updates - atlas instituteatlas.colorado.edu/wp-content/updates/updatesfeb2014web.pdf · updates....

February 2014

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Page 6University of ColoradoBoulder

U p d a t e s

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Mark Gross nameddirector of ATLAS

Randi Zuckerberg Kicks OffATLAS Speaker Series

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Aerial Dance AmongSpring Black Box Events

Mark D. Gross, a professor of computa-tional design at Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity who taught from 1990 to 1999 in the CU architecture, planning and design pro-gram, has been named director of ATLAS.

February 2014 ATLAS Updates University of Colorado at Boulder http://atlas.colorado.edu 2

Mark Gross named director of ATLASMark D. Gross, a professor of

computational design at Carn-egie Mellon University who taught from 1990 to 1999 in the CU architecture, planning and design program, has been named director of ATLAS.

“We are delighted to have professor Gross return to the Boulder campus as director of ATLAS,” said Robert Davis, dean of the College of Engi-neering and Applied Science. “He has a great vision for in-terdisciplinary education and research, which will engage stu-dents and faculty from across our campus.”

Gross also was appointed a professor of computer sci-ence in the CU College of Engineering and Applied Sci-

ence, which houses ATLAS.Gross is the co-founder of two Boulder-based companies.

Blank Slate Systems was founded in 2013 and creates soft-ware-based design tools such as a digital sketchpad that al-lows users to create blueprints for laser cutters. Modular Ro-botics was established in 2008 and makes robot construction kits for kids.

His research interests include design methods, modular ro-botics, computationally enhanced construction kits and crafts, sketch tools and applications, and human interaction with computers as an increasingly common experience in many aspects of the physical world.

In 2009, Gross received a distinguished teaching award from the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, which cited his efforts to bring women researchers into the field.

Gross has been a professor of computational design at Carn-egie Mellon since 2004. From 1999 to 2004, he was a profes-sor of architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

MARK D. GROSS

ATLAS People in the NewsDave Kalahar, who has been the sole ad-

viser for the ATLAS Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program for the past 15 years, has been presented the Chancellor’s Employ-ee of the Year Award. The award is presented to CU staff in recognition of exceptional job performance and distinguished contributions to the campus community. Kalahar currently is the adviser for more than 600 students. More information about the award is at http://bit.ly/1fIln0Z.

•Diane Sieber, the associate dean for educa-

tion in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, has received the annual Excellence in Leadership Award given by the system-wide Excellence in Leadership Program (ELP).

Sieber, who is a President’s Teaching Schol-ar, was co-director of the ATLAS Institute from 2000-2007 and is a member of the ATLAS Advisory Board. She was di-rector of the Herbst Program of Humanities in Engineering for five years. Before joining the engineering faculty, Sieber, who grew up in Spain, was an associate professor in the Depart-ment of Spanish and Portuguese. More information about the award is at http://bit.ly/1audufJ.

•Katie Ertz, who is the National Center for Women and

Information Technology’s operations director, is being hon-ored as a 2014 Distinguished Fellow by the Mississippi State Computer Science and Engineering Department. The honor is given to accomplished alumni. Ertz received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Mississippi State and her master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wiscon-sin at Madison. As a computer scientist, she brings an IT per-

Joel Swanson, who is the director of the ATLAS Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program, is the featured artist in an exhibi-tion entitled “Left to Right, Top to Bottom” Jan. 17 through March 30 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. Swanson, shown above working on the exhibit, explores language and its literal and sometimes physical forms. He stretches language to become an im-age, or multiple images, and uses the structures of grammar and composition as sources for creative production. Swanson received his MFA in digital art at the University of California, San Diego. A video of Swanson working on the installation above is at http://vimeo.com/84040162. A review of the installation by Denver Post fine arts critic Mark Rinaldi is at http://bit.ly/Lfo0vT.

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spective to the management and operations of NCWIT, which is housed in ATLAS. Ertz will travel to Mississippi State to receive the honor in March. She also will meet with women on campus to talk about computing opportunities.


AWARDED Ph.D.: Heather Underwood received her Ph.D. in Technology, Media and Society during ATLAS graduation ceremonies Dec. 19. Her dissertation was titled “The PartoPen: Using Digital Pen Technology to Improve Maternal Labor Monitoring in the Developing World.” Former ATLAS director John Bennett, at left, was her adviser along with Revi Ster-ling, who is director of the ATLAS master’s degree program. A video of her presenta-tion is at http://youtu.be/Gbxx-pmHt4w.

