dorkbot-diychi April 7, 2009

Held in conjunction with a workshop at the 27th annual conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI)

Free and open to the public.

What do glitter and glue, needles and thread, batteries and wires have to do with Human Computer Interaction? What can makers and crafters teach technology researchers and designers about the world and technology? How can CHI researchers engage with Do-It-Yourself communities? This session will be a dialogue about the relationships between academia and DIY communities. It will include presentations from the workshop organizers and participants who will demo and discuss their own DIY projects and then use them as springboards for open discussions with the audience. Come to see some interesting projects and to share your own insights and experiences.

When: 7:00pm Tuesday April 7
Where: Bartos Theater, Lower Level, MIT Media Lab (E15), MIT campus
Map: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E15&Buildings=go

Who (organizers):
Leah Buechley is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab where she directs the High-Low Tech research group. The High-Low Tech group explores the integration of high and low technology from cultural, material, and practical perspectives, with the goal of engaging diverse groups of people in developing their own technologies. Leah is a well-known expert in the field of electronic textiles (e-textiles), and her work in this area includes developing a method for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) and designing the commercially available LilyPad Arduino toolkit.

Eric Paulos is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute within the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously he was Senior Research Scientist at Intel in Berkeley, California where he founded the Urban Atmospheres research group - challenged to employ innovative methods to explore urban life and the future fabric of emerging technologies across public urban landscapes. His areas of expertise span a deep body of research territory in urban computing, sustainability, green design, environmental awareness, social telepresence, robotics, physical computing, interaction design, persuasive technologies, and intimate media.

Daniela Rosner is a graduate student at the School of Information at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on how the design of social cues in information technology impact our interactions. She investigates how technology can support and strengthen ties between people using the artifacts they create.

Amanda Williams is a PhD student at UC Irvine. Her research interests are in the general area of Human-Computer Interaction, including but not limited to ubiquitous computing in urban environments, tangible user interfaces, computer mediated communication, and how Irvine got to be such a bizarre planned community. "If this whole HCI thing doesn't work out, I'll likely spend my time snowboarding and running a pi(e) shop."