The energy that makes ATLAS an interesting and exciting environment is the result of countless individual achievements and shared experiences. Our community is gathering momentum because of creative students and faculty who regularly exercise their insatiable appetites for exploration, invention and creative expression.听Below are 10 highlights from the past year that provide a sense of this dynamism. For a higher-resolution view on what makes ATLAS tick, come spend time with us in 2017.
10. Roser ATLAS Center Just Turned Ten Years Old!
Opened in fall 2006, the Roser ATLAS Center turned 10 in October. While the institute was launched in the late 鈥�90s, having the space to focus activities was the key catalyst for growth. And that hasn鈥檛 changed: As we begin the short winter break, a rapid round of renovations is under way, creating more labs and creative studios for our faculty and students.
9. Active Artist Community
Many members of the ATLAS community maintain professional lives in the creative and performing arts. Here are nine individuals who exhibited or participated in events from 麻豆影院, to Barcelona to St. Petersburg, Russia in 2016:
- TAM Director Matt Bethancourt attended听, Barcelona
- Jiffer Harriman, who completes his doctoral program at ATLAS this December, presented听听at 麻豆影院 Library, in collaboration with several others, including these ATLAS community members: lecturer Jenny Filipetti, lecturer and graduate student Danny Rankin, and Ph.D. student Abhishek Narula.听
- MS Creative Technology and Design student Monica Bolles presented Research ReSounds at听.
- ATLAS CMAP Director Michael Theodore presented听听at David B. Smith gallery in Denver.
- TAM Instructor Kevin Hoth听presented听, a pop-up exhibition at Wonder Press, 麻豆影院.
- ATLAS PhD student Abhishek Narula presented听听at 麻豆影院 Creative Collective.
- ATLAS Assistant Prof Joel Swanson exhibited work at听101 Mediapoetry Festival听in St Petersburg, Russia. Closer to home, he also installed a commissioned work in the Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek.
- ATLAS BTU Artist-In-Residence Corinna Espinosa presented work at听
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8. Performances, Events and Visitors
From workshops and hack nights to the speaker series and art installations, ATLAS hosted a panoply of vibrant events and dynamic guests in 2016. Here are a few highlights:
- Large-scale artists Sandra Fettingis and Kelsey Montague installed works in the north stairwell.
- Media artist August Black shared his work with the community.
- Google Cardboard VR inventor, Boris Smus visited with several members of the community.
- Hyrum Osmond, lead animator for Disney鈥檚 animated film 鈥淢oana,鈥� spoke to a packed room in November.
- ICTD superstar and CTO of Pakistan鈥檚 Punjab province, Umar Saif, delivered 鈥淒esigning Technology for the Other 5 Billion鈥� in November.
- VP and manager of strategic alliances for Dreamworks, Rob Sherwood, shared 鈥淎nimated Innovation at Dreamworks鈥� in September.
- ATLAS hosted a summer artist residency with Margaret Minsky and aerial dancer Sonya Smith who collaborated on a project titled, 鈥淒o You Think Differently Upside Down?鈥�
- ATLAS Black Box hosted 17 avant-garde shows, performed by artists exploring novel ways to incorporate technology into performance.
7. Industry and Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship remained a focus, with students engaged in ATLAS-based New Venture Challenge teams, opportunities to meet CU鈥檚 Global Entrepreneurs in Residence, and interacting with the steady flow of visiting movers and shakers from industry. We鈥檙e developing our own residency program to invite founders of small startup companies and other industry partners to spend time interacting with students. At the same time, we鈥檝e established new partnerships with industry giants Qualcomm, Honda, Intel and Microsoft.
6. Alumni Voices鈥�
This summer we reached out with a short survey to everyone who has graduated from the TAM program since 1997鈥攁 total of about 1,500 individuals. Questions focused on the impact of the TAM program and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Here are a few of our favorite comments:
- 鈥淗ands down the best classes and experience of my time at CU.鈥�
- 鈥淭hrough TAM, I began to understand the interconnectedness of things鈥攖echnology, art, science, school, work. This has inspired my life and work since.鈥�
- 鈥淭AM was one of the most useful and welcoming spaces at CU.鈥�
- 鈥淚f I hadn鈥檛 taken Digital Media 2, there鈥檚 no way I would be a web developer now. I actually regularly recommend TAM to people attending CU. I just wish it had been a major鈥�.鈥�
- 鈥淭AM provides skills essential to virtually anyone entering the job market these days. 鈥ome TAM classes should be required for all CU students.鈥�
