Henneman, a 1985 Ph.D. graduate of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has extensive corporate HCI experience at NCR (director of user-centered design and director of corporate usability), marchFIRST (director of information architecture), Internet Security Systems (chief information architect and manager of usability and user experience), and AT&T (principal – user experience research). He has also worked as an independent consultant and at Georgia Tech in research, administration, and management of an interdisciplinary MS degree program.
GT's MS-HCI degree, established in 1997 with support from the Sloan Foundation, is widely considered to be one of the best HCI programs in the world. The program graduated it first class in 1998 with three students. This year, the program will graduate 34 students with 40 slated for next year.
Coursework includes HCI principles and practice plus next-generation computationally-mediated application areas such as ubiquitous and mobile computing, learning science and technology, information visualization, civic media, augmented and virtual reality, interactive TV, interactive narrative, and embedded computing product design. All students complete a capstone project with a Tech faculty member.
In accepting the opportunity, Henneman said: "I am so enthused about returning to Georgia Tech to lead this outstanding program. I am especially excited about the chance to work with the students, faculty, industry partners, and alumni."
“Graduates are in high demand, as companies seek to enhance their web presence and develop innovative new computer-enabled devices, games, toys, appliances, and services,” said Jim Foley, the current director who will continue to work with the program in his role as IC faculty coordinator. “Our program is widely considered to be one of the best in the world; Dick is the right person to maintain and enhance that reputation."
School of Interactive Computing Chair Annie Anton, speaking on behalf of the four schools offering the degree, said: "It is wonderful to have Dick back at Georgia Tech to take this prestigious program to even greater prominence!"
]]>News and Media Relations Manager
]]>In the school’s new Interactive Product Design Lab, Budd’s students work together with students from the College of Computing’s GVU Center to put digital tools to practical use in everyday products. In the lab, the students design games, kitchen utensils and appliances, museum tour equipment and other products.
“It would have taken the GVU students several days to build these models,” Budd said, noting the detailed cuts of the dinosaur figure for the color-sorting game. “With our students and tools on hand, they can laser cut the perfect pieces or rapid prototype 3D assemblies in just a few minutes.”
Likewise, it would have taken his industrial design students considerable time and effort to design and program the sensors needed to operate the more complex games and product systems; thus, the necessity of teamwork.
Recognizing this convergence of expertise, Georgia Tech this semester added Industrial Design as the fourth partner in the interdisciplinary Masters of Human-Computer Interaction (MS-HCI) degree, which focuses on bringing together the broad mix of practical skills and theoretical understandings required to design and implement modern human-computer interfaces.
Georgia Tech has offered the MS-HCI degree since 1997. Until this semester, the degree was offered jointly by the School of Interactive Computing (IC); the School of Literature, Media and Communication (LMC); and the School of Psychology. The addition of a fourth partner – the School of Industrial Design, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary – made perfect sense to the degree coordinators.
“From my perspective, it’s a logical thing to happen, and we need a focus on bridging the gap between the physical and the digital,” Budd said. “Over the last 15 years, the merging of technology between physical and digital has grown dramatically.”
Professor Jim Foley, who helped start the degree and is now director, calls it “a natural marriage.”
“The marriage of ID and HCI is driven by computers being embedded in all types of physical products and forms like toys, exercise equipment, ATMs, wearable devices such as glasses and watches and body function sensors, and on and on and on,” Foley said. “So it is only natural that designing things containing computers draw on the skills of both disciplines.”
When computers were first placed into general household and personal objects, little consideration was given about exactly how to incorporate digital elements into the products. But as computing became more ubiquitous, it became evident that more thought, research and care had to be put into creating the whole product as a team and not designing each element independently.
While the computing side brings in the digital elements, the industrial design side has to consider the elements of user experience including form, aesthetics, ergonomics, human factors, materials and even the actual assembly of the product.
And with the MC-HCI program, students – no matter their initial school affiliations – gain full exposure and expertise with all of it.
All 65 of the students enrolled in the program take a common core curriculum , specialization electives from their individual schools, and general electives from the nearly 100 HCI-related courses offered by the four participating schools plus courses in Management, Music Technology, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and even International Affairs . The students do an internship between their first and second years, and work with one of the nearly 50 HCI-related faculty on a master’s project in their second year. They also interact with Atlanta’s lively community of HCI and UX practitioners.
Students interested in applying to the program can visit the online application available here.
]]>Jonathan Colton, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project focused on designing a net-zero energy warehousing and distribution system for vaccines and drugs in developing countries. Net-zero energy describes a building with no net energy consumption and no carbon emissions measured on an annual basis.
