Learning by Design^TM   (Ongoing Project) - guided by Janet Kolodner

Children learn best when they try out things with their own hands i.e. by doing. based on this idea, we are trying to teach basic concepts of physics to middle school children. The children get to build hovercrafts virtually using our software (Jacket's Garage) and learn about forces, friction and properties of air (that it can actually move things!). They then get to build mini-hovercrafts using artifacts provided by us and thus try out the design they had built in the previous stage. The next stage is to document their observations in the online journal (available in the software). They try to provide reasons for why something is happening (like - Why is the hovercraft moving faster on the smooth surface as compared to the rough surface?). At every stage proper scaffolding is provided so that the children learn the concepts right and are able to improve their mental model. It was realized in the last couple of sessions that providing real world examples (videos, simulations, etc.) while the children are building things helps clarify a lot of their doubts in a much better way and also helps them build a very good mental model of the task. They are able to draw abstractions from the real world examples and implement ideas in their mini-hovercrafts. I am currently creating the 'Case Library' which will have all these examples along with scientific explanations of the underlying physics. This Library would be integrated with the existing software so that the children can refer to the examples as and when they need during their design process. This would encourage them to think like the professionals (in the real world examples) and also help them connect what they are doing to something that's actually out there and working!

Social Learning of Object Affordances in robots - guided by Andrea Thomaz

In this Human-Robot Interaction project we studied the role of a social partner in learning affordances. We used an upper torso humanoid having 8 degrees of freedom (created out of parts from the Bioloid Robotics Kit) for this project. The context of the study was that Bioloid try to learn the affordances of objects by playing with them. It was to do this under two different conditions: social and non-social. In the first case, it interacted with a teacher who had control on the objects with which Bioloid was playing with. In the second case,  Bioloid had no teacher and it had to learn by itself. We compared the differences in learning under the two conditions and we investigated the ways people tried to teach object affordances to a robot. Conclusion: Learning with and without teacher are different but both scenarios afford unique learning opportunities and have their own set of advantages. In social learning, i.e. when people (or teacher) make things happen, learning progresses at a faster pace as compared to non-social learning. Bioloid playing with a round object

Investigating age-related differences in the effect of robot emotions on attitudes - guided by Dan Fisk and Wendy Rogers

This project investigated the effect of robot "emotions" on attitudes by measuring the performance of younger and older adults in a lego-building task. We used iCat to assess (via questionnaire) the effect of robot "emotions" on the participants attitudes toward the robot. I programmed the iCat to express various emotions and developed an interface which was used for getting the required data during the study. Different iCat emotions

Electronic Learning Communities - guided by Amy Bruckman

ELC research is inspired by an educational theory called Constructionism - the idea that people learn best when they are making something that is personally meaningful to them. Traditional research on constructionist learning tends to focus on individuals. ELC lab research studies how communities of learners can motivate and support one another's learning experiences. I am developing an application that will allow the user to build objects (e.g.: house, car, computer, etc.) from scratch using customizable building blocks of various shapes, sizes and colors. It would also allow the user to play around with images and make funny modifications (like make a moustache on a friend's photograph). The target user group are teenagers and anybody else who might be using Facebook and has interest in using the application.

Aware Chair - guided by Melody M. Jackson

The Aware Chair (in the Brain Research Lab)  integrates research in Direct Brain Interfaces with intelligent, content-aware communication, environmental control, and navigation systems that will make brain signal control easier for people with severe physical disabilities. I am studying existing environments and controls which can be used with a powered obstacle avoidance wheel-chair.

Tackling Childhood Obesity with Technology - guided by Bruce Walker

This semester long project addresses the widespread problem of obesity in children. The best ways to help children attain and maintain a healthy weight is through physical activity and nutritious eating habits. Our team came up with three very diverse design alternatives that directly addresses at least one of these issues. Finally, we prototyped and user tested one of the designs. (Find out more about the designs, technical issues etc...)

Family Message Center - guided by Bruce Walker

The idea behind this project is to develop a message center that could be used by a busy family to communicate, across time and across space. Some questions answered by this design include location of the device in the house, remote access,  type of messaging supported and modalities & interactions needed to support the requirement. (Find out more about target users, design decisions etc...)