Jolie Klefeker graduates on May 14 from the College of Engineering and Applied Science with a BS in Technology, Arts and Media, but as a researcher in the ATLAS Institute’sUnstable Design Lab, her work often rises to the level of a successful PhD student. 

Her research achievements include authoring three papers accepted by major academic conferences, selection as a Grace Hopper Research Scholar, receiving ATLAS Institute’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award and the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award.

"I am very proud to be graduating and of the research I have done,” said Klefeker. “It's taken personal growth to get to this point, and I'm proud of that too."

Klefeker’s distinguished work on smart textiles included a work-in-progress accepted by ACM’s 2018 CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; another work-in-progress to the 2019 Designing Interactive Systems Conference; and a full-length, peer-reviewed publication for CHI 2020.

Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information sciences and director of the Unstable Design Lab, said that Klefeker’s CHI 2020 paper was “one of the best-reviewed papers I have seen in my career.”

“CHI is an incredibly prestigious venue for cutting-edge research in human-computer interaction that receives thousands of submissions and accepts roughly 24 percent,” Devendorf said. “Many of the most talented researchers and PhD students struggle to have their papers accepted there.”

Devendorf notes that Klefeker was the lead author on all three papers, meaning all the research was led, performed and written by her. 

“The fact that she completed this work on top of her undergraduate studies is even more impressive,” she said.

While working as a student researcher in Devendorf’s lab, Klefeker became fascinated in the online subculture of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos, which show people slowly interacting with objects and whispering into microphones, triggering tingling bodily sensations in site visitors. Through this Klefeker recognized a broader cultural desire for slow and sensory-rich interactions with digital media, a way to “subvert fast-paced technology to promote slow and mindful interactions.” Her research examines whether the aesthetics of ASMR media can inspire the design of technology that provokes reflective thoughts and relaxation.

Klefeker grew up in Littleton, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, where she alternated between aspirations of becoming a race car driver, fashion designer, attorney, astronaut and music journalist. Beginning in high school, she became a DJ for 1190 KVŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s radio station, and later served as the station’s music director. She also plays piano. 

Initially planning to study marketing at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, her plans pivoted after listening to ATLAS Director Mark Gross and TAM Director Matt Bethancourt present the TAM major on Admitted Students Day.

“I absolutely fell in love with TAM,” Klefeker said. “I was really excited to take art classes and be creative, but to also push myself out of my comfort zone and launch into coding and making.”

Her favorite class? Critical Technical Practice taught by Devendorf. The class led to her research in the Unstable Design Lab; Klefeker’s first published paper was also her final class project.
 
“It was a life-changing class,” Klefeker said. “I discovered a love for theory and academic writing and was formally introduced to the concept of human-computer interaction research.”  
 
When not in the lab or class, Klefeker worked as a web developer for Cycling ‘74, an audio software company, where she plans to continue working as a full-stack engineer after graduation. Her long-term plans include attending graduate school to continue her research on human-computer interaction and design.
 
“TAM gave me the skills to teach myself outside of the classroom, whether it’s how to break down a dense journal paper into smaller pieces to understand it, design skills such as effective brainstorming and prototyping, or how to dig through documentation to solve a bug when I’m programming,” she said.
 
As for her advice to the incoming class of 2024, she says, “Fail! It’s the best way to learn and to grow.  Also, sleep!” 

Read More about Jolie’s research   

Unstable Design Lab projects
Using ASMR to Sense the Life of Things
String Figuring
 
Papers
Josephine Klefeker, Libi Streigl and Laura Devendorf. 2020. . In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). (Honolulu, Hawaii (canceled) – April 25-30, 2020).

Josephine Klefeker and Laura Devendorf. 2019. Envisioning Reflective and Relaxing Design with ASMR. In Companion Publication of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2019 (DIS '19 Companion). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 225-229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3301019.3323903. (San Diego, CA — June 23 - 28, 2019). 

Josephine Klefeker and Laura Devendorf. 2018. String Figuring: A Story of Reflection, Material Inquiry, and a Novel Sensor. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA. '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper LBW086, 6 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188570 (Montreal, Canada – April 21-26, 2018).

