IDeATe Spring 2016: The Semester Ahead
On January 11th, the IDeATe@Hunt classrooms and labs came to life again after winter break. Students and faculty settled into courses like Tom Corbett’s 53-471 Game Design, Prototyping, and Production and Dave Touretzky’s 15-294 Rapid Prototyping Technologies.
Two new IDeATe courses launched this semester. Ralph Vituccio from the Entertainment Technology Center began teaching 76-374 Mediated Narrative. Architecture/IDeATe professor Daragh Byrne is teaching 48-528 Responsive Mobile Environments in conjunction with Christina Ciardullo's course 62-492 Mars Habitat: Building an Atmosphere. “The context for these courses and their projects is really exciting because we can’t go there [Mars] yet,” says Byrne. “Going to Mars seems like such a distant concept, but we’re going to be building and deploying a prototype on campus that will bring the vision for our future there much closer. Guests from NASA will be looking at this work so we actually have the opportunity to influence the thinking behind it.”
Beyond our course activities, IDeATE also began hosting the Saturday meetings of Arts Greenhouse, a local organization and Carnegie Mellon initiative. Arts Greenhouse gives high school students the opportunity to explore their musical interests and address real-world issues through hip-hop.
The IDeATe Student Advisory Committee has new members and held its first meeting of 2016 on January 22nd. The SAC will be meeting monthly throughout the semester. Among the issues that they will be addressing are student involvement, areas for improvement, and events and initiatives that they would like IDeATe to support.
IDeATe is planning a number of activities for Spring 2016, including the launch of two micro-courses, expanded access to the IDeATe@Hunt facilities, information sessions for interested students, a tent at Carnival, and a final showcase for student work. For updates and announcements, please visit the IDeATe site.