Illuminate the Pausch Bridge + Exlore Everyday Materials
Illuminate: Randy Pausch Bridge Light-Up Night 2021
This Monday, April 5, 7-9 pm ET, join the School of Computer Science and ScottyLabs to honor Professor Randy Pausch's memory by creating new light shows for the bridge. As darkness falls, we'll light up the night with new works contributed by the community.
This event is open to all members of the Carnegie Mellon community from anywhere in the world, regardless of background or skill level. We will meet on Zoom, work collaboratively to animate the lights using an easy-to-use online system, and live stream the physical bridge playing the results. Additional information and Zoom links are available on the event website.
Upcoming Talk: Natalie Kane and Tobias Revel of Haunted Machines
Thursday, April 8, 3:40-4:40 pm ET, join the Responsive Mobile Environments course for a talk with Natalie Kane and Tobias Revel. Haunted Machines is a global super brand, research and curatorial project from Kane and Revell initially exploring stories of myth, magic and monsters pervading our relationship with technology, and more recently the automated production and dissemination of images. Starting with a conference at FutureEverything 2015, it has curated a series of events, events, projects, scrycasts and talks examining the connection between the occult and technology including the 2017 edition of art, tech and media festival Impakt (NL).
This talk is supported by the Steiner Speaker Series Grant and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Open to all CFA and IDeATe students and faculty. Please contact Daragh Byrne (daragh@cmu.edu) for Zoom link information.
Image: hauntedmachines.com
Playtesters Wanted for ETC Projects
Graduate students from the ETC want your help playtesting their projects! Most of the projects can be tested remotely but a few will be tested at the ETC building.
There is a Google sheet with a list of available projects and details. For questions about any of these projects, please contact Mike Christel.
Summer Course: 99-520 Exploration of Everyday Materials
This summer, Materials Science & Engineering professor Robert Heard will be offering a section of 99-520 on Exploration of Everyday Materials. 99-520 courses are tuition-free! If you are interested in participating, please state your interest on this form by Friday, April 16. IDeATe students: if you take this course and would like to have it count toward an IDeATe minor, please contact Kelly Delaney.
Prof Heard's section is designed for upper level undergraduate students outside of the College of Engineering who wish to learn about materials by experientially exploring the selection, design, or applications of materials. Students will be given a loosely defined final product concept toward with the research will evolve Students will individually explore the materials and processes that could be used for this product, sharing their experience with others working toward their versions addressing the same goal. The research will involve discovery of the materials properties, structure, performance constraints, and sustainability impacts through hands-on DIY studio work. Weekly studio planning meetings guide the direction of work and may include informational lectures, exchange of ideas coming from success or failures, and discussions to deepen the understanding of materials as students work on individual projects. The remainder of the experience is student-driven hands-on exploration of the materials or material-product in a studio environs at CMU, or remotely at the student’s residence.
No prerequisites, but students should be interested in experimenting with basic materials derived from commonly available food and/or drug store supplies. Students will need to be willing to provide the organic materials for their research, have access to a kitchen setting, and be knowledgeable in basic kitchen safety practices.
ICYMI: Teaching Assistant Opportunity: NHSGA
National High School Game Academy is now hiring TAs for this summer. This is a full-time, paid 10-week gig, running from mid-June to mid-August. The Game Academy is attended by approximately 80 high school students all passionately interested in learning about game development. While ETC faculty share the teaching load, the lion's share of what makes this program a great success are student TAs who create the curriculum and deliver a world-class experience to our students in classes covering Project Management, Game Design, Unity, 2D/3D Art, Animation, Rigging, Storyboarding, and Sound Design. You can reside anywhere in the US; the experience this year is entirely remote. If you have an interest in working with 80 of the smartest high school juniors you'll ever meet, please send an email to one of the following ETC faculty: Mo Mahler, Ricardo Washington, or Shirley Yee.
Research Assistant Opportunity: HyperSENSE Embodied Computations Lab
HyperSENSE: Embodied Computations Lab is looking for an undergraduate or graduate student for a paid research assistantship to develop a project that focuses on Intelligence in physical environment. The work could be also done as an independent study for credits as a research project. Required skills: Python, some experience in computer vision and/or Physical computing is a plus. Required hours per week: 4-6 Hours. If interested, please contact Prof. Dina El-Zanfaly.
ICYMI: CMU/IDeATe Alums Win at SXSW Pitch
Refiberd, a tech start-up devoted to ending textile waste, was founded last year by three CMU alums. Sarika Bajaj, Refiberd's CEO, was an IDeATe student during her undergrad years and reached out to let us know that the company won Best Bootstrap Company at this year's SXSW Pitch! Congratulations to Sarika and her co-founders, Tushita Gupta and Mingyue Wang!
ICYMI: BIPOC Literary Journal: Submissions Wanted!
CMU students Melina Castillo and Jamie Espinosa are working as Fellows with the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion. They are currently putting together the first annual BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Literary Journal. The journal's mission is to uplift and amplify BIPOC voices to work toward a change in CMU's PWI (predominantly white institution) culture and to build solidarity between our diverse communities. This community-based journal seeks to collect and share original, multimedia works by BIPOC students, faculty, and staff at CMU. You can submit a new or previously made work and anonymous submissions are accepted. The themes/content of the work are also entirely up to you and can be various media forms such as writing, drawings, comics, photography, film, etc. To submit, please upload works to their Google form or email it to mcastill@andrew.cmu.edu.
Submissions will be accepted until April 10 at 11:59 pm ET.
Bonus: They are looking for an art submission to the be the cover of the journal! If you would like your art to be considered for the cover, please note that in the Google form/email. The student whose art is selected will receive a wellness gift basket.