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2026 ATLAS student award winners announced

Michael Kwolek — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:34:41 +0000

2026 ATLAS student award winners announced Michael Kwolek Wed, 04/15/2026 - 11:34

ATLAS awards recognize undergraduate and graduate students in our Creative Technology & Design programs who demonstrate remarkable qualities, such as academic excellence, innovative thinking, research efforts, leadership, community mindedness, creativity and/or technical performance.

Our winners exemplify the ATLAS ethos, bridging engineering skill, creative prowess and a sense of community. They are curious, passionate, and persistent in their pursuit of discovery and understanding of the world around them.

A special shout-out to two students, Josie Armstrong and Henry Nguyen, who received awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science this year for their exceptional work. Josie earned the Academic Engagement Award and Henry earned the Community Impact Award.

ATLAS Undergraduate Student Awards

Josie Armstrong – Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

Josie Armstrong is graduating from �鶹��Ƶ with a BS in Creative Technology & Design and a BA in Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts (Production Track). For the past two years, Josie has worked as a Learning Assistant (LA) for coding and web design courses at the ATLAS Institute. As an LA, Josie found a passion for teaching and pedagogy, and now researches LA pedagogy and program structure under Dr. Anthony Pinter. Through their research and work as an LA, Josie hopes to support future generations of students and LAs at the ATLAS Institute.

Josie has found a home like no other in the CTD program. They value the collaborative and welcoming environment highly, and they prioritize contributing to that environment as a student and an LA. Josie’s capstone project is a digitally integrated web-based tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that combines their experience in game design, web design, and book design. In their free time, they enjoy crocheting, reading, raising houseplants, and occasionally throwing darts. After graduating from �鶹��Ƶ, Josie will be pursuing a JD at the University of Chicago Law School, where they intend to focus on media/technology IP and data privacy law.

Lily Dykstra – Distinguished Student Award

Lily Dykstra graduates summa cum laude from CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a Bachelor of Science in Creative Technology and Design (CTD) and a certificate in User Experience. As a student and in life, Lily approaches challenges with radical flexibility and an open mind, always eager to explore everywhere creative processes can lead. She has specifically focused on product and hardware design of various materials, applications and utilities. Both on Boulder’s campus and abroad during her semester in Florence, Lily’s studies have attended to the substance, construction, and history of various art and design forms. This was highlighted during her work in the second classroom iteration of “Hacking the Apocalypse,” in which she helped her group make an automated greenhouse sensitive to potential future water and food scarcity concerns.

The combination of Lily’s unique experiences has afforded her a varied, innovative, and socially conscious perspective of the creation of material products in contemporary and historical society. During Lily’s time with CTD, she has served as an ATLAS ambassador and as a learning assistant for two core CTD courses, Image and Form. Throughout her work, she has enjoyed supporting her peers to bring their ideas to life, teaching everything from Photoshop and animation to 3D modeling and physical fabrication. To round out her CTD curriculum, her senior capstone tackles the topic of accessibility in baking. Lily and her team put together an assistive baking device that helps those with limited mobility in their hands with small baking measurements. While her future is undecided, she is eager to embrace the hugeness, beauty, and glorious uncertainty of the world. She knows she will create a vivid and meaningful life in which CTD’s teachings will continue to support and guide her creative innovations.

Sam Jarzembowski – Distinguished Student Award

Sam Jarzembowski graduates magna cum laude from CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a major in Creative Technology and Design (CTD), a minor in Engineering Management, and a certificate in User Experience. During his time in CTD, Sam concentrated his studies in user experience design. He completed a UX audit for the FlyDelta app, redesigned the Denver Zoo’s ticketing experience, and created a parking guidance device in the form of an interactive stoplight. All of these projects, along with the rest of the CTD curriculum, fostered his passion for interaction design and a blend of physical and digital design. For the past two years, Sam has served as a Learning Assistant (LA) for ATLS 2200, one of CTD’s core courses that teaches web design and development. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time in the classroom guiding students through assignments, answering questions, and providing feedback on their work. Sam is immensely grateful for the opportunities that the ATLAS Institute, the CTD program, and the University of Colorado Boulder have provided him.

For his senior capstone project, Sam worked alongside two team members to create Measurely, an assistive baking device. Measurely combines an automated ingredient dispenser, scale, control panel, and web app to make baking more accessible to those with limited hand mobility or dexterity. His role included interaction design, user testing, and programming. This fall, Sam will be attending graduate school to further his education and gain more experience in his field. He will focus on human-centered design and how people interact with both physical and digital experiences.

Jordyn Rabinowitz – Distinguished Student Award

Jordyn Rabinowitz graduates summa cum laude from �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a Bachelor of Science in Creative Technology and Design (CTD), as well as minors in space and engineering management. Throughout her time at ATLAS, she has combined technical creativity with a strong commitment to teaching, mentorship, and building accessible learning experiences.

