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Praised by their graduate students for their scientific competence, work ethic, creativity and compassion, two ATLAS professors received Outstanding Faculty Mentor awards from CU Boulder’s Graduate school on May 3, an honor bestowed this year on only 18 faculty members campus-wide.

Ellen Yi-Luen Do, professor of computer science and director of the ACME Lab, and Carson Bruns, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the  Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, were both honored for outstanding contributions to mentoring individual graduate students and the quality of their interactions with them.

Their nomination materials showcased their many contributions in mentoring graduate students and supporting the mission of graduate education, while supporting their students’ career development and individual growth.

Carson Bruns
Bruns’ research focuses on emergent nanomaterials—engineering matter at the smallest of scales to create materials with particular properties. His group has received wide recognition for its work on “smart tattoos," which have the potential to impart new properties to skin.
 
Jesse Butterfield, an ATLAS-affiliated PhD candidate and alumnus of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, said that Bruns regularly comes up with “brilliant ideas for impactful scientific work.” One such idea—the use of invisible tattoo inks to protect skin from UV light and the cancers it causes—forms the backbone of Butterfield’s PhD studies.
 
“He spends more time with his grad students than any other advisor that I’m aware of, and with some of them by orders of magnitude,” Butterfield said. “He gives each of us his full attention.”
 
Bruns always pushes his students to work on their career goals, even when it slows progress within the lab, Butterfield adds, including when two students wanted to take time out to intern with companies of interest, and when Butterfield wanted to teach an undergraduate class. 
 
Butterfield said Bruns’ kindness has been unwavering since they began working together in 2017.  “I give the strongest recommendation possible for awarding Carson, in large part due to his capabilities and strengths in his work, but also for his personal qualities, which allow him to continuously raise up the people around him. He is one of those rare people who constantly makes those around him better.”
 

Ellen Yi-Luen Do
In Ellen Do’s ACME Lab, students are engaged in a wide range of projects, from alternative game control, to immersive musical jam sessions, to robotics for wellness, to visual analytics, toys to promote child development and generative art.
 
Despite the breadth of their work, she tells her nine PhD and two master’s students that she is always available: “only an email or door away.”
 
And on any given day, the ACME Lab is a busy central hub, buzzing and flowing with undergraduate and graduate students, says ATLAS PhD Student Sandra Bae. “Ellen has cultivated a lab culture where her students warmly welcome any student interested in research to join our weekly lab meetings, directly mentor undergraduate or master’s students for their capstone projects or simply invite others to socialize. She understands the importance of a social support system where the lab functions as a family.”
 
Bae points out that Do is excellent at harnessing and directing the interests of her students. “Her mentoring strength comes from how observant she is,” says Bae. 
 
“As a PhD advisee of Ellen’s, her influence is imprinted on my life,” Bae said. “She is my academic mentor, who listened to my first conference presentation five times in a row; my senior, who taught me how to treat friends and myself with compassion; my spiritual leader, who motivates me with her delightful energy; my personal role model, who helps me, another Asian-American woman, be more confident that I belong and can succeed in academia.”

Fiona Bell, ATLAS PhD student, member of the Living Matter Lab; Dissertation Completion Fellowship, (one academic semester of financial support).

Carson Bruns, assistant professor, ATLAS Institute & Mechanical Engineering; Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

Ellen Yi-Luen Do, professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science; Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

Sasha de Koninck, PhD candidate in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance, member of the Unstable Design Lab; Graduate School Summer Fellowship ($6,000); Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant ($1,000).

Varsha Koushik, PhD'22, Computer Science, member of the Superhuman Computing Lab; First-place, Three-Minute Thesis Competition Winner.

Anthony Pinter,  PhD'22, Information Science, ATLAS lecturer and incoming teaching assistant professor; Second-place, Three-Minute Thesis Competition winner.

Purnendu, ATLAS PhD student; Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant ($1,000).

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ATLAS researchers will present six published works and two workshops at the 2022 ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), the world’s preeminent forum for the field of human-computer interaction. The conference, commonly referred to as “CHI,” will be held hybrid-onsite April 30-May 6, 2022 in New Orleans.

