Human-Centered Computing News

IUPUI students say internship program delivers on promise for unique summer experience

(Contributed by Rich Schneider, originally published August 7, 2019) Imagine a summer college internship program that promises the best summer of your life. Such a program is available through Infosys, a multinational company that provides IT services and business consulting. The program begins by paying for visa fees and roundtrip airplane tickets to bring students […]

IUPUI students devise innovative concepts to help people who are homeless, hungry

(Story contributed by Rich Schneider, originally published October 16, 2019) Twenty-one IUPUI students gathered Oct. 11 in the mayor’s conference room on the 25th floor of the City-County Building to present their solutions to a difficult social problem: How do you reconnect people to society who have become homeless or are unsure when they will […]

NSF grant helps IUPUI faculty explore how to eliminate barriers to accessibility

Erin Brady (above), Ph.D. and assistant professor of human-computer interaction at IUPUI’s Department of Human-Centered Computing, has received a grant to identify ways that socio-technical systems can promote collaborative efforts to solve accessibility problems in the workplace. As principal investigator, Brady is working with co-principal investigator Davide Bolchini, Ph.D. and chair of the School of Informatics […]

That’s smart coffee: Informatics students implement IoT design for Starbucks

Jiahui “Miro” Wang and her team spent months in their warroom and on the road researching and designing an Internet of Things dashboard system for Starbucks to help them track preventative maintenance on their water filtration equipment across their 8K+ U.S. stores. “With those valuable experiences…I believe I can launch a successful product designer career in the IoT industry,” Wang said.

HCI research and practice opens doors, practically and creatively, for alumna

[Photo: HCI alumna Jennifer Palilonis, far left, poses with BSU EMDD students at Indiana Statehouse. Used with permission] Jennifer Palilonis was a self-described non-traditional Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction program at the IU School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC) at IUPUI in 2010. At the time, she was already a tenured professor at Ball […]

Mosaic Fellowship changes classroom learning dynamics for faculty and students

Last summer, Todd Shelton, lecturer in Media Arts and Science (MAS) at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, learned he had been selected as an IU Mosaic Faculty Fellow for the 2018-19 school year. Shelton applied because of his interest in active learning and different ways he could engage the students. He […]

Networking, preparation, and timing leads MAS grad to rewarding career at Netflix

Kylee Peña (MAS, 2009) has accomplished a great deal in the field of Media Arts and Sciences in the short time since her graduation. She is the Coordinator of the Creative Technologies team at Netflix in Los Angeles, California, and co-President of the non-profit organization Blue Collar Post Collective. “IUPUI appealed to me because of the location and the combination of video and computing. Going to a school in Indianapolis offered me a lot of options for interning, working my way through school (at the Indianapolis Zoo, an amazing workplace for a student), and living in different neighborhoods."

Andrew Miller receives NSF grant to study caregiving for young cancer patients

Andrew Miller, Ph.D., assistant professor of human-computer interaction (HCI) in the Department of Human-Centered Computing has received a two-year NSF CRII Smart and Connected Health Award of $174,791. He is principal investigator on the project entitled “Parent-2-Parent: Supporting Dyadic Caregiving in the Hospital” and will be collaborating with Dr. Emily Mueller of Riley Hospital for […]

MAS game design and development student receives Best in Show award

Alexander Douglas (above center), a senior and recent graduate of the Media Arts and Science undergraduate program, took home Best in Show for his game, Labrunner, at the 2019 Vector Conference held at Eastern Kentucky University in late April. Vector is a game conference held in collaboration with EKU Gaming Institute and RunJumpDev that celebrates […]

$1.6M NIH research grant supports study of VR to improve perspective taking in kids

Zebulun Wood (pictured above), lecturer and co-director of the undergraduate Media Arts and Science (MAS) program, will lead a team from the IU School of Informatics and Computing as part of a $1,622,677 NIH R61 Phase 1 Exploratory/Development Grant recently awarded to Tom Hummer, assistant research professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of […]

Applied Data and Information Science B.S. degree approved and open for enrollment

The Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI now is offering an undergraduate degree in Applied Data and Information Science (ADIS). The new bachelor’s degree was approved at the May 6 meeting of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Students may pursue two specializations within the ADIS major. The Applied Data Science specialization […]

Scholarships recognize student accomplishments and aspirations

[Pictured above: Winners of the Grace Hopper Travel Scholarship: Bhawana Yadav, Arie Werner, I-Ting Tseng, Isabel Lopez, Bhavya Sinha, Radhika Ravindran, Sayali Talware, and Sneh Khatri. Absent: Zeinab Shaikh and Xiaochen Yu.] The IU School of Informatics and Computing celebrated the academic achievements of multiple students during the 2019 Awards ceremony at the recent Capstone […]

Mother Nature inspired IUPUI students’ design for a safer football helmet

Working with engineering student Joel Najmon, SoIC MAS student Jacob DeHart examined how energy-absorbing, biologically-inspired cellular liners could make football helmets safer. Their research paper was published in the Society of Automotive Engineering International Journal of Transportation Safety.