In addition to Colton, immunization logistics consultant John Lloyd, architect Andrew Garnett and Solar Electric Light Fund project manager Steve McCarney will also contribute to the project.
The project was one of more than 100 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced May 9, 2012.
“Grand Challenges Explorations encourages individuals worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas where creative, unorthodox thinking is most urgently needed,” said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery and Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We’re excited to provide additional funding for select grantees so that they can continue to advance their idea towards global impact.”
The goal of the Georgia Tech project is to develop the design and engineering specifications for a new, energy-optimized warehousing and distribution system for vaccines and drugs. In low- and middle-income countries, vaccines and drugs are often stored in older buildings that are inefficiently laid out and wasteful of energy. In these countries, warehousing and distribution costs can amount to 20 percent of drug and vaccine supply costs.
“We plan to demonstrate that energy-efficient, state-of-the-art warehousing systems can eliminate or greatly reduce the operational energy costs for storage and distribution of vaccines and drugs in developing countries with challenging climates,” said Colton.
According to Colton, to be successful the new warehousing system will need to:
“Once we create the design and engineering specifications for this new warehousing and storage system, we plan to select an industry partner to build and test the system in a developing country such as Tunisia,” added Colton.
About Grand Challenges Explorations: Grand Challenges Explorations is a $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, more than 600 people in 45 countries have received Grand Challenges Explorations grants. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.
Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contacts: Abby Robinson (abby@innovate.gatech.edu; 404-385-3364) or John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu; 404-894-6986)
Writer: Abby Robinson
]]>The students are part of Associate Professor of Industrial Design Jon Sanford’s universal design class. Sanford, who also serves as the director of the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access, identifies projects for his students to implement universal design principals. These principals focus the students on finding design solutions that enable everyone to use a physical space, product or interface.
“The focus of the class is in universal design, which is not just about access for people with disabilities,” said Sanford. “Our focus is on making the environment usable for everyone, including those with disabilities. So we looked at these challenges from the broader perspective of all travelers including those that would have limitations in mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive function.”
Sanford worked with airport officials to identify areas – such as ticketing, the transportation mall, gate areas, and food courts – where they had concerns about usability and accessibility for travelers. He then split the class into two groups and let the students choose which areas they were most interested in working on.
The first group decided to focus on the redesign of the airport’s comprehensive information and way finding system, including how travelers obtain information about the airport, their flight, destination locations (food, restrooms, etc.) and how to navigate from one point to the next. The second group addressed the design of the food court area in one of the airport’s concourses and the challenges that individuals and groups have when they are using these areas. The students’ first task was to identify the usability issues in each area for travelers with different functional abilities (e.g., have a disability, carrying luggage, traveling with children, in a hurry, etc.) based on the 7 Principles of Universal Design, a set of guidelines that Sanford helped develop. The challenge of each project was to develop new designs that were usable by everyone.
“We’re looking at implementing a comprehensive system that will include a mobile app that you can download and use on your personal device, kiosks that will be located throughout the airport that assist travelers with finding their way through the airport as well as locating key areas and a redesign of the signage throughout the airport including the train system, ” said industrial design graduate student Laura Bowers. “All of these systems will be linked together, so as you’re walking or moving throughout the airport you can send and receive signals and determine where you are, where you’re going and how long it will take to get there to really improve the experience of the traveler.”
The group taking on the food court design challenges looked at different design options that would make that area more efficient and user friendly.
“The task we were given was to look at and redesign one of the airport’s food courts,” said Kyla DeWees, an undergraduate industrial design student. “We looked at how to make the food court experience more enjoyable for the travelers. We needed to redesign the food court in a way that was more universal, so anybody would feel comfortable and enjoy their experience in the food court.”
The students’ designs ranged from new stools, chairs and tables that were more accommodating for travelers’ luggage to a new modular system for handling trash and recycling that utilized wasted space around the columns. The new furniture had improvements such as simple hooks on the tables and protective shields on the lower backside of the chairs to help keep luggage secure.
The students were not given a budget for their designs, but did try to keep their recommendations realistic. Jim Drinkard, Atlanta Airport’s assistant general manager for planning and development, said that the Georgia Tech students provide a valuable perspective.
“For the second consecutive year, we’ve had a group of students come in who have taken a totally fresh look at the airport,” said Drinkard. “These students bring in a perspective not only from a customer viewpoint, but because of their chosen profession, they are really looking for new and innovative ways to improve the customer experience here.”
