500 students across Indiana in summer 2020 and was continued this […]

High school teams make connections at Mobile App UX Competition

Seven Indiana area high school teams participated in the Mobile App UX Competition sponsored by the Department of Human-Centered Computing and held at the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI on November 6, 2021. The theme this year was exploring how an app could help reconnect people after the pandemic or preserve the positive […]

IUPUI students dominate recent 5G “hackathon” competition

(original blog post by Ryan Piurek, published November 10) Talk about being “dialed in.” Students from Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI swept up several of the biggest prizes at the recently held AT&T 5G Sports Hackathon, the fifth tech competition that AT&T has hosted in central Indiana in the last six years. This year’s […]

From automotives to investments: an Applied Data Science alumna’s career journey

Swarnamouli Majumdar has followed a somewhat unique career trajectory that has taken her from the midwest to the northeast United States and from automobile engines to autonomous vehicles to the stock exchange, demonstrating the flexibility and range of applied data science careers across industry verticals. “I have been working in the IT industry across consulting, […]

Faculty receive grant to explore how tech may help older adults with health care

Aqueasha Martin-Hammond, assistant professor of human-computer interaction at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, has received a $498,904 National Science Foundation grant to explore how intelligent assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, can help older adults with daily health-care information tasks at home. She serves as principal investigator for the project, “Designing Autonomy Preserving Interactions in Intelligent Assistants for Older Adults.”

Alumni connect with students to share HCI industry trends and career advice

The Jag Chats series through the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI allows current students earning a master’s degree in human-computer interaction to gain insights and interact with alumni working with interaction design in the field of user experience. These virtual sessions let SoIC students ask graduates of the program questions about careers in the HCI and UX professions.

Applied Data Science alumna making it rain for Milwaukee Bucks

When the Milwaukee Bucks finished their 2020 season as NBA champs, School of Informatics and Computing graduate Gabriel Wachowski was there courtside to celebrate. Although her “assists” are more behind the scenes—doing data modeling, for example—she is a valuable member of the Bucks organization and contributor to their success. Wachowski is a Research and Innovation […]

HCI students’ app addresses food insecurity, wins Indy Civic Hack

In Indiana, 1 in 7 Hoosiers is food insecure. This was the premise of the winning concept at the 2021 Indy Civic Hackathon. The challenge to participants this year was to brainstorm and research possible solutions to strengthening neighborhoods, using data and technology. The School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC) at IUPUI team of Akash […]

Robots, personal safety, and moving to learn: faculty research is far-reaching

In recent publications, human-computer interaction faculty and students from the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI are exploring how technology intersects with artificial intelligence and storytelling robots for children; the role tech plays in managing domestic abuse; and how movement allows us to interpret data using gestures and body movements.

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.