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

Experience

My background is Electronics design.  I have an Electrical Engineering degree.

Why

I am interested in pushing the boundaries between physical and virtual interactions.  I would like to understand what prior work exists in this field and to explore concepts for future projects.

  

bfr@mit.edu

MIT Masters of Architecture Candidate, Thesis semester

Expertise

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

Experience

With an undergraduate degree in Design with a focus in Architecture and being an M.Arch student at MIT, I have gained a wide variety of  both digital and analog skills. I started with a background in art (mixed media and photography), from there studied design and architecture for 7 years, and have learned everything from operating manual tools in the woodshop, to graphic design and operating lasercutters, waterjet cutters, and other fabrications machinery and skills. I work in digital programs such as Rhino, Autocad and the Adobe Suite, but also work well with free-hand sketching and modeling. Anything artistic, you name it and I’ve probably dabbled in it!

Why

Since taking several classes in the MIT Media Lab as well as other cross-departmental courses, I have become very interested in learning more about hardware and software, and the interface where design meets technology which in turn meets the human user. With my design background in architecture I feel a strong connection in designing for people, and now I am hoping Tangible Interfaces will allow me the opportunity to learn and harness new skills to understand the digital aspect of human interaction design.

a_hashmi@mit.edu

MIT Media Lab, Center for Civic Media

Expertise

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

Experience

At the MIT Media lab, I am working on applying machine learning on large-scale journalistic corpora. Prior to MIT, I was a McCormick scholar at Medill (Northwestern) and a fellow at the Globe Media Lab (Boston Globe, NYTCO). I have worked as a software architect and development manager for Bell Canada, leading Business Intelligence and data integration teams in Toronto, Montreal, London (Ontario) and Bangalore. Apart from software engineering and journalism, I have also worked on some small-scale collaborative art projects.

Why

The proliferation of heterogeneous technologies in a digitally connected world requires new ways of using design technology to seamlessly integrate interacting media. I want to understand new forms of human technology interaction that are modular and technologically agnostic; in addition, I am interested in spaces that combine technology, art and design.

hs_yang@media.mit.edu
Speech + Mobility Group MS1 Media Lab

Expertise

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

Experience

I have a balanced background between media arts and programming. For the arts, I concentrated on digital imaging, video production, 3d modeling, and animation. I have experience in product design and fabrication as well. As for my technical work, my focus is in Augmented Reality, computer graphics and computer vision. I have some background in electrical and mechanical engineering; I have built simple robots in the past.

Why

I believe that having a tangible interface when interacting with devices opens up more realistic and intimate experience to the users than mere mouse clicking and typing. I am interested in creating a new tangible interface (particularly involving media technology) that could make such interaction even more interesting and personal yet practical.

Master of Architecture Candidate, MIT, Year 3                                          dmiranow@mit.edu

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

Experience

Lots of experience with fabrication and design at a range of scales. I take tremendous pride in my craft and enjoy making things. Strong skills in most fabrication tools- digital and manual. I am reasonably friendly as well

Why

I am very interested in Tangible Interfaces because I want to sharpen my ability to effectively communicate ideas. I have a deep curiosity in tools and processes, particularly those related to design, and I’d like to use this class to focus and develop these interests much further. Your comment about the ClearBoard being an Isotropic extension really excited me and I think research into the spatiality of interfaces could be very fruitful.

xuw714@mail.harvard.edu
www.xuwang.info
Harvard Graduation School of Education, Ed.M’14
Technology, Innovation and Education program

Expertise

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

Experience

My undergraduate is in educational technology, which is a combination of education and computer science. I’ve had  experience in developing Augmented Reality-based learning tools and designing educational games. I also took a lot of mathematics courses, and I had experience with data analysis and modeling.

Why

I like the idea of tangible interfaces, and I think it will be fascinating for students to use TUI-based learning tools, when their visual, audio and touching feelings are all involved in the learning process. I want to know more about the application and framework of tangible interfaces and see how to integrate the technology in learning to best serve learning objectives.

artem.dementyev.us
MIT Media Lab, Responsive Environments Group

Expertise

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

Experience
I did research in bioengineering (medical wearable devices) and electrical engineering (ubicomp hardware). I have experience in electronics (sensors, analog, RF) and programming of embedded firmware, android, and PC software interfaces.

Why
I want to explore the area of human-computer interfaces for my research. I am interested in new ways to present digital information to humans, especially using physical representations.  I want to take the class, because I feel that I lack the experience and formal training in designing of user interfaces. Most of my previous work has been around hardware, and only designing simple user interfaces.

mcx@mit.edu
MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory

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

Experience
As a mechanical engineer, I am familiar with the use of machine tools such as the drill press, lathe, CNC mill, as well as the 3D printer and laser cutter. I also have experience with mold casting of polymers and use CAD software (Solidworks) and MATLAB extensively in my research. My strong interest in DIY electronics has gained me an understanding of microcontrollers (i.e. Arduino, mbed) and how to interface sensors and actuators with them. I have also laid out and fabricated PCBs.

Why
I am very much interested in new ways of interacting with the digital world, and with the arrival of technologies such as the Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion, I believe that we will be seeing radical changes in this field in the coming years. Hopefully by taking this class, I will be able to use the information I have learned to further enhance the future of human-robot-interactions.

sangwon@media.mit.edu
www.sangww.net
MIT Media Lab, Fluid Interfaces Group / MS1

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

Experience
I have EE and Computer Vision background and has worked as a software engineer for 3 years. I developed an open-source DIY gaze-controlled controller for various PC use, and worked on lots of random NUI and Vision-based interaction softwares. Also I had/have strong personal interest in design and music so could be handy in some related stuffs.

Why
I am amazed by movies and stories about the worlds that doesn’t exist, full of magical artifacts and science fictions. I want to bring pieces of such cool stuffs into reality, by combining/intersecting technologies that blur the gap between the digital and physical worlds.

http://iiiss.com
wanli@brandeis.edu
Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Lab, Brain Computer Interface Group / MA2

Expertise

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

Experience

This is Wanli, a master student with Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Psychology background. I have experience with artificial intelligence, computer graphics, computer networks, databases, operating systems, and FPGA design. Currently I am developing a Brain-Computer Interface with machine learning algorithms for my thesis.

Why

I am working to apply principles of cognitive psychology to the design of human-computer interfaces, and I am interested in developing wearable devices and tangible products that could materialize digital information or virtualize physical objects.