Researchers affiliated with Laura Devendorf’s Unstable Design Lab will be presenting two workshops, one full paper and one journal article; Mirela Alistar’s Living Matter Lab authored two papers, one of which received a Best Paper Honorable Mention award. The ACME Lab collaborated with the VisuaLab (formerly with the ATLAS Institute) for one paper and ATLAS associated PhD students also will present one paper.

​​CHI Papers are publications of original research in the field of Human Computer Interaction that are read and cited worldwide, and have a broad impact on the development of HCI theory, method, and practice. It's a prestigious honor for papers to be accepted to CHI; within the last decade, the overall acceptance rate for CHI has only been 20-27 percent.

CHI 2022 papers, journal articles and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

Living Matter Lab

. [Best Paper Honorable Mention Award].
Fiona Bell, (PhD student, ATLAS); Netta Ofer, (research master’s student, ATLAS);  Mirela Alistar, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).
This paper presents ReClaym: a clay-like material made from the makers’ own compost, reflecting the makers' relationship with food, applied manual fabrication techniques and design explorations. Through a process of Intimate Making with an intimate material, researchers used ReClaym to create a collection of applications, including garden paraphernalia, games and personal household items. 

 (interactivity paper)
Fiona Bell, (ATLAS PhD student);  Netta Ofer, (research master’s student, ATLAS); Hyelin Choi (undergraduate student, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology);  Ella S McQuaid (undergraduate student, Mechanical Engineering); Ethan Frier (MS, CTD—Creative Industries '21); Mirela Alistar, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).
In this work, researchers introduce a range of sustainable biomaterials including ReClaym, a clay-like material made from compost; Alganyl, an algae-based bioplastic; Dinoflagellates, bioluminescent algae; SCOBY, symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast; and Spirulina, nutrient-dense blue-green algae to create unique interactive interfaces. The researchers will present the biomaterials at CHI, where conference participants can engage with the biomaterials.

ACME Lab—Workshop Papers

Augmented Personification of Intelligent Music Tools for Creativity and Collaboration
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 47: : When Interactive Assistance and Augmentation Meet Musical Instruments .
Torin Hopkins (ATLAS PhD student), Rishi Vanukuru (ATLAS PhD student), Suibi Che-Chuan Weng (Creative Industries master's student), Amy Banic, (Visiting Associate Professor, Computer Science), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science).

Designing and Studying Social Interactions in Shared Virtual Spaces using Mobile Augmented Reality
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 46:
Rishi Vanukuru, (ATLAS PhD student), Amarnath Murugan, Jayesh Pillai, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science). 

What to Design Next: Actuated Materials and Soft Robots for Children
ACM CHI 2022 Workshop 39: Actuated Materials and Strategies for Human Computer Interaction Design.
Chris Hill (ATLAS PhD student), Ruojia Sun, (ATLAS PhD student), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Professor, ATLAS Institute & Computer Science).

ACME Lab and VisuaLab* collaboration

S. Sandra Bae, (ATLAS PhD student), Clement Zheng, (ATLAS post-doctoral research associate, PhD; Technology, Media & Society ‘20); Mary Etta West, (PhD student, Computer Science); Ellen Yi-Luen Do, (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science); Samuel Huron, (faculty, Telecom - Institut Polytechnique de Paris); Danielle Albers Szafir (UNC Chapel Hill, former ATLAS faculty).
Physicalizations are more than just physical representations of data. Each physicalization is also (un)consciously a product of different research communities physicalization is part of, specifically of their research perspective and values. But research currently lacks a synthesis across the different communities data physicalization sits upon, including their approaches, theories, and even terminologies. To bridge these communities synergistically, ATLAS researchers present a design space that describes and analyzes physicalizations according to three facets: context (end-user considerations), structure (the physical structure of the artifact), and interactions (interactions with both the artifact and data). 

*Following Danielle Szafir's departure last summer, the ATLAS VisuaLab was closed

Unstable Design Lab 

Maya Livio (PhD student, Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science).
This paper introduces the concept of the eco-technical interface— which represents the sites at which human, non-human and technological interfaces overlap—as a critical zone at which designers can surface and subvert issues of multispecies relations, such as nonhuman instrumentalization. 