Drinkard added, “I think it gives the students very real-life, non-textbook opportunities to show their creativity.”
Although the students’ recommendations may not be implemented, students agree that presenting designs to the professional staff at the airport was a great experience.
“It was really neat talking with real professionals in the airport and hear their input on our ideas,” said Bowers.
“It was a really cool experience,” said DeWees. “You really see the challenges that the airport faces. You don’t think about it sometimes when you’re in and out and you’re running around, but when you are actually able to go and focus on what’s going on you, realize there are some design problems. You realize that we need to help them with that. We need to get these people in and out and feeling comfortable and safe as they’re experiencing the airport.”
]]>Suman Das, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has developed an all-digital approach that allows a part to be made directly from its computer-aided design (CAD). The project, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has received $4.65 million in funding.
“We have developed a proof-of-concept system which is already turning out complex metal parts, and which fundamentally transforms the way that very high-value castings are made,” said Das, who directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory in Georgia Tech’s Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC). “We're confident that our approach can lower costs by at least 25 percent and reduce the number of unusable waste parts by more than 90 percent, while eliminating 100 percent of the tooling.”
The approach being utilized by Das and his team focuses on a technique called investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting. In this process, which dates back thousands of years, molten metal is poured into an expendable ceramic mold to form a part.
The mold is made by creating a wax replica of the part to be cast, surrounding or "investing" the replica with a ceramic slurry, and then drying the slurry and hardening it to form the mold. The wax is then melted out – or lost – to form a mold cavity into which metal can be poured and solidified to produce the casting.
Investment casting is used to create precision parts across diverse industries including aerospace, energy, biomedical and electronics. Das’s current efforts are focused on parts used in aircraft engines. He is working with turbine-engine airfoils – complex parts used in jet engines – in collaboration with the University of Michigan and PCC Airfoils.
Today, Das explained, most precision metal castings are designed on computers, using computer-aided design software. But the next step – creating the ceramic mold with which the part is cast – currently involves a sequence of six major operations requiring expensive precision-machined dies and hundreds of tooling pieces.
"The result is a costly process that typically produces many defective molds and waste parts before a useable prototype is achieved," Das said. "This trial-and-error development phase often requires many months to cast a part that is accurate enough to enter the next stage, which involves testing and evaluation."
By contrast, Das’s approach involves a device that builds ceramic molds directly from a CAD design, completing the task much faster and producing far fewer unusable parts. Called Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization (LAMP), this high-resolution digital process accretes the mold layer by layer by projecting bitmaps of ultraviolet light onto a mixture of photosensitive resin and ceramic particles, and then selectively curing the mixture to a solid.
The technique places one 100-micron layer on top of another until the structure is complete. After the mold is formed, the cured resin is removed through binder burnout and the remaining ceramic is sintered in a furnace. The result is a fully ceramic structure into which molten metal – such as nickel-based superalloys or titanium-based alloys – are poured, producing a highly accurate casting.
“The LAMP process lowers the time required to turn a CAD design into a test-worthy part from a year to about a week,” Das said. “We eliminate the scrap and the tooling, and each digitally manufactured mold is identical to the others.”
A prototype LAMP alpha machine is currently building six typical turbine-engine airfoil molds in six hours. Das predicts that a larger beta machine – currently being built at Georgia Tech and scheduled for installation at a PCC Airfoils facility in Ohio in 2012 – will produce 100 molds at a time in about 24 hours.
Although the current work focuses on turbine-engine airfoils, Das believes the LAMP technique will be effective in the production of many types of intricate metal parts. He envisions a scenario in which companies could send out part designs to digital foundries and receive test castings within a short time, much as integrated-circuit designers send CAD plans to chip foundries today.
Moreover, he said, direct digital manufacturing enabled by LAMP should allow designers to create increasingly sophisticated pieces capable of achieving greater efficiency in jet engines and other systems.
“This process can produce parts of a complexity that designers could only dream of before,” he said. “The digital technique takes advantage of high-resolution optics and precision motion systems to achieve extremely sharp, small features – on the order of 100 microns.”
Das also noted that the new process not only creates testable prototypes but could also be used in the actual manufacturing process. That would allow more rapid production of complex metal parts, in both low and high volumes, at lower costs in a variety of industries.
“When you can produce desired volumes in a short period without tooling,” he said, “you have gone beyond rapid prototyping to true rapid manufacturing.”
