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Justin Chin (left) helps present Cade Haley's app, Tai Chi VR, at ATLAS Expo Spring 2018.

鈥淢embers are excited about the community and sharing their knowledge with others who are interested,鈥� says Chin, who graduates this summer. 鈥淚f you want to be a pioneer in this industry, there鈥檚 no better time than now to join in."

Winning national AR/VR hackathon

A popular project on display at ATLAS Expo Spring 2018 was , a virtual reality app for learning tai chi. The work of two members of the AR/VR Club as well as a California-based animator, the app won University of Southern California鈥檚 Creating Reality Hackathon earlier this spring, with club members Cade Haley and Roldan Melcon, as well as animator John Yoon, sharing the $5,000 grand prize.

Haley, a 欧美口爆视频 Boulder computer science and film production major who graduated in May, says that tai chi involves frequent shifts in direction, making it difficult for novices to watch and copy an instructor鈥檚 movements. Their VR application solves this problem by surrounding the student with eight animated instructors鈥攏o matter which direction the student looks, an instructor is plainly visible. The app also delivers soothing music to the student, who stands on a circular platform floating in the sky surrounded by clouds.

Competing against 400 participants who had been selected from 2,000 applicants nationwide, Haley and his team built their app from scratch in just 48 hours. Besides the prize money, the win also landed Haley a job with a tech start-up out of Purdue University, Explore Interactive, which uses augmented reality to support STEM education.

Club organizer and computer science graduate student Justin Chin鈥檚 team won second place in the hackathon鈥檚 Microsoft Mixed Reality track. Their project, , is an AR emergency simulation training app designed to provide office personnel with emergency information, such as locations of exits, tornado shelters, fire extinguishers and first aid stations. Instead of organizing group trainings and fire drills, their app enables companies to program one AR headset that employees check out to complete the simulated training as part of a standard orientation.

AR/VR Club Thrives

An Expo visitor tries out Tai Chi VR.  

Under Chin鈥檚 leadership, the ATLAS AR/VR Club has provided education and development of AR/VR related technologies and applications, introducing members to new technology platforms, such as Oculus Rift, HTC VIVE, Google Daydream and Microsoft Hololens.

It鈥檚 also a valuable bridge between campus and the local AR/VR development community, providing connections to meetups where members test, build and collaborate on projects. Over the course of the year, the club offered tutorials for beginners using Vuforia AR and Unity, inviting speakers from Occipital, Google News Lab, Viget, NIST and Design Workshop to share their knowledge and experience.

鈥淭he biggest barrier is learning the tools to build VR鈥攍earning Unity, and in some cases learning to program. Beginner workshops allow people to ease into it,鈥� Chin says.

Harrison Bolin, a first-year TAM major, had no previous experience in Unity when he joined the club, but after completing several club-sponsored Unity workshops, he鈥檚 built VR apps and now hosts a weekly virtual reality web show for MediumLabs in Boulder.

鈥淚'm in the AR/VR club because I love learning about emerging technologies,鈥� Bolin says. 鈥淭he club helps me practice my skills and gives me opportunities to talk to people with the same passion for innovation, as well as share VR projects and hear talks from industry leaders.鈥�

Chin also points to the club鈥檚 value in connecting members to AR/VR opportunities, such as Bolin鈥檚 internship, the USC hackathon and University of Denver鈥檚 Global Game Jam, a hackathon focused on game development.

鈥淨uite a few companies鈥擳rimble, NIST, Ball Aerospace and a variety of startup companies are starting to dip their feet into AR and VR,鈥� Chin says.

In addition, AR/VR is now used in architecture and medical fields. Home buyers 鈥渨alk through鈥� homes before they are built or view existing houses from the comfort of armchairs.  The technology is also being used in nursing homes and hospices to keep residents and patients mentally engaged, which in turn supports pain control.

The AR/VR club was organized by Chin and other students after they completed Assistant Professor Dan Szafir鈥檚 Introduction to Virtual Reality course in fall 2016.

鈥淲hen I was a member of the Makers Collective Club, I saw people working on creative and ambitious projects in the ATLAS BTU Lab,鈥� says Chin. 鈥淪imilar to BTU and the Makers Collective, I wanted to let students and the community know about the capabilities of AR/VR.鈥�

Chin established the club in ATLAS because he thought it would thrive in an eclectic environment; also, the Mixed Reality Lab had opened in fall 2016, with 10 Oculus VR headsets donated by the manufacturer.