5. Published!
Our doctoral students were busy publishing papers on a wide range of topics this year. Here are a few recent titles (ATLAS PhD student-author(s) named, others omitted for brevity):
- 鈥淧athways to STEM: Understanding Identity of Adult Physicists through Narrative Analysis,鈥澨齋imone Hyater-Adams
- 鈥淏lockyTalky : A Physical and Distributed Computer Music Toolkit for Kids,鈥澨鼳nnie Kelly
- 鈥淐rafting Mechatronic Percussion with Everyday Materials,鈥澨鼿yunjoo Oh, Jeffrey Harriman, Abhishek Narula听
- 鈥淏uilding A Tactile Picture Book: A Multimodal Design Task for High School Students,鈥澨鼳bigale Stangl
- 鈥淓ngaging Secondary Students in Regionally Relevant Science Topics Through Videography鈥擫ens on Climate Change,鈥澨鼶avid Oonk
Enjoying the Mixed Media Reality Lab
4. Creative Labs Proliferate听
ATLAS is now home to three new research labs, attracted funding from Intel, Microsoft Research, Oracle Academy, the National Science Foundation and NASA. The labs include
- The Laboratory for Playful Computation鈥擠esigning new playful and programmable technologies for learning.
- Interactive Robotics and Novel Technologies Lab鈥擜dvancing human鈥揳dvancing computer interaction through research, including non-verbal, gestural communication with robots, drones and emerging technologies.
- Unstable Design Lab鈥擜 research lab that studies technology and culture through the design and development of technologies that embrace chance and uncertainty.
In addition to research labs, several new learning labs have emerged this year, creating exciting new opportunities for students:
- Novel Audio / Radiophonic Workshop and Laboratory (NARWAL)鈥擜 learning lab for sound exploration and tinkering with synthesizers, digital audio workstations, vintage audio platforms, and experimental interfaces.
- Mixed Reality Lab鈥擜 learning lab equipped with the latest technologies for virtual and augmented realities.
- Heliographic Lab鈥擜 place for investigating digital imaging and photography through the production of creative works and projects.
(Note: It鈥檚 not听new, but the BTU Lab now has a new home on the first floor of the Roser ATLAS Center. This teaching facility, creative studio and hackerspace is a hub for all kinds of activities related to physical computing, electronics, and fabrication technologies, such as a laser cutter, 3D printers, and electronics.)
3. NCWIT鈥檚 Lucy Sanders wins Bob Newman Award
Lucy Sanders, CEO of the National Center for Women & Information Technology was presented with the prestigious Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016 by the Colorado Technology Association at the APEX Award Ceremony recognizing outstanding achievements and commitments to furthering innovative technology in the state. The ATLAS community is proud to have supported NCWIT since it was established in 2004.听
2. New Faces
As ATLAS grows, expanding enrollment and creating new programs, it is attracting new talent:
- This fall, TAM alumna Arielle Hein joined the team of TAM instructors after completing a master鈥檚 at NYU鈥檚 prestigious Interactive Telecommunications Program.
- Alicia Gibb, who established and directed the BTU Lab, officially joined the ATLAS faculty.
- Two ATLAS MS-ICTD alumni also signed on: Chris Carruth joins the full-time TAM faculty in January, and Mustafa Naseem returned as ICTD-Expert-in-Residence in August.
- This January Laura Devendorf, who holds a PhD in Media Arts and Technology from UC Berkeley鈥檚 School of Information, joins ATLAS as assistant professor of creative technologies.
- And in January, we welcome media artist August Black as ATLAS Artist-in-Residence for the spring semester.听
1. BS TAM Takes Off
Launched in August 2015, the new听听ends the calendar year enrolling 114 students, with another 83 students in the process of transferring. In addition, a substantial incoming class is expected next fall. Overall, the TAM program now enrolls a total of over 1,200 students, 60% of whom are women. The student community is more vibrant than ever, as reflected in our proliferating student groups: Mobile App Development, P5.js, Drone Racing, Electronics and Gaming, the BTU Lab hackerspace and physical computing lab.