  (journal article)
Jordan Wirfs-Brock (PhD candidate, Information Science); Alli Fam (reporter, New Hampshire Public Radio); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Brian C Keegan (faculty, Information Science).
This first-person, retrospective exploration of two radio sonification pieces illuminates the role of narrative in designing to support listeners as they learn to listen to data.

(workshop)
Jordan Wirfs-Brock , (PhD candidate, Information Science); Maxene Graze (Data Visualization Engineer, MURAL), Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Audrey Desjardins, (faculty, University of Washington); Visda Goudarzi (faculty, Columbia College Chicago); Mikhaila Friske, (PhD student, Information Science); Brian C Keegan  (faculty, Information Science).
This workshop engages synesthesia to explore how translating between sensory modalities might uncover new ways to experience and represent data. 

(workshop)
Verena Fuchsberger (Post Doc, Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg), Dorothé Smit (Research Fellow, Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg), Nathalia Campreguer França (Research Fellow, Center for Human-Computer Interaction,University of Salzburg); Georg Regal (Scientist, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology); Stefanie Wuschitz (Mz. Baltazar’s Lab);  Barbara Huber (Mz. Baltazar’s Lab); Joanna Kowolik (project manager, Happylab); Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science); Elisa Giaccardi (faculty, Delft University of Technology); Ambra Trotto (Research Institute of Sweden).
In this one-day workshop, organizers aim to counteract the phenomenon that access to making (e.g., in makerspaces, fablabs, etc.) is not equally distributed, with certain groups of people being underrepresented (e.g., women*).

Associated PhD �鶹��Ժ

 
Ryo Suzuki (ATLAS/PhD Computer Science '20; assistant professor, University of Calgary); Adnan Karim, (MS student, University of Calgary); Tian Xia, (BS, Computer Science, University of Calgary); Hooman Hedayati, (ATLAS/PhD Computer Science ‘21), Nicolai Marquardt (faculty, University College London). 
Researchers surveyed 460 research papers, formulating key challenges and opportunities that guide and inform future research in AR and robotics.

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Designers who feel disconnected from the materials they work with are more likely to send those materials to the landfill after the material’s usefulness has passed, says ATLAS PhD student Fiona Bell.

Bell, a member of the Living Matter Lab, directed by Assistant Professor Mirela Alistar, is passionate about sustainability; her doctoral dissertation tackles how to reduce waste through encouraging intimate relationships between designers, the materials they use and the artifacts they develop. In recognition of her work, Bell recently received financial support to help complete her thesis through a Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

“Materials and artifacts that the designer feels more deeply connected to are less likely to be thrown away or taken for granted ," Bell says. "Instead they are refurbished, recycled, or composted once no longer needed."

Her research, “Intimate Design,⁠” is a new framework for human-computer interaction (HCI) designers which expresses Bell’s way of thinking, making and approaching design projects; it stems from Bell’s own experiences developing and designing with biomaterials.

“An intimate relationship benefits both entities,” Bell says. “ By working with the material (learning its limitations and realizing its unique characteristic) to arrive at a design rather than forcing a material to fit an envisioned design, the designer forms a mutually beneficial relationship with the material, where the resulting artifact reflects both the designer's vision and the material’s capabilities. Ultimately, I hope that Intimate Design inspires designers to deeply connect with their materials and build more personally meaningful artifacts by radically shifting current HCI perspectives.”  

Some examples of that shift come from Bell’s research, including using stains as time markers [1], cooking biodegradable fashion items [2] and re-clayming food waste [3].

Bell has been recognized multiple times for her achievements. In 2021, she received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant. She also took home a top award from the 15th ACM International Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) Student Design Challenge for her project. And she completed a prestigious internship with Accenture Labs, assisting with the development of self-cleaning textiles.

She adds that hand-making rather than machine fabrication builds intimacy in the design process. The designer gains awareness about the resources needed to fabricate the artifact and what happens to an artifact after it is no longer needed or wanted.

“The gained responsibility and awareness then leads to deeper relationships between the designer and their artifacts, fostering more sustainable and intimate design practices,” she says.