ATLAS Director Mark Gross says, 鈥淭hanks to Dan Szafir鈥檚 class, the AR/VR club and the Mixed Reality Lab, we have established a lively community of students and researchers building virtual worlds for design, art, entertainment, health and more. It鈥檚 great to see it take off.鈥�

Chin graduates this summer, but he鈥檚 looking forward to seeing how the club progresses in the future.

"AR/VR is kind of a wild west," he says, "Companies are still discovering the capabilities, and it鈥檚 open season for people to explore."

Other AR/VR club member projects

Information and club membership

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The third class to graduate with the ATLAS Institute's Bachelor of Science degree in Technology, Arts & Media (TAM) includes 24 students, eight times the number of students to walk the aisle just one year ago when the institute鈥檚 first undergraduate degrees were conferred. 

The spring 2018 group graduates just three years after the interdisciplinary major in the College of Engineering and Applied Science was established. And looking ahead, projections are for nearly 60 additional students to graduate with TAM degrees during the 2018-19 school year, making it the fastest growing undergraduate degree programs at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.
 
The TAM bachelor's degree grew out of the ATLAS Institute鈥檚 popular TAM minor and certificate programs, which were launched in the late 1990s and now enroll around 1,000 students, more than 50 percent of whom are women.  While students can combine the TAM minor or certificate with any undergraduate degree at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, students must be admitted to the College of Engineering and Applied Science to pursue the TAM major.

Emma Wu displays a website she designed and coded.

鈥淭AM is my favorite,鈥� says Wu, who receives three degrees from three different colleges on May 10, along with a minor in business. 鈥淭AM truly allowed me to explore myself at the edge of technology and creativity. The instructors are so supportive of this community, and TAM is what I connect to the most because of the support.鈥�
 
After graduation, Wu plans to look for a position as a user interface/user experience (UI/UX) designer in New York City.

鈥淚f I hadn鈥檛 taken David Schaal's Web class,  I wouldn't know how much I love web development and UI/UX design,鈥� continues Wu, who has two jobs: a web and poster designer for 欧美口爆视频 Boulder鈥檚 Student Academic Success Center, and a digital designer for a private firm. 鈥淚 worked on one of his projects till three in the morning and did not realize the time.鈥� 

Graduate degrees
ATLAS also confers nine Master of Science degrees this May, including four from the Creative Technologies + Design (CTD) track and five from Information & Communication Technology for Development.

Angel Lam, a graduating CTD student advised by industry mentor Andy Stone, created 鈥淵okaido鈥� for her senior design project. A platform to leverage the collaborative energy of fandom, Yokaido provides a new way to share Japanese anime with the world. 

鈥淔rom a very young age, anime has been my source of courage, passion and strength, and I wanted to share that with the world,鈥� Lam says.  鈥淚 chose the CTD program because I wanted to start an anime company, and the program allowed me the flexibility to do so. I came to ATLAS to get the skills to turn it into a real company.鈥�

Ian Smith focused on 3D design for his master's degree.

鈥淚 am leaving CTD with a whole range of computer science abilities I didn鈥檛 have before,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 never could have imagined two years ago that I would be programming network architecture. That鈥檚 been an interesting shift for me. It鈥檚 not something I was comfortable with, but now I can say, 'I know how to do it, and I know how to do it well.' 鈥� 

As the door closes on another academic year, ATLAS is already busy laying plans for the fall and beyond, with new labs opening and existing academic programs expanding. 鈥淭he next few years are going to be transformational for ATLAS,鈥� says ATLAS Director Mark Gross. 鈥淭his year has seen a lot of change, but it鈥檚 only the beginning.鈥�

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Emily Daub is fascinated by human interactions: How people change while in or out of relationships; how they value themselves in the context of their relationship status; how changes in relationships affect us; and how each relationship differs from another. 

On May 4, Daub brings her fascination to life in an ambitious dance performance that features a wide spectrum of dance styles and handmade costumes equipped with embedded computational and wireless communications technologies. 

Titled 鈥淭he Show,鈥� the performance is billed as a variety dance performance that 鈥渢ells the story of how we shape and mold others (and vice versa),鈥� writes Daub, who graduates in May with a bachelor鈥檚 degree from the ATLAS Institute鈥檚 Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program, along with a minor in theatre and dance. 

