Culture and STEM Education

Keynote Presentatio

Making textile sensors from scratch

This workshop will explore the use of low-cost materials and tools to build textile-based interfaces. We will introduce a range of methods for handcrafting textile sensors and circuitry. Participants will learn techniques developed by the workshop leaders and will also be encouraged to use our material library to design their own custom sensors. The goal of the workshop is to familiarize participants with available electronic textile materials and introduce them to a variety of sensor and circuitry construction techniques

Paper mechanisms for sonic interaction

ABSTRACT Introducing continuous sonic interaction in augmented popup books enhances the expressive and performative qualities of movables, making the whole narrative experience more engaging and personal. The SaMPL Spring School on Sounding Popables explored the specific topic of paper-driven sonic narratives. Working groups produced several sketches of sonic interactions with movables. The most significant sketches of sounding popables are presented and analyzed

A Construction Kit for Electronic Textiles

Construction kits have long been popular as educational artifacts, supporting and encouraging creative explorations of engineering and design; but to date, such kits have had little connection with the new and expanding field of electronic textiles (e-textiles). We believe that creating an "e-textile construction kit" could provide a powerful new medium to engage a diverse range of students in electrical engineering and computer science. This paper, then, describes a construction kit designed to introduce novices to electronics, computing and design via e-textiles. We describe each component of the kit, provide examples of constructions that were built with the kit, and examine the durability of these constructions.! We conclude with a discussion of the results of preliminary user testing and an exploration of our plans for continued work in this area. 1

Questioning Invisibility

In this paper, the invisibility of today's technology is often a blessing. Should invisibility be the guiding design goal for ubiquitous computing? The author mentions that invisibility is a narrow design goal. It's not necessarily a bad one, but it doesn't capture the full range of technological or creative possibilities. If the computer scientists and engineers only strive to build invisible systems, they will neglect to build important technology that is educational, engaging, and beautiful. It should expand the focus and rhetoric

EDUCATION

Abstract—The notion of "pervasive computing " has traditionally been identified with a focus on what might be called "pervasive processing". This paper, in contrast, argues that the notion of pervasive computing can be profitably extended to accommodate the burgeoning potential of educational fabrication. We present several projects under way in our lab–projects that illustrate how fabrication devices can be employed in educational settings. We then use these examples to motivate a broader discussion of scenarios for "pervasive fabrication " in education. Index Terms—Pervasive fabrication, educational technology

Electronic/computational textiles and children's crafts

An astonishing array of new technologies is currently effecting a revolution in the professional design of textile artifacts. This integration of electronics and computation into textiles likewise suggests new directions in the practice of children’s crafts. In this paper, we present a classification scheme that we believe will prove useful in structuring exploration and discussion of new directions in children’s textile-based crafts. Within the context of this classification scheme, we describe several projects in our lab (along with early pilot-testing efforts) that offer examples of how children can work with computationally enriched textiles. We conclude by describing several extremely exciting–but nonetheless plausible–scenarios for continued work in this area