ATLAS Research Roundup

From Page 2Jill Dupré, who is the associate director of

ATLAS, has been honored with the Silicon Flatirons Alumni Award. The award is given annually to a CU Law School alumni who has stayed engaged with the Silicon Flatirons Center on many levels after graduation. The interdisciplinary research center focuses on

law, technology and entrepreneurship as part of the CU Law School. Dupré graduated from the school in 2006. She has been an outstanding mentor for students, supported the Dale Hatfield Scholars Program, and organized the United States Telecom Training Institute (USTTI) summer course with AT-LAS and the center. She also moderates at the Entrepreneurs Unplugged series offered by ATLAS and Silicon Flatirons, serves on the Silicon Flatirons board, and helps organize and moderate its Women in Technology Law Luncheon.

•Bruce Henderson, who is the communications director at

ATLAS, has a new photography exhibit during January and February at the Boulder Digital Arts (BDA) complex. The 30-photo exhibit is a three-year retrospective, including a new

ATLAS People in the News

collection of photos entitled “Rail Crossing” (above), which explores the decay and restoration of trains from a grand era of transportation. BDA was founded in 2004 and provides training in film, photography, design, technology and busi-ness. It also offers coworking office spaces. Henderson has been a member of BDA since 2010.

Ph.D. StudentsKara Behnke will be

presenting a paper en-titled “Must be 13 to Play: Addressing Chil-dren Participation in Networked Games,” co-authored with ATLAS Ph.D. gradu-ate Meg Ambrose, at the Foundations of Digital Games Conference. The re-search discusses how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COP-PA) creates regulatory requirements to protect children’s privacy online; however, many gaming services cir-cumvent COPPA regulations in their terms of service agreements, raising issues about the mobile gaming indus-try’s practice and legal compliance for children’s personal data-collection and online privacy. She also competed in the SIGCSE Student Research Com-petition, discussing her research in de-veloping SLASH, a Scratch-like visual programing environment. SLASH is a block-based programming environ-ment that congruently generates Lin-den Scripting Language (LSL) and allows users to import code into the virtual world Second Life. Prelimi-

non-majors. She also taught an “Hour of Code” to students at Monarch and Boulder high schools during Computer Science Education Week.

•Jiffer Harriman and

Michael Theodore, a music professor who is the director of the AT-LAS Center for Media, Arts and Performance, recently applied for a Research on Education and Learning NSF grant to explore the way the arts can be used to engage new student pop-ulations in learning computer science and engineering concepts. Harriman’s research platform prototype, which is targeted at engaging people in new ap-plications of technology, had its debut in a performance with the Boulder Lap-top Orchestra (BLOrk) last fall at Old Main. The ensemble used flashlights and light sensors to perform a new piece. He will be giving workshops on how to incorporate electronics into mu-sical interactions with SparkFun and the ideaLAB at the Denver Public Li-brary this spring and summer.

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nary findings suggest that incorporat-ing both block-based and syntax-based programming yields a better under-standing of computer programming to

teractive teaching methods, guest speak-ers and online sessions on topics ranging from democracy to social justice, critical thinking and information technology re-search. She is submitting documentation to volunteer at the Denver Women’s Cor-rectional Facility as part of an independent study working with the library and assess-ing the technology skills of the inmates. She also has been named the ATLAS rep-resentative for the United Government of Graduate Students (UGGS) at CU.

•Josephine Kilde had

a poster presentation in December at the Informa-tion and Communication Technology for Develop-ment (ICTD) conference in Cape Town, South Af-rica, where she also paid tribute to Nelson Mandela. She received funding from Los Alamos National Laboratory to go into fieldwork to collect data in support of building a Massive Open Online Course


ATLAS Research RoundupFrom Page 3

Lise St. Denis recently co-authored a paper with Amanda Hughes, Leysia Palen and Ken Anderson about the online commu-nications of fire and po-lice departments during Hurricane Sandy. The paper will be presented at The Human Factors in Computing (CHI) conference in April. She also is working on a paper about the sophisticated use of social me-dia by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Of-fice during the 2013 Colorado floods. The paper will be presented at the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Manage-ment conference in May.

•Megan Kinney is

teaching a section of The Meaning of Information Technology in the ATLAS Technology, Arts and Me-dia (TAM) program this semester. She is using in-

(MOOC) for professional development for K-12 teachers in Pueblo schools in New Mexico. She is in the field from February to July with the plan of testing the MOOC prototype in early fall 2014.