Masterminding both the art and engineering is a comfortable role for Daub, which strikes some as unusual. 鈥淚've almost always been an outlier,鈥� Daub says. 鈥淭AM fosters that spirit, allowing it to become an asset rather than a handicap.鈥�

Daub entered 欧美口爆视频 Boulder as a chemistry major with plans to attend medical school, but soon decided it wasn鈥檛 the right path for her. A member of the Fashion Design Student Association (FDSA), she found her way to the TAM program via the Makers Collective, another student group. 鈥淪omeone from the Makers Collective reached out with a project that involved inserting lights in clothing,鈥� says Daub. 鈥淭hat caught my interest.鈥� 

She worked on a swing dance skirt, inserting an accelerometer and 70 LEDs in the hem and coding them so the LEDs would light when the wearer spun. Soon after, she became the president of the Makers Collective, and because club activities happened in the ATLAS Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab, she learned about the TAM program. Since then, she鈥檚 created more than 20 pieces of wearable technology of varying levels of complexity, 鈥淭he Show鈥� being her most ambitious project to date. 

Daub says she couldn鈥檛 have reached this point without support, including funding from an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant which covered all the materials. And working under the mentorship of Ben Shapiro as a member of the ATLAS research group, The Laboratory for Playful Computation, meant she was surrounded by a group of supportive graduate students. 鈥淎nnie Kelly was so, so helpful,鈥� says Daub, referring to a PhD student in the lab.

鈥淭he Show鈥� has kept Daub busy since January, designing and sewing costumes, embedding microprocessors, sensors and NeoPixel LEDs, and programming each with unique light patterns that respond to movement and the wearer鈥檚 proximity to other dancers over time. 

In addition, she鈥檚 encoded a matrix of affinities between dancers, so that when characters with mutual attraction dance together, light patterns in their costumes reflect the personal chemistry and gradually converge. At the same time, analogous changes take place in the pair's dance styles, Daub says.

While the technical side of her work tends to draw the most attention, Daub prefers to be known for her artistry in a more holistic sense. She鈥檚 choreographed 鈥淭he Show,鈥� and will perform alongside six other dancers, and she鈥檚 proud of her costumes and how the embedded technology looks and works. 鈥淗ow finished products look is very important to me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚've gotten to this point mostly because the things I make are beautiful and functional, not because they are technically complex,鈥� says Daub. 

It鈥檚 the same way she鈥檚 always approached her projects, forming one coherent vision and then solving problems in order to realize it. 鈥淚鈥檓 motivated to achieve a specific outcome, not to just push my skills,鈥� she says.

UROP Video

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Carruth, who currently teaches two courses鈥擬eaning of Information Technology and Advanced Image鈥攆or the Technology, Arts and Media program is characteristically deprecating about the honor: 鈥淭he young women and men I have the pleasure of interacting with never fail to amaze me,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey make me a better person. I am honored to share in this part of their journey.鈥�

When she was a student, Jessica Masson took three of Carruth鈥檚 classes and completed an independent study under his supervision. 鈥淵ou feel like he cares about you as both a student and a person. He exudes an enthusiasm for teaching and empowering students,鈥� says Masson, who is now an OIT technical support analyst for 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

When she first enrolled in the TAM program, Masson felt like her academic life and personal goals were at a standstill, and taking Meaning of Information Technology shifted her perspective completely. 鈥淐hris cared about each of our voices and rekindled my love of education and poetry,鈥� she says. 鈥淗e taught me that my dreams weren鈥檛 na茂ve; I could do anything I set my mind to.鈥�

Several nominations spoke to Carruth鈥檚 dedication: 鈥淚 really appreciate that he engaged with me on a personal level,鈥� writes one woman. 鈥淲e would write weekly responses on Edmodo, and he read each and every one, week in and week out, for over a hundred students. That level of dedication is amazing to me, and that's why I am nominating him.鈥�

The same individual wrote, 鈥淚 left every class feeling inspired. This is the first class I have ever taken where I didn't just learn the bare minimum to get a good grade. I spent my free time reading the rest of books where he would pull a few pages for us to read, and I followed all of the links he gave us to view the full articles, because I always left class wanting to go learn more.鈥�

Other nominators describe how they were similarly drawn in: 鈥淚 have never had a teacher so talented at presenting ideas, engaging his students, and getting his students excited about the topic.鈥滱nother nomination reads, 鈥淐hris was the most forward/real/compassionate/ smooth/well-spoken professor I have ever had. His kind words and charismatic personality made the learning environment something we as students wish every class was like.

