Anjali Muralidhar – website N/A
MIT Media Lab, Digital Intuition / MEng (only one year)

Experience
As a M.Eng student who was course 6-2 here at MIT, I've completed coursework in programming/computer science as well as some electrical engineering topics. I am familiar with signal processing and filtering. I have also completed and was a lab assistant for Microcomputer Project Lab so I am very experienced with microcontroller programming. From my time at Bing over the last two summers, I have worked with designers, as well as made design iterations myself, on many user-facing features.

Why
I saw the presentations by the folks at the Tangible Interfaces group during Sponsor Week this past April and was intrigued by the concept of physical interfaces. I've spent two summers working in user experience at Bing, Microsoft's search engine and have become very familiar with traditional web/tablet/mobile interfaces but never considered that the future of HCI could be user interfaces on physical structures. I'm very interested in the notion that people could complete tasks using the objects around them, rather than having to carry around a tablet or phone to get the same job done on some graphical user interface. I plan to work in Product Management on UX features, so I think this class can give me a very good idea of the limitless possibilities of what a UI can do.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Christian Ervin – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hm9aP0oI8
Harvard GSD, Responsive Environments and Artifacts Lab / MDesS Technology 2013

Experience
I am an MDesS student at the GSD concentrating in Technology. My background is in architecture (B.Arch Rice University), with side interests in music performance and computer science. I have experience with C#, Processing, Rhino/Grasshopper, basic electronics, Arduino, web design, and digital fabrication. I love making novel interfaces for the body, and I have mentored student projects in this vein at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. Last year, with a partner, I created a house design interface using the contortions of the face as the sole input device, using computer vision and face feature detection specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hm9aP0oI8. I am very interested in interface design and its applications in architecture. I hope there is room for me in the class, I am really looking forward to taking it.

Why
The subject matter of this class is highly aligned with my thesis topic: prosthetic technologies that serve as an interface between the human body and the built environment. The history of technology is a history of opportunistic augmentations of the body’s capacity to perceive and act in space. I am exploring the future of a more explicitly augmented body via technological prostheses, and how we might begin to view architectural objects themselves as prosthetic interfaces. Professor Ishii is a recognized expert in this field, and I am hoping his ideas will help shape my work. My intention is that the three projects contribute to the body of work that I present in my thesis.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Christine Hsieh – website N/A
Harvard-MIT HST - Health Sciences and Technology, Pain and Imaging / PhD6

Experience
As a child I dabbled in paint, sketching, fiber arts, clay, papers forms, poetry, and of course legos. Though I never got as skilled as my brother in creating wild lego machines, I have gone on to evolve my approach and experience in many creative realms - learning oil painting, wire sculptures, sculptural self-portraits, and at one point creating a group public art display entitled "Column of Crisis" (a support pillar in the MIT Stata Center covered in MIT's waste product to the ceiling). In terms of classes, I have taken programming classes in HS and college, electrical engineering courses as part of my graduate program, and an MIT studio class in architecture where we dealt with the interactions between space and form. I also participated in a one night competition at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center as part of a team of an SMFA artist, an MIT Sloan student, and an MIT science/engineering student, conceptualizing a new way that art could be consumed, disseminated, or explored (we won 2nd!). I feel passionately about evolving my creative self and process. Art, architecture, design and craft are all realms where I intend on continuing to grow my vision, knowledge and techniques as I go forward.

Why
There is a crisis in psychosomatic diseases now that arises from disconnection between the mind and the body; chronically not eating when you're hungry and not sleeping when you're tired are just two pieces of evidence. Medicines fail dismally at treating severe depression and anxiety disorders, and psychologists work commendably hard but are expensive in our healthcare system and not readily accessible in all places. In addition, the reality is that everyone's disease course and life runs quite differently such that ultimately each story will be unique, causing problems in generalizability of group treatment. We need to give patients the tools to sustainably grow their own story of healing. I aspire to be a leader in changing the way treatment for chronic diseases is carried out, with a much larger role of self-work with a supportive scaffold (interface) that is dynamic and life-like, as to be an indispensable aid to the growth of their coping capability. This could take the form of being able to put patient's thoughts into physical form and helping the shift from destructive to productive, or making essential supportive connections much more real in this increasingly remotely connected world, as the first two projects in this class. If we can give people something that draws them out of their mental merry-go-round and puts them back in the physical world at the moments they need it most, that could make all the difference. These ideas are what I hope to start working on in this class!