Off

Helping robots behave tactfully in group situations, pinpointing ways social media can avoid reminding the bereaved of their losses, blending modern technology with ancient weaving practices to improve smart textiles, encouraging visually impaired children and sighted family members to learn Braille together through tangible blocks and computer games—these are some of the topics covered in the nine papers and two workshops by researchers at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s ATLAS Institute that were accepted to CHI 2020, the world’s preeminent conference for the field of human-computer interaction. 

Like so many other events, CHI 2020, also known as ACM’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, isn’t taking place this year, but the proceedings are published and faculty and students remain tremendously proud of their contributions. Commenting on their work, ATLAS Director Mark Gross said, “The interactions we all have with hardware and software range from the absurd to the sublime. The field of human-computer interaction has more impact today than ever before, and ATLAS students and faculty are contributing at the highest levels. I’m immensely proud of this work.”

Researchers in the Unstable Design Lab authored a remarkable four of the nine papers admitted to the conference, two of which earned honorable mention, an accolade reserved for the top 5 percent of accepted conference papers. The THING, Superhuman Computing, Living Matter, ACME and IRON labs also had papers accepted to the conference. 

"Each of these papers is unique and forward-thinking," said Laura Devendorf, director of the Unstable Design Lab, of the researchers' papers. "They show new ways of both designing, engaging, but also recycling wearable tech devices. They not only present interesting design work, but present it in a way that ties in theories and practices from inside and outside our research community: from design for disassembly to ASMR channels on YouTube."

CHI 2020 was scheduled to take place April 25 – 30, in Hawaii. “I’m particularly disappointed for our students. It’s a big opportunity for them and their careers to get that kind of exposure,” said Devendorf.

In all, CHI 2020 received 3,126 submissions and accepted 760. In 2019, CHI accepted five ATLAS papers, including three from the Unstable Design Lab and two from the Superhuman Computing Lab.
 

CHI 2020 papers, position papers and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

Unstable Design Lab

[Honorable Mention Award]
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO Faculty), Katya Arquilla (Aerospace PhD Student), Sandra Wirtanen,  Allison Anderson (Aerospace Faculty), Steven Frost (Media Studies Faculty) 
By broadening the idea of who and what is considered “technical,” this paper examines the ways HCI practitioners, engineers and craftspeople can productively collaborate. 

[Honorable Mention Award]
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO) Faculty), Kristina Andersen, Aisling Kelliher
How can we design for difficult emotional experiences without reducing a person’s experience? In this paper three researchers design objects that illustrate their personal experiences as mothers to gain a deeper understanding of their individual struggles.

  
Shanel Wu (ATLAS), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO)
Being mindful of the massive waste streams for digital electronics and textiles, HCI researchers address sustainability and waste in smart textiles development through designing smart textile garments with reuse in mind.

  
Josephine Klefeker (ATLAS, TAM undergraduate), Libi Striegl (Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO)
Researchers introduced the online subculture of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos, showing people slowly interacting with objects and whispering into microphones and triggering a tingling bodily sensation in viewers and listeners, as a source of inspiration for wearables and experiences of enchantment, to cultivate deeper connections with our mundane and everyday environments.

IRON Lab

 
Hooman Hedayati (PhD student, Computer Science), James Kennedy, Daniel Szafir
While humans most often learn to interpret social situations and adjust their behavior accordingly, robots must be programmed to do so. This paper explores ways for robots to detect and predict the position of individuals in human conversational groups in order to more fluidly interact and participate in a conversation with them. More information

THING Lab & ACME Lab

Ryo Suzuki, Hooman Hedayati, (both PhD student, CS), Clement Zheng (ATLAS PhD candidate), James Bohn (undergraduate, CS), Daniel Szafir, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Mark D. Gross, Daniel Leithinger (all ATLAS faculty)
With applications in virtual tours and architectural design, this project dynamically synchronizes virtual reality with the physical environments by rearranging objects using a small swarm of robots able to elevate and relocate tables, chairs and other objects. When users can sit on, lean against, touch and otherwise interact with objects in a virtual scene, it provides more a fuller immersion in the virtual world than purely visual VR. More information