•Abigale Stangl is a col-

laborating author on a work in progress extended abstract, “NatureNet: A Model for Crowdsourcing the Design of Citizen Sci-ence Systems,” accepted by the Computer Support for Collabora-tive Work conference. This a collaboration with the University of Maryland, the Uni-versity of North Carolina and the Univer-sity of Colorado. She also is a collaborat-ing author on a work in progress extended abstract, “Tactile Picture Books for Young Children with Visual Impairments,” ac-cepted by the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction conference. She also has submitted another work in prog-ress on Tactile Picture Books to CHI.

Six students join ATLAS master’s degree program

The ATLAS Information and Commu-nication Technology for Development (MS-ICTD) master’s degree program has admitted six new students for the spring semester.

The program, which now has 20 students, prepares students to effectively leverage Information and Communication Technol-ogy (ICT) in underserved communities.

Corey Edwards is an academic coordi-nator and the tutoring director for the Uni-versity of Colorado Athletics department. Edwards is an graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, where he studied com-munication and journalism and received an M.S. in Sport Administration.

•Luke Groeninger received his Bachelor

of Science degree in Computer Science from CU. He also served in the United States Army for seven years, where he gained first-hand experience in internation-al development during his three deploy-ments in Iraq.

•Nalini Kaplan earned her B.A. in Inter-

national Studies from The American Uni-versity and a graduate certificate in Orga-nizational Development from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She has been a CPA, entrepreneur, management consultant, investor, educator, financial and business coach, wealth adviser and is cur-rently a strategist, marketing director, chap-lain and spiritual director.

•

Alexandra Martin worked as a research assistant while completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Her undergraduate work focused on the neurological processes of learning and memory. She is a game devel-oper and also has been a web developer in the Boulder area.

•Carolyn Moreau, who grew up in New

Zealand, is a journalist and filmmaker and currently works as a videographer in the communications department at CU.

•Joanne Reid has an undergraduate de-

gree in mathematics from the University of Colorado and has skied on the CU Buffs ski team.

EDWARDS GROENINGER KAPLAN MARTIN MOREAU REID

Spring ATLAS Speaker Series


The ATLAS Speaker Series hosts dis-tinguished visitors from academia, in-dustry and the arts as part of the ATLAS Institute’s mission to explore informa-tion and communication technologies and their effect on society. The talks are always free and open to he public.

The series is an educational resource for students, faculty and the larger com-munity to discuss the challenges, op-portunities and innovative applications of technology.

Unless otherwise noted, talks are pre-sented in ATLAS 100, Cofrin Audito-rium, ground floor.

•4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19

Jer Thorp works at the intersection of science, art and design. Stretching the possibilities of infographics, he will discuss data visualization, information design and opportunities to make data more meaningful and accessible.

•4 p.m. Monday, March 31

For 20 years, Ann Mei Chang has held leadership roles in the software engineering industry. As chief inno-

vation officer at Mercy Corps, Chang builds highly scalable social enter-prises and leverages mobile/Internet to improve the lives of the poor. At the U.S. Department of State, she served as the senior adviser for Women and Technology in the Office of Global Women’s Issues. At Google, she was a senior engineering director, leading product development for emerging

markets. She has also worked at Apple, Macromedia, Intuit and SGI.

•4 p.m. Monday, April 14

Interdisciplinary media artist and researcher Ruth West works with emerging technologies. She envisions a future in which art and science in-tegration allows people to open new portals of imagination, knowledge and communication. An associate profes-sor at the University of North Texas (where she also directs the xREZ ArtScience research lab), her work has been presented at SIGGRAPH, WIRED Magazine’s NextFest, UCLA Fowler Museum, CAA, the Nation-al Academy of Sciences, in the NY Times, Artweek and more.

•7 p.m. Thursday, April 10

Vladislav Delay (aka: Sasu Ripat-ti) experiments with ambient, broken beat, glitch and house music with soulful vocals – always searching for what’s never been heard. The talk is part of the CommuniKey Festival of Electronic Arts (CMKY).

THORP CHANG

WEST DELAY

WIRED LIVES: Randi Zuckerberg, an early executive at Facebook and the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, talked about how technology shaped her career and how it is affecting people, communications and careers during the first ATLAS Speaker Series presentation of the spring semester on Feb. 3. She is the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and editor-in-chief of Dot Complicated, a digital lifestyle website. As part of her appearance, she gave away 100 copies of her book, “Dot Complicated: Untangling our Wired Lives.”