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Dan Sawada – http://www.dsworld.net
MIT Media Lab, Viral Spaces / MS1

Experience
I have pretty good experience with programming and hacking smartphones (both iOS and Android), as well as other software development in general. I also have very basic DIY electronics skills, as well as DIY furniture and woodcrafts and graphics/web design. However, I have no experience in art or architecture.

Why
The primary goal of taking this course is to learn how to design intuitive and catchy user interfaces for creating compelling research demos. With a background in computer science, I have mainly dealt with decentralized ad-hoc networks for the past few years. Now as being a new M.S. student at the Viral Spaces group, my goal is to create new concepts of how proximal communication between people and devices that are physically could make our lives better. There is no doubt how user interfaces play a major role in creating demos that could strongly influence people. As for the potential project ideas for this class, I wish to collaborate with designers and artists to create something that can replicate the sense of touch (texture, temperature, and stiffness) that has been remotely transmitted. Ultimately, I with to combine this with my potential robot that I’m trying to make in Neil’s MAS.863 class, which can senses and transmit “touch”.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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David Nunez – http://davidnunez.com/projects
MIT Media Lab, Person Robots / MS1

Experience
For 10 years, I ran a small software design studio and consulting practice where I built joyful apps, museum exhibits, and games for kids. I'm very comfortable with creative coding tools like Unity 3D, openFrameworks, Cinder, Processing, arduinos etc. My hands on craft & building skills are largely DIY and self-taught, but I have created exhibits and touchable interfaces (ex. multi-touch screens) in a professional context. I believe I would contribute some project management ideas to teams based on prior experience working on multidisciplinary projects & groups; however, I'm most excited about working with people that want to attempt to prototype some new and inspiring technological ideas. I feel I would learn quite a bit from counterparts who have a more artistic and design background.

Why
I've had much exposure working professionally on experience design projects (software apps, games, robots). However, I'm taking this course because I would like to learn from Professor Ishii some more rigorous approaches to design -- an area where I need growth. I'm particularly interested in the process of reading, notetaking, and digesting information for learning and creative endeavors. I use a fountain pen and notebook to take notes, but sometimes I find the experience frustrating as it lacks some affordances of computer text-based capturing. I'd be interested in working in this class to explore alternate modes, materials, and processes that help people collaborate more creatively using paper-centered infrastructure. For example, how can we merge the best features of physical books (ex. heft, spacial encoding of page turns, marginalia, book smells) with the best of eBooks (ex. searching, dynamic text presentation, multimedia) -- With Radical Atoms in the form of e-inks, smart paper, and even robotic origami, I think some innovation is within reach; eBooks among "real books" is an especially poignant topic lately. (Plus, I've had many former students strongly urge me to participate in this class to get a proper "Media Lab Experience" :))

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Eric Jones – website N/A
MIT Course 3 (Materials Science), Gradecak group (Laboratory for nanophotonics and electronics) / PhD4

Experience
Being in a materials scientist, my greatest strengths lie mainly in engineering and materials design and fabrication. I also have some experience and a general knowledge of computer programing and hardware design.

Why
As a materials scientist I feel that I am in a unique position of bringing vision into actuality. The whole reason that I wanted to become a materials scientist was because I recognized that often times the limiting factor in bringing people great ideas to life is the limitations of suitable materials. As such I would like to expand my own abilities to think outside of normal conventions about how technology is used in everyday life. Through this class I hope to learn how to develop ideas in a way that will serve as a guide for me in my future research as a materials scientist.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Hayoun Won – www.helenawon.com
Harvard GSD, ADPD(Art, Design and the Public domains) / MdesS2

