Carruth, who currently teaches two courses—Meaning of Information Technology and Advanced Image—for the Technology, Arts and Media program is characteristically deprecating about the honor: “The young women and men I have the pleasure of interacting with never fail to amaze me,” he says. “They make me a better person. I am honored to share in this part of their journey.”

When she was a student, Jessica Masson took three of Carruth’s classes and completed an independent study under his supervision. “You feel like he cares about you as both a student and a person. He exudes an enthusiasm for teaching and empowering students,” says Masson, who is now an OIT technical support analyst for CU Boulder.

When she first enrolled in the TAM program, Masson felt like her academic life and personal goals were at a standstill, and taking Meaning of Information Technology shifted her perspective completely. “Chris cared about each of our voices and rekindled my love of education and poetry,” she says. “He taught me that my dreams weren’t naïve; I could do anything I set my mind to.”

Several nominations spoke to Carruth’s dedication: “I really appreciate that he engaged with me on a personal level,” writes one woman. “We would write weekly responses on Edmodo, and he read each and every one, week in and week out, for over a hundred students. That level of dedication is amazing to me, and that's why I am nominating him.”

The same individual wrote, “I left every class feeling inspired. This is the first class I have ever taken where I didn't just learn the bare minimum to get a good grade. I spent my free time reading the rest of books where he would pull a few pages for us to read, and I followed all of the links he gave us to view the full articles, because I always left class wanting to go learn more.”

Other nominators describe how they were similarly drawn in: “I have never had a teacher so talented at presenting ideas, engaging his students, and getting his students excited about the topic.”Another nomination reads, “Chris was the most forward/real/compassionate/ smooth/well-spoken professor I have ever had. His kind words and charismatic personality made the learning environment something we as students wish every class was like.

Chris Carruth (ATLAS) stands with other winners of the Marinus Smith Award from New Student and Family Programs. The award recognizes faculty and staff who have had a particularly positive impact on students. They are nominated by those they teach, mentor and support.

The teaching award is named after Marinus Smith, a 19th century Boulder resident whose significant contributions of land and money made it possible for the university to locate close to the base of the Flatirons in Boulder.

Criteria for the student-nominated award state, nominees must advance the quality of education or the student experience at CU Boulder; model the integrity and ethical conduct expected of CU Boulder students; demonstrate a high degree of respect for the contribution of every member of the CU Boulder community; benefit the CU Boulder community by demonstrating excellence in their service and fostering a campus environment of inclusion, collaboration and personal responsibility.

TAM Director Matt Bethancourt commented on the recognition saying, “This honor is well-deserved. �鶹��Ժ rave to me about their experience with Chris in MIT. He’s a fantastic instructor, and we are lucky to have him on our team.”

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The assignment is to play with remote control cars. Well actually, break them up and use the parts to build something else. It's an apt assignment for Arielle Hein’s Object class, which meets in the ATLAS Blow Things Up Lab. 

Using screwdrivers, pliers and whatever else they can find, students pull engines and drive trains from cars, dump trucks and drag racers, and connect them to micro:bit controllers to create custom or ""  from cardboard and other recycled materials. Instead of soldered circuit boards, they use loose wires and crocodile clips and binders to connect components. As students' creations take shape and come to life, the tempo in the room steps up a notch as the sound of wiring motors blends with laughter and conversation. 

The March 2 workshop was led by Peli de Halleux, a principal software development engineer for Microsoft Research, who brought with him dozens of remote control cars purchased from thrift shops in Seattle. De Halleux’s workshops typically involve common classroom materials and scrap electronics for participants to make into interactive electronic devices. 

De Halleux uses this approach in middle and high schools to teach circuits because kids usually don’t have the dexterity to work with microcontrollers, soldering irons and breadboards. This workshop was the first time de Halleux had tried the approach with adults.

“It is a chance for students to work with motors without getting in the weeds of breadboards and circuits,” says Ben Shapiro, assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and the Department of Computer Science.