The project depicted in this article is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the content of this article does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986)(jtoon@gatech.edu) or Abby Robinson (404-385-3364)(abby@innovate.gatech.edu).
Writer: Rick Robinson
]]>Research News & Publications Office
(404) 894-6986
]]>Open to all Georgia Tech students and recent alumni, the I2S competition involves innovative business concepts that could help improve society or preserve the environment. The finals were held on April 4 following a poster showcase on April 2.
Mekong Green Tech includes mechanical engineering majors Chris Quintero and James Baunchalk, environmental engineering major Hannah Kates, and industrial design major Ali Perry. They won $2,000 for first place as well as $250 in the People's Choice category.
Already Making a Difference
While some competing teams are still in the conceptual stages, Mekong Green Tech is already making its business a reality. Its technology helps solve pollution problems related to brick-making techniques in rural Vietnam through the use of simple, low-cost gasifiers. Retrofitting a kiln with this kind of gasifier eliminates air pollutants and offsets up to 300 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
The team explained that instead of using clean-burning furnaces, rural industries tend to rely on burning biomass. "This inefficient combustion produces incredible amounts of air pollution, damaging health, stunting crop growth, and wasting money," according to the Mekong Green Tech Website. "The situation is particularly bad with the brick-making industry. Worldwide CO2 emissions from brick kilns – 180 million tons yearly – are one third of the emissions of the global airline industry."
Collaboration between Georgia Tech engineers and ENTERTEAM, a Vietnamese partner organization, led to the development of a gasifier model built with local materials and expertise. This technology would save operators more than 25 percent in yearly fuel costs and ease pressure from the Vietnamese government, which has cracked down on the rural brick-making industry because of pollution.
Mekong Green Tech, which also won third place in the Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition, is working on a number of pilot installations with the goal of a widespread roll-out later this year. Marc-Antoine Pare, who graduated with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Tech in fall 2010, is already working in Vietnam on the project. "In the Mekong Delta alone, over 10,000 small businesses stand to benefit," the team says.
Other Winners
The second-place winner ($1,500) in I2S was CyborFusion, which has developed a bionic glove that will function as both a myoelectric hand orthotic for those who have a disability and an affordable myoelectric prosthetic for those who have an amputation below the elbow.
Tied for third ($1,000) were Tubing Operations for Humanitarian Logistics (TOHL) and Team Power. TOHL is developing a fluid transportation system that could deliver large quantities of water over significant distances in disaster-hit areas. Team Power, which also won the Liam Rattray Social Courage Award ($500) and Best Video ($250), is developing a power generation/storage system to provide cold storage of vaccines in developing countries.
Hub Atlanta provided two service-package prizes. One worth $1,600 for Most Market-ready went to Sanivation, which aims to improve sanitation in developing countries through the collection and solar-energy treatment of human feces (for future sale as fertilizer). The other service package (worth $1,575) was for Best Idea, and it went to CyborFusion (described above).
Eighteen teams (with a total of 41 participants from multiple Colleges at Tech) competed in the preliminary round, before getting narrowed down to seven in the finals. More than 25 judges were involved in the competition, representing innovative businesses and social enterprises.
A series of workshops leading up to the competition helped students prepare, and they received guidance from business-community mentors. The competition is organized by Georgia Tech's Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ILE).
I2S was sponsored by Gray Ghost Ventures, HUB Atlanta, and MaRC Sustainable Design & Manufacturing as well as Tech's ILE, College of Management, and the Tedd Munchak Chair in Entrepreneurship.
]]>The gadget was successfully used by individuals with limited feeling or movement in their hands due to tetraplegia. These individuals had sustained their injury more than a year before the study, a time frame when most rehab patients see very little improvement for the remainder of their lives. Remarkably, the device was primarily used while the participants were going about their daily routines.
The device is called Mobile Music Touch (MMT). The glove, which looks like a workout glove with a small box on the back, is used with a piano keyboard and vibrates a person’s fingers to indicate which keys to play. While learning to play the instrument, several people with SCI experienced improved sensation in their fingers.
Researchers at Georgia Tech and Atlanta’s Shepherd Center recently completed a study focusing on people with weakness and sensory loss due to SCI.
“After our preliminary work in 2011, we suspected that the glove would have positive results for people with SCI,” said Ph.D. graduate Tanya Markow, the project’s leader. “But we were surprised by how much improvement they made in our study. For example, after using the glove, some participants were able to feel the texture of their bed sheets and clothes for the first time since their injury.”