Experience
Helena Hayoun Won is currently a designer at MDesS ADPD at Harvard GSD. In addition, she has worked as a designer in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab. She completed her Doctorate in industrial design from Seoul National University and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual communication and industrial design from Seoul National University. Over the past years, Helena has developed her career as a professional designer, compiling both solid academic and professional experience. Her works have focused on visual arts and visual design, industrial design in the realms of technology, industrial design, and art, and her projects are extensive and include subject matter related to fine arts, visual communication, industrial design, and user experience design. As a doctoral candidate in Seoul, she participated in visualizing and designing the future design project at the Future Concept lab and Samsung Design in Milan, Italy. Last year she contributed to a design project in MIT's mobile experience lab that focused on creative visualization related to the digital user experience and interaction between ecology and smart system design. Helena actively participated as a lead designer on several commercial projects with multi-national corporate clients. She observes user behaviors and desire and reinterprets them through the design of new hybrid objects with strong informative visualization and innovative creativity. She exhibited her work at the Milan Design Fair, Tokyo Design Festa, Korea Design Exhibition, and various other exhibitions around the world. (http://www.linkedin.com/in/helenahayounwon)

Why
Currently, she is researching about "smart aggregation interface between digital device and smart inner space" which is topic for her final thesis project at Harvard GSD. Thus, the class topic aligns well with her interest as well as her research. Plus, she is an enthusiastic and self motivated person with great teamwork skills and her ability to work efficiently under pressure will be a great asset in this class project.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Henry Skupniewicz – www.henryskup.com
MIT Architecture: Design Computation Group, Design Computation Group/Mediated Matter / BSA-Comp.

Experience
I have extensive experience in art, architecture, and design by being an architecture student and constant thinker about industrial design. I have a background in metal-work, stained glass, computer/graphic design, and architectural design. My time at school has taught me many fabrication skills including: CNC, laser cutter, water-jet, metal lethe, wood-working, metal work (hot and cold forming), casting, 3d printing. Over the past few years I have developed an appreciation for computer science, as well as expanded my software knowledge. I feel comfortable with: Python, Processing, Arduino, HTML, CSS, Grasshopper (for Rhino), and am learning: C#. While at school I have taken 4.500 and 4.501 (Larry Sass's fabrication courses), worked in the High-Low-Tech Lab on paper-based electronics, and now work in the Mediated Matter Lab on a low-res, super-rapid 3d printing technique. I hope that answers all your questions, email me if not!

Why
Hi! I'm Henry (the lone kid in class who wanted to become a professor) and I'm a senior within the the Design Computation Group. Though my interests are varied, they center around what I see as the opportunities for a constructive dialog between design-at-large (architecture, art, etc.) and computation-at-large (computer science, mathematics, logic, etc.). (I have been interested, for this reason, with the work of the Tangible Media Lab.) As I am in my senior year, I am in the process of beginning my thesis; luckily, I have developed an idea(one I hope and believe to be fairly robust) , and I hope that this class will help me develop this idea further as well as provide me with the proper conceptual, academic, and technological backgrounds necessary to make this thesis a success. (Very Quickly: my idea is to create an interactive tool to allow designers (as well as others)to interact with CAD software using a "cellular mass" of individual units that, through network/flock logic, can map their relative location and pass this information onto the computer. Not only would this allow for this "mass" to be digitally represented on the computer (ie. a 1:1 representation), the "mass" could pass on the spacial information to be interpreted, by the computer, in a more abstract way, yet to be thought of. Not only could this tool re-define data manipulation and human-computer-interaction, it could, with enough development, really push the boundaries between the "digital" and the "analog" by soliciting more intuitive and direct contact with the human hand.) I would be honored to join this class and learn so much form the TAs and Prof. Ishii. All the Best, Henry

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Jacqueline Kory – website N/A
MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group / MS1

Experience
Art: Although I haven't taken any formal art classes in years (exception: sculpture, three years ago), I sketch, draw, paint, and generally dabble in my free time. I've been told I'm good with colors. I've studied cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy. Programming: Best with C#. Decent with C++, Java, Lisp, Octave. Familiar with C, Haskell, Prolog. OSX/Windows/Linux; currently learning how to use Android phones as a platform. Familiar with AI, neural networks, OpenCV, behavior-based robotics, among others. Played with Arduinos before. Not an expert at electronic or mechanical tinkering, but I'm currently trying to learn. K'nex was my favorite toy as a kid.