At CU, Jordyn serves as head learning assistant for Image (ATLS 2100), where she leads lab-style recitations, supports first-time coders, and helps manage a large instructional team. She also works in the Helio Lab, leading workshops in areas such as VR, AR, CAD, photography, and digital media. In addition, she contributed to STEM education through video production for NCWIT Teach Engineering, creating educational content for K–12 classrooms.

One of Jordyn’s most meaningful ATLAS projects was helping rebuild the Image course’s VR/WebXR unit, transitioning it from Glitch to GitHub. By writing student-facing onboarding guides and improving the setup process, she helped reduce technical barriers for beginners and make creative coding feel more approachable and accessible.

She is known for her thoughtful leadership, low-floor/high-ceiling teaching approach, and ability to make technical concepts engaging for a wide range of learners.

Outside the classroom, Jordyn is also a climbing coach and mentor. Her current capstone project, Surge Harness, is a wearable resistance system designed to help climbers train movement control and stability safely while climbing. Starting this summer, she will attend UC Irvine’s Master of Arts in Teaching program to prepare to become a secondary mathematics teacher, continuing her interest in the intersection of education, technology, and hands-on design.

Lindsey Trussel – Distinguished Student Award

Lindsey Trussell graduates from the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a major in Creative Technology and Design and a minor in Creative Writing. She has served as a Learning Assistant for Computational Foundations 1 (ATLS 1300) and Web (ATLS 2200), supporting students in developing foundational skills in programming and web development. Lindsey also collaborated with faculty to co-design Pedagogy 2, a course that prepares ATLAS students for teaching roles as Learning Assistants, reflecting her sustained commitment to mentorship and education.

Lindsey is an active presence in the BTU Lab, where she regularly assists peers, troubleshoots complex projects, and offers thoughtful, detail-oriented feedback across disciplines. Her approach to both teaching and making is grounded in patience and persistence, allowing her to carefully work through technical challenges.

Her creative work explores the intersection of analog audio systems, physical computing, and interactive design, with a focus on manufacturing and fabrication practices. For her senior capstone, she is developing a guitar pedal that maps live audio signals to DMX lighting effects, translating sound into responsive visual environments.

Lindsey’s interdisciplinary practice integrates poetry with visual media and fabrication, combining written language with physical form. Across her work, she demonstrates a strong commitment to craftsmanship, collaboration, and the creation of expressive, carefully constructed experiences.

Joseph Yoder – Distinguished Student Award

Joe Yoder graduates from CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Technology and Design (CTD), maintaining a 3.96 GPA. He is the third member of his family to pursue a CTD degree, following his two sisters, who also graduated from the program.

Joe’s senior capstone project, RotoClimb, is a climbing wall with holds that rotate to different angles using motors and custom controls, changing the difficulty of routes without manually resetting the wall. The project explores how rotating holds can expand training possibilities for all levels of climbers, while demonstrating hands-on prototyping and engineering design.

Joe also contributed to EcoSort, an AI-powered waste sorting robot. EcoSort was designed to help public spaces like universities improve recycling accuracy and reduce waste contamination. The complete business pitch won 1st place out of 11 teams in Joe’s business minor capstone competition. In addition to technology focused builds, Joe enjoys woodworking, memorably building an optical illusion cutting board made from three contrasting hardwoods that was featured in the ATLAS Expo 2025.

Outside of school, Joe has spent the past 10 months working at Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery as a line cook and server, and was recently promoted to shift lead manager. At work Joe has developed strong teamwork, communication, and leadership skills in a fast-paced environment. After graduation, Joe is seeking a full-time position to continue his radical creativity and strong work ethic.

ATLAS Graduate Student Awards

Krithik Ranjan - Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Krithik Ranjan graduates with a PhD in Creative Technology & Design at the ATLAS Institute and �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Krithik is a designer, researcher, and educator passionate about imagining and developing innovative technologies to support people’s creative technology interactions. In his research, he develops and studies environments for creating and learning with computers that support open-ended creativity and tinkering across domains. His dissertation promotes deeper material engagement in computing technologies that leverage physical craft materials to offer expressive, explorative, and playful means for creativity that are low-cost, low-barrier, and learner-driven in diverse formal and informal educational environments.

Krithik has designed a number of novel technologies towards this goal, such as toolkits for creating animations from drawings on paper, creative science simulations, intuitive physical computing platforms, and tangible toolkit and curriculum for AI literacy. As a graduate student in ATLAS, he has served as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Object (ATLS 3300) and Computational Foundations II (ATLS 2270), and formally and informally mentored a number of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students on research, thesis, and course projects. Krithik was also a finalist for the 2026 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT) at �鶹��Ƶ. Moving forward, he plans to continue to design and research technologies for enabling meaningful, maker-driven, and material-rich computational interactions for makers of all ages.

Caitlin Littlejohn – Distinguished Student Award

Caitlin Rai Littlejohn graduates from CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a Master’s in Creative Technology and Design (CTD): Social Impact. Her work sits at the intersection of design and technology, and community-centered problem solving, with a focus on making complex systems more accessible and equitable.