James Ward: Into the Animator-Verse

Affordability, and access to computer labs and 2D and 3D animation classes, drew James Ward to SoIC’s Media Arts and Science program. He credited the program’s accessible faculty for preparing him to work in the industry, where he’s now a senior animator for Sony. He recently worked on “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best animated film of 2018.

Students test new career app at recent job fair

Over the past year and half, Fawzi Ben Messaoud, Ph.D., informatics faculty member at the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, has led a group of his students in developing a web-based career matching tool, the Learning Path and Career eXchange Application. Ben Messaoud saw a need for an improved way for college […]

HCI alumni win Parkview Health’s health innovation competition

[Photo, left to right: Sue Ehinger, former chief experience officer, Parkview Health; Ryan Ahmed; Romisa Ghahari; and Mike Packnett, president and CEO, Parkview Health. Used with permission.] Romisa Ghahari and Ryan Ahmed, respectively graduates of the Ph.D. and M.S. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) program at IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, recently won a health innovation competition […]

Kyle Harris analyzes numbers for ClusterTruck

Kyle Harris, a duel degree student majoring in Informatics, analyzed the numbers at his data science internship with ClusterTruck online restaurant using customer data, kitchen data, location data, food order data, and cooktime data. Harris analyzed promotion codes and presented to the ClusterTruck marketing team. He currently is employed as a Data Analytics Associate at CliftonLarsonAllen.

Faculty work featured in new digital humanities research methods book

Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI faculty Andrea Copeland, Albert William, Zebulun M. Wood, and Ayoung Yoon recently detailed their local heritage, community-based project, Virtual Bethel, in a new book titled Research Methods for the Digital Humanities. The four researchers authored the chapter, Virtual Bethel: Preservation of Indianapolis’s Oldest Black Church, in the book edited […]

Revamped master’s level MAS program prepares grads for workforce

Over a year ago, Media Arts and Science (MAS) faculty embarked on a mission to redesign their outdated master’s degree program. Their goal: create a pathway to industry that focused on emergent technology and developed skills from concept to finished project that would better prepare students for their careers. Associate Professor Joseph Defazio, with support […]

2018 grads already giving back by establishing a new SoIC scholarship

(Story submitted by Cory Aiello) Mikaylah Gross (BS Informatics ‘16 and MS Human Computer Interaction ’18) and Hannah Roper (BS Informatics ‘18) are recent IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI (SoIC) graduates already making a difference by giving back to their school.  They have stepped up together to establish the Make Your Mark […]

High school teams help get out the vote in fifth annual Mobile App Competition

Thirteen high school teams around Indiana participated Saturday, October 27, 2018 in the fifth annual Mobile App Competition, sponsored by the Department of Human-Centered Computing at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI. Raspberry Pi from Scratch from Plymouth High School won first place, Terre Haute South High School took second, and Nextech […]

HCI graduate interns develop their passion for solving real-world problems

In 2018, Kara Bougher was studying to be a user experience (UX) designer, possibly in an education-related role or company. She worked at GEICO’s Washington, DC corporate headquarters on their Digital Experience Team as a UX/UI design/research intern. Her goal was to learn how a design team functions in industry: “I learned a lot about giving and receiving feedback effectively and was able to learn some new tools and software.”

Students in Greece Study Abroad Program find new stories to document

One might think that after three previous visits to Paros, Greece, Study Abroad students and their mentors wouldn’t discover anything unique to film or anyone new to interview, but one would be wrong. Once again, their work is as prolific and surprising as the island of Paros is picturesque and serene. Albert William and Thomas Lewis, […]

Cafaro receives NSF EAGER grant to study how causation and correlation are learned

Francesco Cafaro, assistant professor of informatics in the Department of Human-Centered Computing at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, was recently awarded a $299,879 NSF EAGER grant for his research, “Aiding Reasoning About Correlation and Causation.” The EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) supports exploratory projects that are in early stages […]