Living Matter Lab 

Mirela Alistar (ATLAS), Margherita Pevere
An exploration of the potential of DNA molecules to enable new ways for humans to interact with their stories and memories via a physical interface. The project involved encoding an elderly woman's written memories into precisely sequenced DNA and then splicing the code into the genome of a microorganism. The transformed bacteria then replicated, creating billions of facsimiles of the woman's memories. The resulting biofilm was presented in an exhibition as a sculpture. (CHI '20: Extended Abstracts)

Superhuman Computing Lab 

BrailleBlocks: Computational Braille Toys for Collaborative Learning
Vinitha Gadiraju, Annika Muehlbradt, and Shaun K. Kane (ATLAS/CS)
BrailleBlocks tactile gaming system encourages visually impaired children and their sighted family members to learn Braille together through tangible blocks and pegs and an iPad application with interactive educational games. More information.

ATLAS PhD Student in External Labs

Katie Z. Gach (ATLAS PhD Student), Jed Brubaker (INFO Faculty)
Managing Facebook pages for loved ones after their death is fraught with difficulty, according to this paper. While Facebook has created the ability for users to appoint post-mortem managers, called legacy contacts, Facebook gives them limited authority over the content, making them feel distrusted by the social network (Published in Transactions on Social Computing, invited for presentation at CHI 2020)

Workshops Organized

Robert Soden (ATLAS alumnus), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO faculty), Richmond Y. Wong, Lydia B. Chilton, Ann Light, Yoko Akama
This workshop explores the many ways uncertainty appears in research and the different types of responses that HCI has to offer. Outcomes of the workshop include exercises designed to evoke uncertainty in participants, concept mappings and a collection of essays developed by participants.

 
Ellen Yi-Luen Do(ATLAS faculty) among many others listed
This symposium showcases the latest HCI work from Asia and those focusing on incorporating Asian sociocultural factors in their design and implementation. In addition to circulating ideas and envisioning future research in human-computer interaction, this symposium aims to foster social networks among researchers and practitioners and grow the Asian research community.

Workshop Papers

Matt Whitlock (CS student), Daniel Leithinger (ATLAS faculty), Danielle Albers Szafir (ATLAS faculty/INFO affiliate faculty)
This paper on envisioning future productivity for immersive analytics was accepted to the Immersive Analytics workshop at CHI 2020.

Virtual and Augmented Reality for Public Safety
Cassandra Goodby (CTD student)
This paper explores potential applications of AR and VR technologies, haptics and voice recognition for first-responders. It was accepted to the Everyday Proxy Objects for Virtual Reality workshop at CHI 2020.

Mental Health Survey and Synthesis
Cassandra Goodby (CTD student)
This paper on tools and technologies available through mental health applications was accepted to the Technology Ecosystems: Rethinking Resources for Mental Health workshop at CHI 2020.

Off

Researchers from ATLAS Institute's THING, ACME and Unstable Design labs took home "Best Paper" and "Best Pictorial" awards at the ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '19), held in San Diego, June 23-28. ATLAS faculty and students also contributed four research presentations, including one by undergraduate researcher Jolie Klefeker, an engineering student majoring in Technology, Arts & Media who was previously chosen as a Grace Hopper Research Scholar.

DIS is an international and interdisciplinary conference encompassing issues related to the design and deployment of interactive systems, where designers, artists, theorists, psychologists, user experience researchers, systems engineers and many more come together to debate and shape the future of interaction systems research, design and practice.