Juliet Luna and her partner crafted a yellow submarine from cardboard and hot glue, attached markers as legs and then weighted the salvaged DC motor so the submarine shook when the motor was activated, causing the legs to draw on the paper below it. “We do a lot of fun things in the TAM program, but this workshop made me feel like a kid again,” says Luna, who plans to graduate in 2019 with a TAM minor.  

For Hein, it was exciting to watch her students use micro:bits for the first time. Some groups made relays using the micro:bit, which allows control of two motors. Other groups incorporated a second micro:bit as a wireless controller using the built-in radio feature of the board.

“They were able to do so much with the materials,” Hein says. “The micro:bit has a lot of built-in sensors and inputs, but the best part is that two micro:bits can be easily configured to communicate with each other over radio signals. This means that one micro:bit can be used to wirelessly control another.”

Luna says students helped each other with their projects. “The BTU lab is such a cooperative environment,” she says. “The space encourages students to take more risks and push boundaries. The people you get inspiration from don't need to be experts. It was a blast. What other class allows you to take apart cars and build cardboard submarines?”

 (For those who want to try this at home.)

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The images are from Hoth’s series, “,”  landscape photography captured via alternative vantage points. The show opens with a reception on March 16 from 6 to 9 p.m. and runs until May 5.

“By creating images that combine multiple scenes–albeit from the same vantage point—my aim is to create a two-dimensional image that encompasses a more whole experience of seeing,” says Hoth.

Hoth has shown photography, digital images, video and solo performance work in more than 70 exhibitions around the United States, including most recently at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver and the Houston Center for Photography. Three of his “Everywhere and All at Once” images were also published in the May 2017 issue of Ello’s “Not For Print” magazine.

This spring he is teaching Image and Alternative Digital Imaging for the TAM program.

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Despite a significant snowstorm, organizers of an ATLAS student-run hackathon, T9Hacks, once again reached their goals of increasing participants and attracting a majority of women to the creative coding marathon.

Led by ATLAS doctoral student Brittany Kos, this year's T9Hacks drew more than 130 participants, 70 percent of them female and non-binary, with 65 percent of the participants first-time hackers. In 2017, 110 people attended, with 60 percent of participants women/nonbinary.

The 24-hour event, which began Feb. 10, is geared toward college students and recent college grads, especially women, non-binary and transgender students—the “T9” stands for “Title IX,” a U.S. amendment that prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational settings.  In general, Hackathons—marathon creative coding and making events—are mostly attended by men, with female-to-male ratios often as low as 1 to 15.

For some, T9Hacks was an opportunity to attend their first hackathon, for others, it was a chance to venture out and try new technology for the first time. Teams of participants completed projects in three areas; cybersecurity, creative tech and tech for social impact. Workshops were available for beginners and mentors were available throughout to consult and support participants.

Working in teams, participants programmed and built creative software projects ranging from Happy Ivy, an app that encourages people with bipolar disorder to finish their tasks, to PeekPeak, an app that helps users save money by reducing utility usage during peak periods.

This year's winners and project descriptions can be found on , with special recognition from T9Hack's organizers for these projects: , by Tatiana Blanco and Vi Nguyen, an autonomous aquaponics system which allows users to grow food with a minimum amount of effort and cost;  by Carl Cortright and Shubha Swamy, a data visualization tool that maps crime locations within Boulder; and  by Cassandra Goodby and Ryan Craig, an emergency WIFI system that can be set up quickly and easily.

In addition to lead sponsorship from ATLAS, the event received major support from Workday, Zayo Group, Google, SketchUp and  MD5. Circadence, Major League Hacking, CU Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science, TechChange and the National Center for Women & Information Technology also provided sponsorship.

For those who missed T9Hacks and those attendees who didn't get enough, don't despair; T9Hacks happens again next fall. Those interested in joining the planning team should visit the . 