Why
I want to take this class because it'll be fun. I'm excited about learning how to think about creating shared spaces and shared experiences, specifically in relation to learning-centric technologies. In the Personal Robots Group, we're developing social robots as learning companions and tutors. I think the visions of this class would be very beneficial to my research -- social robotics faces a lot of the same design challenges as any system in which people are interacting with digital information. How can this (human-robot) interaction be more natural? How can this (robotic) interface be more aesthetically pleasing and engaging? Even in our group, we have some robots in which the interaction is essentially point-and-click on a tablet. What new approaches are possible? I'm excited to learn about design principles in tangible interfaces/radical atoms, and to see how they can apply across to seamless interactions between humans as well as humans and robots. I look forward to bringing my ideas about interaction (human-human, human-robot, group interactions, etc), and a familiarity with studies of social cognition, perception, communication, and a whole lot of other cognitive science-related topics, to the class.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Jason Gao – http://jgao.org/
MIT CSAIL, LSP Group / PhD3

Experience
I've worked on various things involving EE, CS, and design. Some examples:

Interactive visualization of greenhouse gas emissions at Harvard (http://bit.ly/OZ9fcP).

Electronic and physical prototyping of a free-alignment urban EV charger (for MAS.552J). Circuit design and prototyping (sensor node modules, Arduino / other embedded dev, etc).

DIY hackery like adapting an analog telephone for Skype back before there were Skype telephones, a glass lantern with animated LED-lit glass beads, reverse engineering an ultrasonic parking sensor and building an Arduino-based decoder and wireless adapter for it.

Web stuff like nChooseTwo.com

Android apps and smartphone + hardware hacking for my research on building mobile distributed systems.

Why
I'm interested in cyberphysical systems and although I had not heard of tangible UI before, it seems to have the same aspirations of combining digital information and physical reality. Much current research is on sensing the physical world and turning it into digital information, but I would also like to work on the corollary: making digital information manifest itself in the physical world, and seamlessly manipulating entities through both physical and digital means. Some ideas: - allocating digital resources by redistributing water among glasses - manipulating clay with piezoelectrics and/or shape-memory alloys embedded to sense and apply stresses / transformations to a digital object, and vice-versa - mirroring physical objects in remote locations (color, movement, etc). Upon manipulating one, the other reflects those changes (representing "copies" of each other in a way / "quantum entanglement")

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Jesse Austin-Breneman – http://web.mit.edu/jlab/www
MIT Mechanical Engineering, Ideation Lab / PhD2

Experience
I am proficient at electronics and programming due to my undergraduate education in Ocean Engineering here at MIT. I am currently a design research graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department. Most of my experience however, has been through working on my own projects. I do a lot of woodworking at the Hobby shop and have experience with almost all types of machining and metal work. My current project is a children's book on typeface called "Are you my typeface?"

Why
I am starting a research project exploring the differences in design process and outcomes between electronic design notebooks and paper design notebooks. I want to take this class to identify the best user interfaces and opportunities for improvements in the electronic design notebook space. In comparing the two methods I hope to gain a better understanding of how team dynamics and collaboration change when information can be shared in new ways. As a secondary focus, I am also interested in applications that help you learn how to sketch. For example, a tablet app that lets you practice and improve your perspective drawing by giving you feedback on your drawing (ie: line did not go towards the vanishing point, etc.).

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Jonathan Speiser – website N/A
MIT Media Lab, Viral Spaces / MS1

Experience
I have considerable experience with Python and Java programming. I have also some experience working with C. I have made some small scale electronics projects for fun (e.g. a simple electric toy car). I am currently learning the Arduino platform to create more sophisticated projects and explore ideas.

