Contents
VisMe
Media Coverage
http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/news/story/blue_waters_intern_visualizes_a_career_in_app_development
This project is a collaboration between Dr. Alan Craig and I. We accomplished developing a pipeline for visualizing any PDB protein using Augmented Reality. Published here. We began VisMe in a NSF funded internship hosted by Shodor, and since the conclusion of that internship we have continued to grow this project. We are excited to release this project and have more on the way. Release date (Android and iOS) TBA.
This project combines many techniques that come from my multidisciplinary background. I used Unity 3D and an allocation on the Blue Waters Supercomputer, molecular data from the PDB, scripting languages such as c#, javascript, tcl, cgi, and managed both ends of querying a server. I also employed an iterative design process, and surveyed real professors, researchers, and students to inform the design and functionality of the application.
CMU HCI: SCIPR
The Articulab’s SCIPR project aims to understand how to foster curiosity in students by observing them in small group settings. I am taking part in the development of an embodied conversational agent (ECA), in our study an intelligent virtual child, to engage in a collaborative tabletop game, and elicit curiosity during the game play. The virtual child’s behavior will be integrated as part of a WoZ system, which allows the above behaviors in a semi-automated matter. Find more about my experience here. Working under PI Dr. Justine Cassell, supervisor Dr. Zhen Bai.
For this project, I took part in a very iterative design process that involved observation of audio/video data, transcription, coding schemes, creating finite state machines, and frequent play testing. In addition to this, I used several NLP techniques to extract and analyze speech patterns of real children in order to build finite state machines for an AI system. The exploratory work I did as this project gathers steam lays the groundwork for the AI system that will interact with real children in the future.
Dental Dog
I was commissioned by CITL at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to create an application to visualize and manipulate a 3D model of a dog skull for graduate students in the department of Veterinary Medicine to be used as a supplement to courses.
For this project I used Unity 3D, C#, and javascript.
Food for Thought
With Dr. Emma Mercier’s lab at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the department of Education, I worked on the programming development of the Food for Thought app. This project allows children to visualize the environmental impacts of the food that they choose to consume. We used this application to study group behavior in adolescent children when making these food choices, and iterated through design by observing interactions and getting feedback from participants.
I employed UX research tools (observation, interview, etc.) to iterate through design of the UI and functionality of this application. I used javascript, html, css, and electron for the programming aspects of this project.
UIUC CS: VR Gait Study
This project was done in collaboration with the CS 498 course at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Manuel Hernandez in the Kinesiology & Community Health department to study gait using virtual reality. In this project we used Unity 3D, C#, and javascript.
NYU: NSF REU
I worked with the SPAM lab at NYU to perform perform experiments, run statistical analyses, and eventually present on a project that I worked on. I spent my time conducting research using methods such as interviews and behavioral observation which led me to be able to analyze the data collected, both qualitatively and quantitatively. A pdf version of slides with more information can be found here.
UCI: AR/VR Theater
I am taking part in the development of AR and VR systems for scenic designers in theater spaces. Our team is comprised of developers, UX researchers, and scenic designers who are working towards creating an immersive tool to help streamline and simplify communication between members of theater production teams. I am working on development for AR on iOS and android using ARKit and ARCore, as well as Hololens and Windows Mixed Reality devices.