Associated Publications
[1] Fiona Bell, Alice Hong, Andreea Danielescu, Aditi Maheshwari, Ben Greenspan, Hiroshi Ishii, Laura Devendorf, and Mirela Alistar. 2021. Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light.  In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–12. (Yokohama, Japan (virtual)–May 8-13, 2021). pdf.

[2] Fiona Bell, Latifa Al-Naimi, Ella McQuaid, and Mirela Alistar. 2022. Designing with Alganyl. In Sixteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 2, 1-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3490149.3501308 (Daejeon, Republic of Korea (virtual) Feb. 13-16, 2022).

[3] Fiona Bell, Netta Ofer, and Mirela Alistar. 2022. ReClaym our Compost: Biodegradable Clay for Intimate Making. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517711 (New Orleans, LA, USA—April 29-May 5, 2022).

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“ACORN is what I wanted to do from day one when I started at ATLAS,” Zamore says. “I’m really, really excited that this is getting off the ground.”

ACORN's mission, Zamore says, is to connect ATLAS research and STEM education with the surrounding community, focusing on the needs of underserved communities, especially performance disparities in the K-12 classroom. �鶹��Ժ from high socioeconomic backgrounds tend to outperform other students due to better access to resources, Zamore adds. 

Over the summer, graduate student Isha Kanu (MS-Creative Industries) worked with Zamore to collect materials from ATLAS students, faculty and research groups, including DIY instructions, activities, curricula and recorded talks and performances, with the idea of turning those recordings into activities or public events while prioritizing underserved communities.

Zamore has also established a business partnership with Impact on Education, a local foundation that supports the Boulder Valley School District with community funding and resources to help eliminate technology, resource and opportunity gaps. 

In the future, ATLAS students will have opportunities to tutor STEM subjects to Centaurus High School students, especially those who have struggled to keep up during the pandemic. Plans are in the works to also engage with youth involved in the St. Vrain trade programs and at a juvenile detention center.

In another ACORN presentation to Balfour Senior Living this summer, Suraj Greenlund, a master’s student in the Creative Industries track, (preferred pronoun "they/them/their"), presented NASA-sponsored research they performed at Georgia Tech that analyzed astronauts' heart rates and other medical data from the Apollo Moon missions.

“I really enjoyed presenting my work to the residents, “ Greenlund said. “The best part was seeing everyone's excitement and nostalgia while I was discussing the Moon missions.

“I would definitely love to do more ACORN talks. It was my first time presenting my work in a non-professional setting, and I loved every bit of it.”

ACORN is looking for website designers and those who know how to build database architecture, as well as industry partners. ATLAS undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff who are interested in joining ACORN can fill out to receive updates and invitations to the group’s meetings.

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Eight PhD students affiliated with the ATLAS Institute recently received Graduate School awards to support their outstanding research and creative work. 

Katie Gach received a summer fellowship, providing a summer stipend to support her dissertation research on how people manage post-mortem social media data.

Keke Wu received the Ray Hauser award to support her data accessibility research. For her pioneering work, Wu recently won a Best Paper award from the 2021 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Wu is also a member of the VisuaLab.

Fiona Bell received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant. Bell, who took home a top award from the 15th ACM International Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) Student Design Challenge for her  project, is a member of the Living Matter Lab. She also completed a prestigious internship with , assisting with the development of self-cleaning textiles.

Kailey Shara, a researcher in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant for her research on laboratory automation systems. Shara recently took home top awards from both NVC14 and the New Venture Launch class for her laboratory automation startup, Chembotix.

Dreycey Albin, an affiliated ATLAS student and a researcher in the Living Matter Lab, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

Gabriella Johnson and Varsha Koushik, affiliated ATLAS students and researchers in the Superhuman Computing Labs, were donor award recipients; Koushik also received the Hope Schultz Jozsa Award and a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

Sasha Novack, a researcher in the Living Matter Lab, received a Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant.

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ATLAS researchers presented 10 published works and one special interest group at the 2021 Human Factors in Computing Conference, the world’s preeminent forum for the field of human-computer interaction. The conference, commonly referred to as CHI, was held virtually May 8-13, 2021. 