Why
I eager to learn and I am motivated by the idea of creating more intuitive, physical interfaces that improve user experience. I am interested in the areas of health care and communication and my hope is the class will serve as an inspiration to spur my creativity in these domains.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Lauren Kim – www.laurenkim.com
Harvard GSD / MArch I, Thesis Year

Experience
I am a MArch I graduate student at the GSD with a BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design. In terms of professional experience, prior to the GSD, I worked at Smart Design and Frog working on projects that ranged from products, branding and digital media. In terms of digital media, my projects ranged from desktop applications to mobile devices and touch interfaces working closely with Analysts, Developers and Researchers as well as Product Designers and Engineers. In addition, I am currently a part time designer at IDEO Boston working as a [Digital] Graphic Designer and Environments Designer. My professional experience in Design Thinking has allowed me to utilize my skills in my architecture and design projects. I am proficient in Adobe CS, Rhino / VRay, AutoCad, Digital Fabrication and handmade crafts. I have very basic understanding of Arduino, Kinect and Programming.

Why
As a Masters of Architecture student, with a formal background in Graphic Design and professional experience in GUIs, I have always been interested in the melding of the two; the experience of movement though the digital / pixel environment and the spatial, tactile storytelling world of the built environment. This interest is now turning into my thesis topic which is focusing on the haptic interaction of "wearable architecture", with a specific interest in responsiveness of the body through technology, craft, material, and culture. The class Tangible Interfaces is exactly what I'm looking for as part of my thesis research curricula and I plan on utilizing my learnings from this course as a foundation for my final thesis for Spring of 2013. In addition, I have extensive experience in design and architecture, but less so in engineering and programming. I appreciate how this course allows people to connect with different backgrounds and hope that through its collaborate nature, I can learn through experimentation and prototyping in fields I normally am not exposed to.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Rob Hemsley – http://www.robhemsley.co.uk/tangible.html
MIT Media Lab, Information Ecology Group / MS2

Experience
My background is in Computer Science and Software Engineering and so the majority of my skills are within technical areas. Having worked as a commercial developer I have strong programming abilities covering desktop, web & mobile development. I also have experience with rapid prototyping and fabrication from CAD design and modeling to the physical manufacture of prototypes. This includes working with electronics and the production and design of PCBs. In terms of work within the areas of art & architecture I currently have little experience but hope that this class will enable me to start taking a more creative and less technically orientated approach within my work.

Why
Having come from a technical background I wish to take this class in order to have the opportunity to develop my creative skills and focus on projects which which are led by a vision rather than technology as I have done in the past. As a studio based class I'm also interested in being able to work with other from a variety of backgrounds having the chance to combine my development skills with others to build a variety of prototypes. I feel this class will give me the opportunity to develop many new skills helping to improve my concept development and produce more compelling project ideas. Within the class I’m interested in exploring how we can better mediate interaction between our digital and non digital objects and items with a specific focus on how the actions within our online environment are presented and mirrored within the physical world. I have undertaken previous work within this area using augmented reality and computer vision and so would like to explore this further within the class.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Samvaran Sharma – http://web.mit.edu/samvaran/www
MIT CSAIL, Robot Locomotion Group / MS1

Experience
If I had to describe my skill set in one sentence, it would be "an engineering and computer science foundation with a keen eye towards aesthetic appeal, neuroscience, and HCI". My education at MIT and my activities beyond have been a true reflection of this statement - I majored in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at MIT as an undergrad, and minored in Visual Arts (the ACT program - I tried to double major, but it was not offered as a major at the time of my graduation). I have plenty of experience in both the technical side of things (having been programming and making devices since I was a kid), and the aesthetic portion (I spend a good amount of my time doing freelance graphic design work as well), which makes me well-suited for this class. Yet perhaps the most relevant qualification I have is that I'm very interested in this topic. I've long been imagining ways for humans to interact with digital world and robots in more tangible ways (for instance, in 6.115, I created an interface that could control a remote control helicopter with accelerometer-based hand motions), and I would view this class as an amazing opportunity to explore more work in this field.

