The Future Chinatown (Fu Chi) thesis team, Danny and I (Georgia) presented last Sunday at the PURBA workshop of the 9th annual Pervasive Computing Conference in San Francisco. Our invitation came after our paper, Fu Chi: A Mobile Communication System for Philadelphia’s Chinatown was accepted to the workshop. PURBA was organized by computer scientists at MIT to explore “the research challenges and opportunities in applying the pervasive computing paradigm to urban spaces. We are seeking multi-disciplinary contributions that reveal interesting aspects about urban life and exploit the digital traces to create novel urban applications that benefit citizens, urban planners, and policy makers.” We were thrilled at the opportunity, and our presentation (though it was only 10 minutes) was very well-received. There were many other interesting work presented, including a way to auto-generate content on public screens (making them more interesting and cutting costs), and how to use taxi signals to learn about traffic patterns.

After all the equations that were presented, we think the participants found our presentation very engaging and liked the change of pace, which focused on social aspects of the Chinatown neighborhood in Philly. You can read more about our thesis project at our website futurechinatown.com. In the general discussion after completion of all presentations, our project was often mentioned as an example of an application that was trying to solve a real urban problem, while many of the other projects used data that was available and applied particular mathematical models to see what could be revealed. Though we weren’t as familiar with all the technical concepts that were discussed, we felt that our project definitely fit with the theme and our work was a useful contribution to the work at the conference.

Of course we had to check out San Francisco’s Chinatown while we were there, it was beautiful, much bigger than Philly’s Chinatown, and much cleaner, but then that it may have something to do with the $1,000 fine for leaving trash on the street (in Philly it’s $300).

I also got to catch the kick off of San Francisco Design Week with a salon at Smart Design on Technology and the Meaning of Life. Panelists included several leaders of innovation at Smart Design and Allison Arieff, Opinionator columnist for the NYTimes who writes about design, architecture and sustainability. The topic aimed to explore how we can find meaning today when our devices and media seem to be demanding so much of our attention. Questions were raised about the fact that some of the most popular social media sites are aimed at helping us make decisions (Yelp, Bing, etc) but often what happens is we just use them to make decisions for us. The internet is now being shaped around what people search for the most, but does that mean we will no longer be able to come across something interesting and totally out of our comfort zone that could help us expand our perceptions? The head of Industrial Design at Smart talked about technology as a merry-go-round, where we have to jump on while it’s spinning slowly, then it starts going faster and faster until it throws us off, making it unlikely that we will get back on again. Most of the panelists have small children, and are making concerted efforts to limit the time they spend looking at screens during the day.

In all it was a fantastic trip, we’re very thankful MiD was able to help us get there and hope more students get to experience the same.

We, MiD, were offered the chance to display some of our work at the Museum and the Web reception a few weeks ago. Museum and the Web is a conference to showcase emerging technologies and their use in the museum context. We brought four projects to demonstrate and they were all a hit. We were told this was the best part of the whole conference. The response was so well, in fact, that some of the projects are pursuing further development with museums.

The projects included the Pixel, Collabritique, Art Amplified, Electrofolksonogram. Pixel allows you to see through someone else’s eyes. In this way it exposes what you are looking at to someone else. Creating a critical dialogue around the shared visual experience. Collabritique is an interactive environment where users can begin a conversation about an art piece. Art Amplified makes use of augmented reality, specifically the Layar app, to provide access to relevant contextual information about a given art piece. Finally, the Electrofolksonogram uses EEG technology to compare your brain waves and to your personal preferences to provide suggestions on other works that may be of interest to you. 

A few nights ago now some of the first alumni of the reframed MiD program returned to tell us of what it’s like on the outside. Frasier, Rachel, Garreth and Justin as well as a recruiter from MissionStaff named Megan Metz told us of their trials and conquests from the job hunt to their present projects. After which they fielded questions mostly from the trepidatious second-years who are finalizing their theses and beginning the interviewing process.

It was interesting to discover that though we are learning a human centered design process here, most of these graduates worked in a field labeled User Experience. While there did seem to be differences between these two labels, it was not clear exactly what these were. Axure, a software for wireframing and development, seemed to be the tool of choice for many aspects of their new jobs. The fact that there are many aspects to their new positions should also be noted. The graduates seemed to transcend this label pure user experience designer to step into multiple roles including research, information architecture, strategy and more. 

Overall the night was a success. Many of the current MiD students were in attendance joined with a few undergrads and fellow professors. It provided an interesting look at the developing creative environment we here are all preparing to enter. Discovering consistencies between their separate positions most of us now have a better idea of what to expect come graduation and how to craft our stories to market ourselves more directly to applicable positions.

The night ended positively with a lot of eager conversations and new connections; everyone seemed excited.

Last year, during a particularly low time in the economy, a group of MiD students came to the aid of their local university community here at UArts. They began working with the finance office to help improve their systems and discovered a fundamental issue. The school’s bi-annual presentations about the state of the school were bogged down with a lot of formal spreadhseets explaining, in possibly too much detail, the progress of the school. 

It was recognized that this means of communication was difficult for the visual people to follow and so MiD students Justin Witman and Fraser Marshall were tasked with the job of finding a better way to communicate this critical information that would make it more accessible and appropriate to the audience without compromising its integrity.

Working with the Vice President for Finance and Administration, Bill Mea, and one of the the graphic design professors here, Larry Bach, the group developed and iterated a more visual way of presenting the critical information. All the while maintaining a balance of the two mindsets of administrators, focused on details of the information, and faculty, focused on what this information meant for them.  The visual community appreciated this effort because it allowed them to see through the clutter and better understand the status of their business. 

It turned out that in the area of university administration this was rather pioneering work. So much so that the group was accepted to present their process at the annual meeting for the Eastern Association of College and University Officers in D.C. The presentation focused mostly on the process of developing this new visual method and was well received.

Overall the project was a success. The school community was better informed and Mr. Mea says he is very interested in continuing to employ the techniques developed for making his formal information more accessible. The school has also begun to realize the resources it has in its student body and build a more symbiotic relationship by providing the students more real world experience while helping the school improve.