ATLAS research presented at DIS '19:

• "MorphIO: Entirely Soft Sensing and Actuation Modules for Programming Shape Changes through Tangible Interaction," authored by Ryo Suzuki and researchers from Keio University and The University of Tokyo in Japan, won a DIS '19 "Best Paper" award. Suzuki, an ATLAS affiliated PhD student, presented the research during the conference's Shape Changes Interfaces track. MorphIO addresses problems that researchers face when trying to program movements in soft materials: Instead of transferring compiled code from a digital screen to objects, MorphIO’s hardware enables users to program behaviors using motion-capture data gathered from physical movement and interactions. It also allows users to construct various shapes and synthesize multiple recorded motions to achieve complex movements, such as bending, gripping and walking.
• ATLAS PhD students Peter Gyory and Clement Zheng's game HOT SWAP was showcased during the Provocations and Work-in-Progress session at DIS '19, and Gyory also presented the research during the conference's poster and demo reception. One of the most original aspects of Zheng and Gyory's game, which received the coveted alt.ctrl.GDC award at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, is the use of a wide range of game controllers which must be switched to perform different functions within the game. 
• Research from "Envisioning Reflective, Relaxing, and Restorative Design with ASMR," a work-in-progress paper authored by Josephine Klefeker and Laura Devendorf, was presented by lead author, Klefeker, an undergraduate TAM major and researcher in the Unstable Design Lab, during the Works-in-Progress track of DIS '19. The research was inspired by Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) media, where gentle repetitive sounds, such as listening to a whispering voice or the sounds of pages turning, elicit, for some, relaxing tingling sensations at the back of the skull that move down the back of the neck and upper spine. The research covered five research subjects who used a sonic toolkits to make recordings inspired by ASMR media. The work looks at whether the aesthetics of ASMR media can inspire the design of technology that provokes reflective thoughts and relaxation.
• “,” authored by Clement Zheng, HyunJoo Oh, Laura Devendorf, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do, won the "Best Pictorial" award at DIS '19. Lead author, Zheng, an ATLAS PhD student, presented the research during the DIS '19 Deformable and Novel Materials track. This inquiry into carbon-coated paper and kirigami structures involved investigating two variations of the paper and their electrical, haptic and visual aspects when shaped into 3D forms through cutting, folding and bending. Three applications that showcase the possibilities of this material for tangible interaction design were proposed. Researchers also used a pictorial format of working design schematics so others could explore on their own.

Off

"Envisioning Reflective, Relaxing, and Restorative Design with ASMR," authored by Josephine Klefeker and Laura Devendorf, was presented by lead author, Klefeker, during the works-in-progress track of the 2019 Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '19). Klefeker is an undergraduate researcher in the Unstable Design Lab, where her research interests include using technology to provoke introspection as well as to develop meditative forms of interaction. 

Off

As a scholar, Klefeker’s travel expenses will be covered to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration in Houston, September 26-28, where she will present her research and have the opportunity to build relationships with other women in computing.

“I am super-excited to interact with fellow students and professionals and to learn about their research and exchange ideas,” says Klefeker.

An example of Klefeker’s research, “String Figuring: A Story of Reflection, Material Inquiry, and a Novel Sensor,” brings together material studies and cultural reflection, critically looking at our culture's norms and ideas on fiber arts and craft, to describe the design of a new and novel sensor. The string figure sensor is an early prototype for a string-based sensor that can “know something of its own shape” by measuring changes in resistance generated from knotting or crossing the string.  The paper, co-authored by Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information science with the ATLAS Institute and director of the Unstable Design Lab, was published in the Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and presented by Klefeker in Montreal in April during the conference.

"Jolie's String Figures project is about reflecting on what it means to work with materials and let the materials 'lead' the design,"  Devendorf says. "Her project shows that this process led to interesting and novel outcomes, as well as ideas for what kinds of playful interactions might emerge when we pay attention to existing behaviors and cultural games with yarn."

Klefeker says that because the conductive thread is so flexible, it could be embedded in various types of sensors in clothing. A wide range of ideas have been proposed for its use, including creating sensors that support gesture-based communication and choreographing an abstract dance using the movement of clothing in a dryer.
 
“The project was about creating something novel, fun and playful,” Klefeker says.

Klefeker is also the music director at Radio 1190 KVŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, the campus radio station, where she coordinates all new music, curates the KVŷ���ڱ���Ƶ music library and rotation, and hosts volunteer events.

Off