Researchers affiliated with VisuaLab authored four of the nine ATLAS papers admitted to the conference, two of which received awards, including "Best Paper" and "Honorable Mention."  The Unstable Design Lab had two papers accepted, while the THING, Emergent Nanomaterials, Superhuman Computing, and Living Matter labs each had one. An additional paper was co-authored by alumna Andrea DeVore TAM '18, who is not associated with an ATLAS lab.

In all, 2,844 papers were submitted to CHI 2021, 28 of which were selected for the "Best Paper" award and 114 received "Honorable Mention."  In 2020, CHI accepted nine ATLAS papers, including four from the Unstable Design Lab and one each from the Superhuman Computing, Living Matter, VisuaLab, ACME and IRON labs.
 

CHI 2021 papers, position papers and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

VisuaLab

. [Best Paper Award].  
Keke Wu (PhD student, ATLAS), Emma Petersen, (CTD MS student, ATLAS), Tahmina Ahmad, (Computer Science BS student), David Burlinson (PhD Computer Science, University of North Carolina), E. S. Tanis (faculty, CU Denver–Anschultz), and Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
Researchers conducted a web-based mixed-methods experiment with 34 participants with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) to identify their differences in reading data and summarized the findings into four accessible visualization design guidelines. 

Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback (workshop paper)
M. Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and Danielle Albers Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This paper on Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback was accepted to the Evaluating User Experiences in Mixed Reality Workshop at CHI 2021.

VisuaLab Collaborations

Grand Challenges in Immersive Analytics 
Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Matt Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and 22 other international experts.
A diverse group of 24 international experts developed 17 key research challenges, providing a systematic roadmap of current directions as well as the impending hurdles to facilitating productive and effective applications for Immersive Analytics.

 [Best Paper Honorable Mention]
Willie Payne (BS/MS alumnus Computer Science/Music Composition), Mary West (PhD student, Computer Science), Carlie Charp (CTD BS student, ATLAS), Ben Shapiro (faculty, Computer Science),  Edd Taylor (faculty, Education).

Dance provides opportunities for embodied interdisciplinary learning experiences that can be personally and culturally relevant. danceON's system supports learners to leverage their body movement as they engage in artistic practices across data science, computing and dance. It allows users to bind virtual shapes to body positions in under three lines of code, while also enabling complex, dynamic animations that users can design working with conditionals and past position data. The work identifies implications for how design can support learners' expression across culturally relevant themes and examines challenges from the lens of usability of the computing language and technology.

Unstable Design Lab

Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science), , (faculty, Eindhoven University of Technology/Department of Industrial Design), , (faculty, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University/Computer Science).
Parent-focused smart devices and data-tracking platforms frame the responsible parent as one who evaluates, analyzes and mitigates data-defined risks for their children and family. In this article, the researchers turn away from self-improvement narratives to attend to their own experiences as mothers and designers through creating Design Memoirs, speaking directly to the HCI community from their positions as both users and subjects of optimized parenting tools.

Late-breaking work
From The Art of Reflection to The Art of Noticing: A Shifting View of Self-Tracking Technologies’ Role in Supporting Sustainable Food Practices
Janghee Cho, (PhD student, Information Science), Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science) and Stephen Voida (faculty, Information Science).
This paper explores using self-tracking technologies that might help people draw attention to the impact of their food practices on the environment and promote sustainable food habits.

Living Matter Lab 

Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light
Fiona Bell, (PhD student, ATLAS), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science),  and Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science) 
More information
While staining happens unintentionally (e.g., spilling coffee), this paper introduces “destaining” as an intentional design tool that can be used by HCI practitioners and designers alike to selectively degrade stains on textiles in aesthetic ways. 

Superhuman Computing Lab 

Vinitha Gadiraju (PhD student, Computer Science),  Olwyn Doyle (BA Computer Science and Political Science '20) and Shaun K. Kane (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This work explores how classroom technology design can imitate the instructional strategies educators use to teach visually impaired students the academic and behavioral skills outlined by the Expanded Core Curriculum.

THING Lab & Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials

Soft Electrohydraulic Actuators for Origami Inspired Shape-Changing Interfaces 
Purnendu (PhD student, ATLAS),Eric Acome (Keplinger Research Group), Christoph Keplinger, (faculty, Mechanical Engineering), Mark D. Gross (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Carson Bruns (faculty, ATLAS/Mechanical Engineering) and Daniel Leithinger (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).  
This work introduces electrohydraulic actuators capable of producing sharp hinge-like bends that can be used to actuate existing objects or fold origami creases.