Why
Even as technology becomes an ever-increasing influence in all our lives, most of us are simply stuck, staring in at a beautiful digital world on the other side of a piece of transparent plastic or glass, with minimal interactions with a universe in which anything is possible. It's like someone gave you a big box of Legos and then only allowed you to build your creations with chopsticks. We've reached an age where our interactions with the digital world should be more seamless and tangible, rather than stuck to the paradigms of the 1970s. This class is a beautiful blend of art, science, and engineering that seeks to work on this exciting new problem space, and I would very much like to be a part of it.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Shawn Conrad – website http://linkedin.com/in/shawnrad
MIT Media Lab, The Educational Arcade / 6.P

Experience
Art: I have taken home-video lessons on how to draw, and have some basic experience with Photoshop. But otherwise, I am pretty novice. Design: I have taken courses & internships on user interface design and game design. DIY Electronics & Electrical Engineering: I have taken 6.01 & 6.02 as required for a 6.3 degree. Programming/CS: I have earned a B.S. in 6.3 and am currently seeking my M.Eng degree through the 6.P program.

Why
I want to take this class because I have exhausted the other HCI courses offered by Course VI and still require 1 HCI class to earn my M.Eng degree. Apart from necessity, I am interested in novel user interface design for use in educational games. My work with the MIT GAMBIT game lab and The Educational Arcade have given me insights into communicating through a digital medium, and I hope to use this course to experiment with tangible interfaces for learning.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Sophia Chang – website N/A
Harvard GSD / MArchI 6th Semester

Experience
Art is something I pursue as a personal interest through painting, drawing, and music composition. Most of my formalized experience of making comes from manual design/making of furniture, but, I have also worked with the breadth of CNC tools available at the GSD to create architectural models. I have been studying architecture for 7 years. I am comfortable in Rhino, CAD and Adobe software as well as some animating using 3dsMax. I have also worked in various offices from corporate to young and experimental where I have helped to design on the scale from towers to room/facade sized interactive installations. For some of these installations, as well as installations for courses, I have customized C# scripts to respond to movement and sound. I have never created a C# script from scratch. I am comfortable in grasshopper.

Why
For my thesis, I am exploring issues having to do with how architectural space can react to changes in perception, lifestyle, and knowledge created by digital space. Because the course situates itself between the digital and physical realm, I am immediately drawn to it as a possible means to experiment, and a place where I can contribute through my research. As one idea, I could potentially explore the creation of a research environment which organizes information in relation to the body's position in space. Not sure if this is the project, but my main interest is in digital becoming spatial rather than merely object or device.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Sujoy Kumar Chowdhury – http://sujoykumar.com/ux
MIT Media Lab, Speech+Mobility / MS1

Experience
I have both academic background and industry experience in programming applications (mostly for mobile devices) and iterative user centered design process. Last year, as a part of graduate course work, I implemented the prototype of a ring-fiducial based gesture recognition system using OpenCV and demonstrated its application using a driving game. I would embrace any similar opportunity to augment a game experience through a tangible interaction. Before coming to Media Lab, I was a Human Factors Design Engineer at NetApp, responsible for the user experience of their storage products. During summer 2010, as a User Experience Research Intern at Motorola, I implemented the prototype for Serendipitous Family Stories - a concept of asynchronous storytelling for increasing inter-generational communication. Extending that work, Motorola Mobility launched the public beta of StoryPlace.me - a new mobile service for story-telling and location-based discovery. Back in 2005, I led a student startup that came up with novel text input technologies in Bengali. Our products were launched by two telecom operators in Bangladesh.

Why
I want to take the Tangible Interfaces class so that I can validate my vision related to user interfaces. I am motivated enough to come back to graduate school from industry for the second time in order to implement at least one of my concepts in this domain. The interfaces I visualize will bridge the gap between interactions and tangible-world-affordances. For example: I am thinking of a pair of gloves with wearable electronics for intuitive interaction with a calculator, a calendar, a music application or with any device. I am interested in transforming any fluid (particularly ferro-fluid) into a user interface. Last year I implemented the prototype of a ring-fiducial based gesture recognition system using OpenCV and demonstrated its application using a driving game. I would embrace any similar opportunity to augment a game experience through a tangible interaction. I plan to team up with other media lab incoming students to participate in CHI 2013 Student Design Competition using the final project of this class.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Trygve Wastvedt – www.trygvewastvedt.com
MIT Architecture / MArch2

Experience
My undergrad background is in studio art (bronze casting, printmaking, ceramics) and math. Following that I was a resident artist for a year during which I developed a unique combination of traditional printmaking and bronze casting techniques. I am currently in my second year of the master's of architecture degree at MIT, during which I have been focusing on scripting and fabrication techniques. Most recently I worked with a team to design and build the Framework pavilion in front of building 33. I was responsible for writing the code to design the structure and to calculate the milling for the lap joints between each pair of posts.