Chris Carruth (ATLAS) stands with other winners of the Marinus Smith Award from New Student and Family Programs. The award recognizes faculty and staff who have had a particularly positive impact on students. They are nominated by those they teach, mentor and support.

The teaching award is named after Marinus Smith, a 19th century Boulder resident whose significant contributions of land and money made it possible for the university to locate close to the base of the Flatirons in Boulder.

Criteria for the student-nominated award state, nominees must advance the quality of education or the student experience at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder; model the integrity and ethical conduct expected of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder students; demonstrate a high degree of respect for the contribution of every member of the 欧美口爆视频 Boulder community; benefit the 欧美口爆视频 Boulder community by demonstrating excellence in their service and fostering a campus environment of inclusion, collaboration and personal responsibility.

TAM Director Matt Bethancourt commented on the recognition saying, 鈥淭his honor is well-deserved. Students rave to me about their experience with Chris in MIT. He鈥檚 a fantastic instructor, and we are lucky to have him on our team.鈥�

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The assignment is to play with remote control cars. Well actually, break them up and use the parts to build something else. It's an apt assignment for Arielle Hein鈥檚 Object class, which meets in the ATLAS Blow Things Up Lab. 

Using screwdrivers, pliers and whatever else they can find, students pull engines and drive trains from cars, dump trucks and drag racers, and connect them to micro:bit controllers to create custom or ""  from cardboard and other recycled materials. Instead of soldered circuit boards, they use loose wires and crocodile clips and binders to connect components. As students' creations take shape and come to life, the tempo in the room steps up a notch as the sound of wiring motors blends with laughter and conversation. 

The March 2 workshop was led by Peli de Halleux, a principal software development engineer for Microsoft Research, who brought with him dozens of remote control cars purchased from thrift shops in Seattle. De Halleux鈥檚 workshops typically involve common classroom materials and scrap electronics for participants to make into interactive electronic devices. 

De Halleux uses this approach in middle and high schools to teach circuits because kids usually don鈥檛 have the dexterity to work with microcontrollers, soldering irons and breadboards. This workshop was the first time de Halleux had tried the approach with adults.

鈥淚t is a chance for students to work with motors without getting in the weeds of breadboards and circuits,鈥� says Ben Shapiro, assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and the Department of Computer Science.

Juliet Luna and her partner crafted a yellow submarine from cardboard and hot glue, attached markers as legs and then weighted the salvaged DC motor so the submarine shook when the motor was activated, causing the legs to draw on the paper below it. 鈥淲e do a lot of fun things in the TAM program, but this workshop made me feel like a kid again,鈥� says Luna, who plans to graduate in 2019 with a TAM minor.  

For Hein, it was exciting to watch her students use micro:bits for the first time. Some groups made relays using the micro:bit, which allows control of two motors. Other groups incorporated a second micro:bit as a wireless controller using the built-in radio feature of the board.

鈥淭hey were able to do so much with the materials,鈥� Hein says. 鈥淭he micro:bit has a lot of built-in sensors and inputs, but the best part is that two micro:bits can be easily configured to communicate with each other over radio signals. This means that one micro:bit can be used to wirelessly control another.鈥�

Luna says students helped each other with their projects. 鈥淭he BTU lab is such a cooperative environment,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he space encourages students to take more risks and push boundaries. The people you get inspiration from don't need to be experts. It was a blast. What other class allows you to take apart cars and build cardboard submarines?鈥�

 (For those who want to try this at home.)

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Despite a significant snowstorm, organizers of an ATLAS student-run hackathon, T9Hacks, once again reached their goals of increasing participants and attracting a majority of women to the creative coding marathon.

Led by ATLAS doctoral student Brittany Kos, this year's T9Hacks drew more than 130 participants, 70 percent of them female and non-binary, with 65 percent of the participants first-time hackers. In 2017, 110 people attended, with 60 percent of participants women/nonbinary.

The 24-hour event, which began Feb. 10, is geared toward college students and recent college grads, especially women, non-binary and transgender students鈥攖he 鈥淭9鈥� stands for 鈥淭itle IX,鈥� a U.S. amendment that prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational settings.  In general, Hackathons鈥攎arathon creative coding and making events鈥攁re mostly attended by men, with female-to-male ratios often as low as 1 to 15.