OTHER

Junnan Yu (INFO PhD Candidate), Andrea DeVore (ATLAS Undergrad Alumna), Ricarose Roque (INFO Faculty)

Special Interest Group

Microbe-HCI: Introduction and Directions for Growth
Raphael Kim (Queen Mary University), Pat Pataranutaporn (MIT), Jack Forman (MIT), Seung Ah Lee (Yonsei University), Ingmar Riedel-Kruse (University of Arizona), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science),  Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez (UC Davis), Katia Vega (UC Davis) Roland van Dierendonck (Studio Roland van Dierendonck), Gilad Gome (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Oren Zuckerman (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Angela Vujic (MIT), David Sun Kong (MIT), Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab), Hiroshi Ishii, (MIT), Misha Sra (UCSB), Stefan Poslad (Queen Mary University).  

Microbes bring a distinct set of functional, practical and ethical ramifications in interaction design. This special interest group addresses the various forms that microbial integration in human-computer interaction can take.  The sessions are engaging, focused and orientated conversations around microbes acting as agents of interaction.

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Typically held at the ATLAS Institute for 24 hours, this year’s hackathon had a virtual format and was extended to 36 hours. Participants from all over the United States and world took part in the event, with 25 institutions represented, including high schools, colleges and universities. Those partcipating came from diverse backgrounds spanning 34 different majors.

"The online format was a challenge especially for those with a huge time difference (from Mountain Daylight Time), but because of the online format we were able to meet people from different countries," said Océane Andréis, a first-year ATLAS graduate student (CTD-Social Impact) who co-organized the event with Neha Kunapuli, a junior majoring in computer science. "Being able to come together as creators and inventors with different backgrounds was really amazing."

T9Hacks promotes interest in creative technologies, coding, design and making, among college women, non-binary individuals, people of color, those with disabilities and others who are typically underrepresented during hackathons. Student organizers emphasize that no coding or other technical skills are required to participate in the "invention marathon," and that everyone is welcome.

Overall, 72 percent of T9Hacks' 2021 participants identified as female, and half were first-time hackathon participants. 

ATLAS faculty, students and alumni were heavily involved in planning and running the event. Thirteen  were submitted and nine winners selected by a panel of judges that included ATLAS faculty members Ellen Do, Sheiva Rezvani, Shaz Zamore, Justin Gitlin and Aileen Pierce; TAM alumnae Cassandra Goodby, Keren Megory-Cohen and Elsa Roeber; and Julia Uhr, PhD student, Aubrey Shick, ATLAS research affiliate, and Anna Cook, TAM alumna and MS-CTD student. Mentors included Matt Dickey, TAM and CTD MS alumus; Ari Klebanov, TAM alumus and engineer at ToolCASE, LLC and Chris Klette, ToolCASE, LLC engineer.

During the event, Matt Dickey conducted a web development workshop. Assistant Professor Daniel Leithinger and PhD Student Julia Uhr gave a virtual reality/augmented reality  (VR/AR) workshop and Annie Margaret, ATLAS instructor, led the participants in meditation.

In addition, a team of ATLAS students, including graduate students Sam Herwig and Emma Petersen (both CTD-Creative Industries) and Fiona Bell, PhD student, won the humanitarian award for their project, "The Disaster Displacement Database."

The organizers would like to extend a big thank you to the event sponsors, including the ATLAS Institute, Trimble, Tortuga AgTech, SparkFun Electronics, ToolCASE, LLC, and echoAR, as well as our partner, InVision.

