It's FrIDeATe! + Research Assistantship Opportunities + HCII Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Current mood: the "deeply miscellaneous" bin in the IDeATe Media Lab

FrIDeATe

The first FrIDeATe of 2020 is today, Friday, January 24th at 4:30 p.m. in the IDeATe Fabrication Lab! Are you hungry? Shirtless? Carrying too many loose items? Stop by and get a burrito and/or an IDeATe t-shirt and/or an IDeATe tote bag or fanny pack.

Spring Research Assistantships

Multiple positions are open for undergraduate research assistants on an NSF-funded project Smart Spaces for Making: Networked Physical Tools to Support Process Documentation and Learning. This NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) fellowship is for a part time position (up to 15 hours/week). Candidates are sought for four roles:

• Design Research (skills: observation + ethnography, co-design, interview, sketching, data collection and management, qualitative research analysis)
• Technical Prototype Development (skills: hardware prototyping, fabrication, server-side programming)
• Physical Computing Lab Assistant (skills: hardware and electronics, inventory management, database management)
• Communications Designer & IDeATe Reporter: Conduct interviews with IDeATe faculty and students about Spring 2020 courses and explore students' documentation strategies and portfolio practices. Develop stories and spotlight student's project work and process for IDeATe communications and dissemination materials.

Project Details:

The Learning Media Design Center is looking for undergraduate research assistants to help design and develop smart documentation tools to support learning practices in creative, maker-based studio environments. They will work with an interdisciplinary team of design researchers, technology developers and learning scientists from CMU’s HCII, School of Architecture and Integrated Innovation Institute (III), the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) and the Children’s Museum. Students will participate in design research and technology development activities working with project site partners including Quaker Valley High School, CMU’s IDeATe program, and AlphaLab Gear’s Startable youth program at the Community College of Allegheny County.

Students should have a genuine interest in inclusive education and the design of learning technologies. 

The prospective candidates will work with project team members on: 

• Design Research: synthesize generative design research, analyzing qualitative research, facilitate visioning activities to inform iterative prototyping. We are seeking strong skills in communication and interaction design, experience with qualitative research methods, and in developing excellent user experiences, and skills with synthesizing and modeling research findings and insights to understand the problem space and collaboratively refine solutions with the project team and users.
• Technical Prototyping: prepare working prototypes of smart IoT prototypes for deployment to three educational co-design partners. We are seeking strong skills in hardware and software (Arduino, Raspi) development towards an integrated platform for context-aware documentation tools. Ideal candidates should have also exposure to human-centered design methods and experience in collaboratively developing, testing and refining solutions within an interdisciplinary team.
• Physical Computing Lab Assistant: work closely with a physical computing lab faculty to study, understand and deploy a tool that integrates NFC tags with inventory management and other tools to create in-situ, open, community documentation practices to improve student learning on campus. Ideal candidates should have also exposure to electronics and hardware laboratories and experience in collaboratively developing, testing and refining solutions within an interdisciplinary team.
• Communications Designer & IDeATe Reporter: Conduct interviews with IDeATe faculty and students about Spring 2020 courses and explore students' documentation strategies and portfolio practices. Develop stories and spotlight student's project work and process for IDeATe communications and dissemination materials.

The Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) faculty mentor and Principal Investigator, Marti Louw, Director of the Learning Media Design Center, will serve as project lead and advisor with co-principal investigator, Daragh Byrne, School of Architecture. 

To apply:

Upload your Resume and a link to your portfolio to the following Box Folder: http://bit.ly/2zKGsZk .

Note: Undergraduate students supported with NSF funds must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possession.

HCII Summer Undergraduate Research Program - Deadline to Apply Extended!

Application deadline extended to Wednesday, January 29 at 5pm EST!
Attention all undergrads: we heard you needed more time, so we're extending the app deadline for our paid, 10-week, Human-Computer Interaction Summer Research Program! We won't push back the date any further than that, so please make submitting your application a priority. Not only is this a PAID program at a great computer science school designed to give undergrads research experience, but we also host weekly seminars about HCI topics and go on field trips to local Pittsburgh tech companies. What are you waiting for, undergrads? APPLY NOW!

TEDxCMU Opportunity for Students and Faculty

TEDxCMU is March 28th, 2020! During the event's 1.5 hour intermission is The Expo where creators, makers, researchers, startups, and others pursuing wonderful ideas informally showcase and discuss their work with the 400+ attendees in an exhibit-style setting. This is a wonderful opportunity for IDeATe students and faculty to showcase what they’ve been working on with the broader community. We would love to have some students and faculty from IDeATe present! If you are interested, please apply at http://bit.ly/tedxcmuexpo2020. Questions can go to Bennett Huffman, Head of Innovation for TEDxCMU.

AlphaLab Gear 2020

AlphaLab Gear is a nationally-ranked hardware accelerator in Pittsburgh, PA. They guide early-stage physical product companies through a 30-week program that takes companies from an initial idea or prototype, through engaging early customers, to fulfilling demand by manufacturing at scale. Find out more and apply by 11:59pm on January 26, 2020 at alphalabgear.org.