Markow worked with individuals with SCI who had limited feeling or movement in their hands. Each suffered a spinal injury more than a year prior to the study. The eight-week project required study participants to practice playing the piano for 30 minutes, three times a week. Half used the MMT glove to practice; half did not.
The MMT system works with a computer, MP3 player or smart phone. A song, such as Ode to Joy, is programmed into a device, which is wirelessly linked to the glove. As the musical notes are illuminated on the correct keys on the piano keyboard, the gadget sends vibrations to “tap” the corresponding fingers. The participants play along, gradually memorizing the keys and learning additional songs.
However, these active learning sessions with MMT were not the primary focus of the study. The participants also wore the glove at home for two hours a day, five days a week, feeling only the vibration (and not playing the piano). Previous studies showed that wearing the MMT system passively in this manner helped participants learn songs faster and retain them better. The researchers hoped that the passive wearing of the device would also have rehabilitative effects.
At the end of the study, participants performed a variety of common grasping and sensation tests to measure their improvement. Those who used the MMT system performed significantly better than those who just learned the piano normally.
“Some people were able to pick up objects more easily,” said Markow. “Another said he could immediately feel the heat from a cup of coffee, rather than after a delay.”
Markow believes the increased motor abilities could be caused by renewed brain activity that sometimes becomes dormant in persons with SCI. The vibration might be triggering activity in the hand’s sensory cortex, which leads to firing in the brain’s motor cortex. Markow would like to expand the study to include functional MRI results.
The glove has evolved in recent years under the leadership of Georgia Tech’s Thad Starner and Ellen Yi-Luen Do, as well as Deborah Backus, director of multiple sclerosis research at Shepherd Center. The initial concept, Piano Touch, developed with the team by then master’s student Kevin Huang, demonstrated that people could easily learn to play the piano by wearing the glove and feeling its vibrations. It didn’t take long for Starner to see the larger health benefits.
“Equipment used for hand rehabilitation may seem monotonous and boring to some, and doesn’t provide any feedback or incentive,” said Starner, who oversees the Contextual Computing Group. “Mobile Music Touch overcomes each of those challenges and provides surprising benefits for people with weakness and sensory loss due to SCI. It’s a great example of how wearable computing can change people’s lives.”
Starner is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing. Do is a professor in the Schools of Interactive Computing and Industrial Design.
]]>]]>
The event — whichcalls itself “a celebration of all things DIY” — will feature the skills and creationsof a variety of makers from the region, including blacksmithing, kineticsculptures, robots and 3D printers. About 50 makers will be in attendance withtheir wares, including many from the Tech community. This smaller version oflarger Maker Faires that have been held in Detroit, New York and California givesthe event its “mini” moniker.
“I thought Atlanta would be a great place for a Mini MakerFaire because there haven’t really been any in the South before, and I know theSouth is filled with just as many makers and crafters as the rest of thecountry,” said Eric Weinhoffer, the ME student organizing the event. “GeorgiaTech is an extremely good location to host an event like this, thanks to thetechnological advancements that come out of the Institute every year. Theschool itself is an inspiration to makers.”
The event is free to attend and will welcome students,faculty, staff and guests in the Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex (MRDC)parking lot, Saturday, Sept. 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most makers will beexhibiting their work, but some will have creations for sale as well. To learnmore about the makers who will be in attendance, visit the Atlanta Mini MakerFaire website.
]]>Kristen Shaw
Communications and Marketing
The Festival will feature a variety of arts experiences at both indoor and outdoor venues. The work can be independently produced by students or faculty affiliated with Georgia Tech or produced as part of an academic or research project. Projects can showcase the convergence of art and science/technology, or be solely artistic in nature.
Exhibit proposals can be submitted at http://arts.gatech.edu/content/techarts-exhibition and performance proposals at http://arts.gatech.edu/content/techarts-performance. The deadline for full consideration of submissions is February 15.
“This is a Georgia Tech arts festival, so while we expect some projects will feature the very talented musicians or visual artists who are part of the Tech community, other projects will showcase the coming together of arts and technology,” explains George Thompson, Director of the Office of the Arts and Festival producer. The Festival is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Council of the Arts and the Office of the Arts. The annual event is open to the campus and the Atlanta community.
The 2013 Festival coincides with the annual Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Events already slated for the festival include Student View, a visual art exhibition by freshmen in the Writing Communication Program, a concert by the Georgia Tech School of Music, the musical production of DramaTech’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, selected works from the Art Crawl sponsored by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center, and Automaton, a graduate project featuring dance and robots. Please call 404-894-2787 for more information.
]]>