Outstanding Social Impact -  by Mahzabin Rashid Fariha and Humayra Rashid Safa

Outstanding Humanitarian - The Disaster Displacement Database by Fiona Bell, Sam Herwig, and Emma Petersen

Outstanding Maker -  by Sahana Gokulakrishnan

Outstanding Entrepreneur -  by Ann Marie, Gwen, Spencer, and Charlotte

Outstanding Developer -  by Allison Palmer, Jenna Rothe, James Ryan, and Emma Wenzel

EchoAR Award -  by Ahelee Bhattacharya

Fans’ Choice -  by Audrey Viland, Spencer Bajcar, and Greg Gassen

Rookie Award -  by Minso Kim and Catherine Xiao

Outstanding Artist -  by Linh Nguyen & Dan Líu

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Sandra Bae

Fiona Bell

Bae, who won the Craft Award for her e-textile swatch entry is co-advised by Assistant Professor Danielle Szafir and Professor Ellen Do, and she is a member of both the institute’s VisuaLab and ACME Lab. Mary Etta West, co-recipient of the Craft Award and a PhD student in computer science who collaborated with Bae on the Cyborg Crafts project, is also a member of the VisuaLab.

Bell, who won the Inspiration Award for her project, is a member of the Living Matter Lab, directed by Assistant Professor Mirela Alistar.

The Undyeing Swatch utilizes a combination of visible Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and photocatalytic nanoparticles to diminish the color of organically dyed textiles. As such, this swatch explores ‘undyeing’ as a design process that utilizes light and dye as materials for controlled interaction. When the LEDs are turned on, the light activates the nanoparticles, which in turn break down the organic matter (the dye). 

“This swatch provides a proof of concept for the ‘undyeing’ process, which I believe could be an interesting area of future exploration for HCI researchers and artists alike,” Bell said. 

Cyborg Crafts blends techniques from the fiber arts with cyborg-inspired technologies (e.g., open-source biosensing EEG headsets and RFID implants). Second SKIN (Soft Keen INteraction), intended to support this practice, is a handmade collection of four modular soft wearable sensors—momentary switch, pressure sensor, pinch sensor, and a gesture-detecting, capacitive touch sensor— and a temperature-dependent dynamic display. Each sensor has a unique outer shell texture based on non-woven textile techniques, and each supports a different sense. 

“This swatch was awarded the CRAFT AWARD for its well crafted visual effect which sets it apart from similar skin-like designs. The final sensors are indeed uncanny, yet a notable balance of playfulness offsets the often creepy nature of silicone skin, to make them compelling,” wrote one of the jurors.

Each year TEI invites students to submit physical examples of their craft and to communicate their experiments, expertise and approaches through its Student Design Challenge. The annual call is for the “small solutions that make projects possible.” 

Publications
S. Sandra Bae and Mary Etta West. 2021. Cyborg Crafts: Second SKIN (Soft Keen INteraction). In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 87, 1–3. DOI: (Salzburg, Austria (virtual) Feb. 14-19, 2021). [Craft Award]

Fiona Bell. 2021. The Undyeing Swatch. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 86, 1–3. DOI:(Salzburg, Austria (virtual) Feb. 14-19, 2021). [Inspiration Award]

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Science fiction? No, actually. ATLAS PhD student Fiona Bell is helping advance just such a fabric this summer as part of a prestigious internship with . 

The remarkable technology brings together an LED thread, just released in 2018, and textiles impregnated with a photocatalytic coating. When the millions of microscopic LEDs in the thread light up, they initiate a reaction in the coating that breaks down organic matter, killing bacteria and viruses in the process. The result is a fabric that is self-cleaning, anti-microbial and odor-free.

Bell’s role is to help find the most effective way to apply the photocatalytic nano-coating to textiles. Along with scientists and engineers from Accenture Labs, the team includes engineers, scientists and designers from around the country, along with interns from other universities.

“I am excited to be gaining experience working with a commercial lab,” said Bell. “I also hope this work builds bridges between ATLAS, Accenture and other labs involved in the project.” 

While Accenture is primarily known for its professional services consulting work, the company supports the development of emerging technologies through seven research hubs located in North America, Europe, Israel, India and China. 

In applying for the internship, Bell faced stiff competition, including students much further along in their graduate studies. “They like my personal research and how I work in a lab, which involves hours upon hours of tinkering,” said Bell, who recently won two CU Boulder awards for her bioplastics research.

The internship, which runs June 22 – August 21, would have taken her to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Instead, she’s collaborating with the Boston-based team remotely, working in the ATLAS Living Matter Lab, where she’s an associated researcher. 
 

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