Why
I am interested in creating interactive sculptures and architecture that use technology to respond to and interact with users and their environment. In the past I have studied sculpture, math, and computer science, all of which have funneled into my current study of architecture. I want to combine and expand these skills to add awareness to the objects that I design. In particular I am interested in installations which utilize interactivity to create a playful atmosphere which surprises and delights users.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Wenting Guo – www.guowenting.com
Harvard GSD, Master in Design Studies, Technology Concentration / MdesS1

Experience
I have a bachelor degree of Engineering in Industrial design in Beihang University in Beijing, China. My undergraduate study has equipped me as a designer with a deep understanding of integrated product development process and has helped me to develop a good graphic design skills. My past design works mainly stressed on the user-centered interactive element in the fields of product design. I've also worked at Microsoft Advanced Technology Center and Lenovo Corporate Research and Development as an User Experience and User Interface Intern, focusing on application design of mobile devices.

Why
I have some experience of working on traditional user interface design, and I can see it's now evolving into a more intuitive way of interaction, which is, interaction through tangible interface. I'm really interested in this transformation and wish to learn more about how the information displayed on 2D screen is able to be presented in a physical form.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Woongki Sung – https://dl.dropbox.com/u/39185526/Portfolio%20v1.pdf
MIT Architecture Department, Design Computation Group / SMarchS2

Experience
Before I got into the SMarchS program, I worked at the architecture firm in Korea as a designer for about 2 years. In those days, I participated in several architecture projects focusing on architectural planning. Since I got into the Master's program, I studied programming and basic electronics to explorer computational applications related to design. During the last year, I developed a kinetic facade using pneumatic sensors and other computational applications such as program plugins for digital fabrication and BIM integration. In addition, I have always had a great interest in crafting, so my previous works include design artifacts and new crafting methodologies. *Available skills: Rhino, Python, C#, 2D programs(Photoshop, Indesign and etc), and fabrication skills.

Why
My current interest is in exploring creative applications that can enhance design activity. Design itself is a highly creative and dynamic activity, but, in reality, we actually do designs in static and isolated ways; we sit in an office with the computer all day using 20-years-old mouse and keyboards interface, and communicate with other design parties via telephone, emails or intermittent meetings. In comparison to rapidly developing technology, our everyday designing process did not change that much. Viewing many projects of Tangible Media Lab, I became confident that I can learn and examine the potential of contemporary technology to make design activity more interesting and creative as it really is. In this class, I would like to explorer new design interface such as gesture-based input devices using motion sensors, and applications that enhance design-fabrication integrity. Besides these, I will investigate other ideas and possibilities with an open mind.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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Zachary Barryte – http://web.mit.edu/zbarryte/www/
MIT CMS/6.3, undergraduate researcher assisting Tangible Media Group / BS 2013

Experience
I have been drawing and painting from a young age. I also enjoy knitting and crocheting, especially gloves. I typically do not work from patterns, which is why I feel that I have more experience fabricating than designing. I've undertaken small wearable electronic projects and would like to undertake more of them. I feel very comfortable coding and I am confident I would be able to pick up any new language I would need fairly quickly.

Why
My work on t(ether) has made me become more interested in creating multi-user interfaces that allow users to create art through collaboration. I am especially interested in the applications of collaboration to animation. I would like to continue extending the the t(ether) system, and I would also like to explore how physical animation (stop-motion) can borrow ideas from digital animation (like key-framing). I would also like to see how t(ether) could be augmented by adding virtual or physical tools, like a paint-brush that could be used to paint the objects.

Art
Architecture
Craft/Fabrication
Design
DIY Electronics
Electrical Eng.
Mech. Eng.
Programming/CS

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