For some, T9Hacks was an opportunity to attend their first hackathon, for others, it was a chance to venture out and try new technology for the first time. Teams of participants completed projects in three areas; cybersecurity, creative tech and tech for social impact. Workshops were available for beginners and mentors were available throughout to consult and support participants.

Working in teams, participants programmed and built creative software projects ranging from Happy Ivy, an app that encourages people with bipolar disorder to finish their tasks, to PeekPeak, an app that helps users save money by reducing utility usage during peak periods.

This year's winners and project descriptions can be found on , with special recognition from T9Hack's organizers for these projects: , by Tatiana Blanco and Vi Nguyen, an autonomous aquaponics system which allows users to grow food with a minimum amount of effort and cost;  by Carl Cortright and Shubha Swamy, a data visualization tool that maps crime locations within Boulder; and  by Cassandra Goodby and Ryan Craig, an emergency WIFI system that can be set up quickly and easily.

In addition to lead sponsorship from ATLAS, the event received major support from Workday, Zayo Group, Google, SketchUp and  MD5. Circadence, Major League Hacking, 欧美口爆视频 Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science, TechChange and the National Center for Women & Information Technology also provided sponsorship.

For those who missed T9Hacks and those attendees who didn't get enough, don't despair; T9Hacks happens again next fall. Those interested in joining the planning team should visit the . 

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Leibson was recently interviewed for a radio show, 鈥�,鈥� broadcast by the BBC World Service. She was also interviewed for a BBC series 鈥�100 Women,鈥� that examines the role of women in contemporary society from multiple angles. Other recognition includes The Institute of Code鈥檚 鈥淲omen in Tech鈥� award, and she was a semifinalist for the "We Rise鈥� award from The Hivery, a women's coworking space in the Bay Area. She recently extended her reach, becoming a .

Lady In Tech

Leibson is clear about her mission: "I want to inspire, motivate and move millennial women to enter the tech industry,鈥� she says.  

Quoting Marian Wright Edelman, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be what you can鈥檛 see,鈥� Leibson says she writes about women who have developed careers in the technology sector to inspire others to do the same. Her profiles tend to focus on entry and mid-level professionals because, she says, 鈥淸they] are more relatable than the Sheryl Sandbergs of the world.鈥� (Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook.)

She also partners with technology conferences, which she attends and writes about, giving early career professionals who can鈥檛 afford large conference price tags access to some of the key takeaways.

She says she built her following primarily using Twitter and Facebook.

鈥淚 was able to grow an audience for this kind of content because nothing like it existed,鈥� says Leibson. 鈥淚 knew I was on the right path when I attended tech events and people would say, 鈥業 heard about what you鈥檙e doing,鈥� or 鈥業 read about you.鈥� Or when I got messages from women saying, 鈥楬ey, I didn鈥檛 think I could be an IOS developer until I read the article you wrote, and then I took the classes you recommended and got my dream job.鈥欌��

The road to inclusion advocacy

She also traces her sense of purpose to her experience in the program. 鈥淭hrough TAM, I discovered the best way to make a positive impact on the world is through technology, and I have carried this belief forward ever since,鈥� says Leibson. 鈥淲e must work toward creating a future where the people who imagine and build technology mirror the people and societies for whom they build it.鈥�

After graduating early with honors in 2015, Leibson spent time in London pursuing a culinary arts program and learning about London鈥檚 startup ecosystem, but she was disappointed when she couldn't find a community supporting aspiring female founders.  

Upon returning to the U.S., Leibson moved to San Francisco, launching Lady in Tech in April, 2017. Surrounded by a community of women eager to enter tech fields, the site took off.

In addition to writing, Leibson consults. She's worked with the makers of the social media app Hey! VINA, which connects platonic female friends, as well as Omidyar Network, Uber, Prezi and TechCrunch. She's also actively supports communities for TEDxSanFrancisco, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Women in Product, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion in product management.

鈥淲e need all perspectives and viewpoints represented as we build the future,鈥� Leibson says. 鈥淯tilizing the talent that exists means we鈥檙e assembling smarter, more innovative teams.

鈥淢y best advice for aspiring female technologists: aim to make the most impact you can on the world.鈥�

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