dorkbot pittsburgh

Michael Philetus Weller demonstrated Posey, a computationally enhanced poseable hub and strut construction kit that can be used as an interface to applications running on a host computer. Its optocoupled ball and socket joints transmit local topology information and determine the roll, pitch and yaw of connections. Zigbee transceivers in each hub communicate this data wirelessly back to the host computer. The host computer assembles a representation of the physical model as the user creates and configures it. This representation can then be used by application programs to control models in particular domains. For example, a skeleton of a puppet can be used to control the movement of a more detailed virtual puppet to create an online puppet show. And by connecting posey to a molecule modeling application, information on different molecules can be retrieved just by building the molecule using hubs as atoms and struts as bonds.

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Elizabeth Monoian spoke on the topic of "Committing to Pittsburgh as Interdisciplinary Art Practice". Elizabeth is an interdisciplinary artist who uses the Internet, found objects and spaces, electronic noise, video, and performance to tease apart and question cultural relationships to time, history, and memory.

Performatively she becomes Eliza. Willing to live the nightmare of grade-school child standing in front of the classroom naked, she is exposed to the familiar gaze of strangers. Elizabeth becomes the image -- the performance, the character -- that is viewed. Eliza navigates within the noise of contemporary culture -- the cacophony of electronics and wires that bring whales above the ocean surface to sing and nurtures premature infants in the neonatal ward -- the chatter of capitalism that permeates our cellular selves.


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Scott researches ubiquitous and context-aware systems for families. Scott works with the Project on Family, Control and the Smart Home, part of Carnegie Mellon's Human Computer Interaction Institute. Before graduate school, Scott was principal of Scott Davidoff Design, and much better-rested. Scott holds a Masters in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon, and a BA in Political Theory and English from Duke University.

Ian Li researches technologies that help people make better decisions and find opportunities for positive changes in their lives, using methods from human-computer interaction (HCI), interaction design, and behavioral research. Currently, Ian develops ubiquitous computing systems that improve people's awareness of their behavior to motivate physical activity, to increase mood awareness, and to aid office productivity.


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Tom and Carl will present a survey of recent projects undertaken by the CREATE Lab, including TeRK, Robot Diaries, Neighborhood Nets, and Robot 250. These projects range from hardware and software technology development, educational robotics for middle school girls, arts based community robotics, to the development of a large scale city wide robotic art and technology event involving thousands of participants.


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Jason is an information and interaction designer; his company, Gradient Labs, makes data-driven engines for interacting with information and media. Past and current projects include thisishappening.com, the Progress Pittsburgh Knowledge Base (a wiki-like map of the regional political landscape), MissingLink.biz (a tool for managing group knowledge work meetings), and the Warhol Timeline (a soon to be launched tool for exploring Andy Warhol's life, work, and the 20th century through time and relationships). Prior to founding Gradient Labs, he worked for a Carnegie Mellon spin-off company developing data visualization techniques for the military and healthcare industries. Simmons' Gradient Labs is currently focused on developing a new tool for visualizing temporal patterns, and a major overhaul of thisishappening.com.

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