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Her father, an undocumented Colorado resident for 20-years, had been detained and imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To protect their mother, the family moved to a stranger’s basement, where they all shared a queen-sized bed. A few months later, after her father was deported to his native country of Peru, her mother made the agonizing decision to join him, but to leave her eldest daughter, Carolyn, a natural born U.S. citizen, in Colorado to finish high school.  

“I wanted to drop out,” says Castanon, who is graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Technology, Arts & Media (TAM) program in December. “I just wanted us to be together.”

After travelling back to Peru with her mother and sister for a short visit, Castanon returned to Colorado alone. She would never live with her family again.

Castanon’s challenging childhood is the focus of her interactive web project, “Being American,” which recounts her teenage and young adult struggles. Her project, which she built as part of a Capstone 2 class, incorporates JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML.

Site visitors follow her story through a timeline, finding photos, videos, drawings, diary entries and other personal relics along the way.

“I just left my parents, my sister, the only people I have as family,” she wrote after her first visit to Peru. “I am going back to my country, all by myself. I am only 15.”   

Upon her return, she lived with her high school math teacher, a woman she barely knew, and the woman’s family. Over time the woman became a second mother to her, and Castanon became part of the family.

TAM Instructor Arielle Hein encouraged her to pursue the interactive story project, Castanon says, but it wasn’t easy. “When I started writing, I started remembering,” Castanon says. “That was the hardest part. At times, I had no motivation. I couldn’t bring myself to remember; I didn’t want to remember.”

Finding her community

Castanon developed a passion for web design after taking a class in ATLAS and soon switched her major to TAM. The move brought her more than a new degree program: “The ATLAS community is a family to me. So many people have supported me and showed me so much love,” says Castanon. “My peers have been the best people in my life.”

The bachelor's degree grew out of the ATLAS Institute’s popular TAM minor and certificate option, launched in the late 1990s, which now enrolls more than 1,000 students. She now works as a lab assistant for the Web class.

“After doing this capstone project, my voice is being heard,” Castanon says. “And that for me is so beautiful.”

Pursuing a TAM degree also allowed her to conceive and build projects—something she enjoys. She is especially proud of the two she made in her Objects class with recent TAM graduate, Marla Bernstein. For one electronic lighting project, Illuminating Garden, the two women built and programmed an interactive art installation that is both “entertaining and soothing,” using conductive paint and a conductive touch board to trigger multiple LEDS. They also wired and programmed “Chill Out Carly,” a teddy bear with an embedded MP3 Trigger Arduino board that offers a collection of encouraging and comforting words when hugged or squeezed.  

Since age 18, Castanon has tried to bring her parents back to the United States. Her father works in a shipyard in Peru. Her mother now has stage-four cancer. Her attorney says it may take another three years.

Castanon and her boyfriend recently purchased a home together. This summer she plans to bring her 15-year-old sister, who is also a U.S. citizen, to live with them and attend high school.

“I want others to be aware that an American citizen can go through something so tragic, yet be where I am right now—a fourth-year student graduating with an engineering degree,” says Castanon.

“My story is me. I am who I am because of my story. I am so proud of who I am and who I have become.”

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Visit Castanon’s website:

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Photographic works by Kevin Hoth, an instructor in the Technology, Arts & Media program, are being shown in three summer exhibitions and have also been published in a popular art magazine. The images are from Hoth’s series, “,”  landscape photography captured via technologically mediated vantage points.

Hoth’s photography was recently shown at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins and is being shown at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver and the Houston Center for Photography. Three of his “Everywhere and All at Once” images were also published in the May issue of Ello’s “Not For Print” magazine.

“By creating images that combine multiple scenes–albeit from the same vantage point—my aim is to create a two-dimensional image that encompasses a more whole experience of seeing,” says Hoth.

Hoth has shown photography, digital images, video and solo performance work in more than 70 exhibitions around the United States. This fall he will be teaching Image, Alternative Digital Imaging and Video Installation Art classes for the TAM program.

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