AERIAL DANCE: Sonya Smith’s MFA dance

performance, entitled “Beneath the Text,” asked:

What if aerial dance did not always look effortless? What if we were all in the

stories? The performances on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1

in the ATLAS Black Box featured five dancers, four musicians, two composers

and video graphics. Smith is in the photo on the top left.


ATLAS Black Box Events ATLAS Black Box performances are produced by the ATLAS Center for Media, Arts and Performance and are free and open to the public. The theater is located downstairs, lowest basement level B2 in the Roser ATLAS building.

Pendulum New Music Concert Series 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26 The College of Music’s monthly concert series features original electro-acoustic music composed and performed by students, faculty and guests.

• BLOrk – The Boulder Laptop Orchestra 7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Feb. 28 – March 1 BLOrk will perform new works composed by ensemble members and fea-tured performers using traditional/acous-tic instruments blended with or modified

by controllers, laptops and software. •

The Brakhage Center SymposiumMarch 7-8 The Brakhage Center Symposium brings guest contemporary filmmakers, scholars, critics and curators to ATLAS and the CU Film Studies’ Brakhage Center, named in honor of Stan Bra-khage, an experimental filmmaker and CU instructor who died in 2003.

•The Pain of Becoming Multimedia concert with dance 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 4-5 This performance explores the threads that connect the ego to the self. Produced by College of Music doctoral student and ATLAS fellow Hugh Lobel, the performance features six musicians, four dancers and live, real-time video; choreography by CU MFA Chrissy Nel-son and videography by Kyle Monks.

Conference on World Affairs (CWA) April 7-11 The Conference on World Affairs, originally founded in 1948 as a forum on international affairs, now includes panels on the arts, media, science, di-plomacy, technology, environment, spirituality, politics, business, medi-cine, and human rights, all at different venues on campus, including ATLAS. Complete information and schedules are at http://www.colorado.edu/cwa.

• Communikey (CMKY)April 10 -13 The Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts will feature inter-disciplinary electronic artist perfor-mances at various Boulder locations including the ATLAS Black Box theater. Visit: http://cmky.org/festi-val2014/festival. There is a charge for attending some of the events.

SETTLE: Thirteen dancers from several generations used common symbols of domesticity and family tradition to ask questions about fundamental life choices – such as Do we settle down with someone? Do we follow our heart’s ambition? – in two productions of “Settle” on Jan. 17-18 in the ATLAS Black Box.


The Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) at the University of Colorado Boulder was established in 1997 as a campus-wide interdisciplinary initiative.

The ATLAS Institute is an inno-vative campus-wide initiative in edu-cation, research, creative work and outreach in which information and communication technology (ICT) is the enabling force. ATLAS programs

bring together students, educators, art-ists, writers, scholars and leaders from the academy, industry, non-profits and government to create a multidisci-plinary environment that contributes to the understanding of the interaction of ICT and human society, and to the realization of the full potential of that interaction. More information about ATLAS and its initiatives can be found at http://atlas.colorado.edu.

To contact ATLAS, call 303-735-4577 or e-mail [email protected]. Follow ATLAS on the Web on a vari-ety of platforms:

University of ColoradoBoulder

ATLAS Institute

FUN FIRST: ATLAS director Mark Gross talked about com-bining fun, learning and entrepreneurship during the opening celebration of St. Vrain School District’s Innovation Center Jan. 30 in Longmont.

ATLAS director Mark Gross spoke about education, invention and entrepreneurship during the open house launch of the St. Vrain Valley School District’s Innovation Center Jan. 30 in Longmont.

The center gives Skyline High School students access to a 3D printer, a scanner, a laser cutter, a paint room and other high-tech resources to invent and build prototypes as part of a federal Race to the Top grant received by the St. Vrain Valley School District. The center also gives students a chance to collaborate with busi-nesses to develop apps, websites and more.

The $16.5 million grant supports science, technology, engineer-ing and mathematics (STEM) education and also funded Sky-line’s STEM Academy, which now has 400 students.

Gross noted the parallels between ATLAS programs and the In-novation Center, including the relationships between having fun, education, making and inventing, and entrepreneurship.

Gross also talked about co-founding two Boulder-based compa-nies: Blank Slate Systems, which creates software-based design tools such as a digital sketchpad that allows users to create blue-prints for laser cutters, and Modular Robotics, which makes robot construction kits for kids.

ATLAS director Gross speaksat opening of Innovation Centerin St. Vrain School District

CAPSTONE PRO-JECTS: A variety of ATLAS student projects, including original videos and interactive websites, are now online at http://bit.ly/1fhtLAN. The projects are from ATLAS capstone courses during the fall semester.

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