During her time in the program, Caitlin has collaborated on interdisciplinary projects addressing both environmental and social challenges. As the lead designer on ClimateThreads: Patterns in Air. Stories in Data., she contributed to branding, user experience, and visualization for a multimedia platform that translates air quality data into accessible, tactile formats, highlighting environmental inequities across the Denver-Aurora region. In partnership with AdventHealth, she contributed to user experience research for NurseWell, conducting interviews, identifying key gaps in nurse retention, and developing research-informed concepts and solutions to address these challenges, with pathways toward implementation. Additionally, Caitlin partnered with Denver Public Library’s IdeaLAB to redesign internal observation processes that support more effective program evaluation and user insight. Her work is grounded in a thoughtful, user-centered approach that prioritizes accessibility, storytelling, and meaningful impact.

For her practicum, Caitlin is developing and leading ATLAS’s inaugural pre-collegiate summer program, a studio-based experience engaging high school students in creative technology, design methodologies, and collaborative problem-solving. Through this work, she continues to expand her passion for mentorship and education.

Following graduation, Caitlin plans to apply her interdisciplinary background to expand equitable access to STEAM education in underserved communities through the development of community-centered makerspaces.

Klara Nitsche – Distinguished Student Award

I’m Klara Nitsche, a Master’s student on the Creative Technology and Design track. At ATLAS, I’ve had the pleasure of serving as an LA for two courses and a research collaborator in the ACME lab studying human-robot-interaction. I also branched out and joined the HIRO lab in the department of computer science, furthering my technical knowledge of robots and seeing where creativity can support robotics. In the graduate program I hosted tours, social events, and on-campus outreach as an ATLAS social recruiter and designed, documented, and advertised events at the B2 Blackbox Theater.

My experiences have culminated in a couple projects I feel proud of here, most notably a communal handwritten typeface called ‘Code of Conduct’ and my MS thesis: edible robots. My work was always about studying novel interactions between humans and materials, but my time at ATLAS has given me the tools to create these interactions myself. I’m excited to continue exploring these themes and research interests after graduation as I continue studying the field of human-robot-interaction!

Harsita Rajendran – Distinguished Student Award

Harsita Rajendren (she/her) is a master’s student in Creative Technology and Design (CTD) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work focuses on animation and motion design, with an emphasis on storytelling and human-centered experiences.

At ATLAS, Harsita has explored how animation can be used as a tool for communication and empathy. One of her key projects includes a hyperhidrosis awareness campaign, where she created an animated piece to shed light on a condition that is often overlooked yet deeply impacts daily life. She also developed an advertising campaign centered on first-time travelers, highlighting the unspoken social expectations and challenges newcomers face when navigating unfamiliar environments. Through these projects, she aims to make complex or overlooked experiences more visible and relatable.

Her approach combines animation with insights from UI/UX and human-computer interaction, allowing her to design work that is both visually engaging and psychologically informed. As an empathetic observer, she pays close attention to subtle human behaviors and emotions, translating them into meaningful visual narratives.

In addition to her creative work, Harsita has served as a physics peer mentor at the Student Academic Success Center, where she supported more than 30 first-generation undergraduate students. Through teaching and mentorship, she developed a deeper understanding of how individuals learn differently and the importance of adaptable, student-centered approaches.

Her capstone project is a choice-based interactive game that explores the idea of self-love as an active process of growth and self-accountability. Moving forward, Harsita aims to deepen her expertise in animation while continuing to explore motion design within interactive and user-centered contexts.

Katherine Rooney – Distinguished Student Award

Kate Rooney is a graduate student in Creative Technology and Design (CTD) at the ATLAS Institute, with a background in mechanical engineering. Her work sits at the intersection of engineering, design, and human experience, shaped by projects that span extreme environments and immersive technologies.

During her time at ATLAS, Kate designed and built an environmental system to support sustainability in Antarctic field camps and led the design and build of an interactive water education exhibit and topographical table for CIRES in Alamosa as part of the We Are Water project. She also developed a raycast-based system for the B2 Black Box, which continues to serve as a reference for immersive interaction within ATLAS.

Kate’s thesis project, Earth Contours, explores immersive terrain visualization through both a mobile app experience and a full-scale installation in the B2 Black Box. The project reimagines how people engage with landscapes, transforming geospatial data into intuitive, interactive, and visually compelling experiences that foster curiosity and connection to the natural world.

Kate’s approach blends technical rigor with creativity, using design to make complex systems tangible and human-centered. She has taken on leadership roles in student projects, mentoring teams and guiding interdisciplinary collaboration, while also engaging with CU’s startup community. She has especially valued the ATLAS community and maker spaces, where collaboration and experimentation bring ideas to life.

She is excited to build a career that spans engineering, design, and immersive experience across various environments and industries to create meaningful, impactful work.

Elizabeth Saunders – Distinguished Student Award

Elizabeth Saunders earned her master’s degree in Creative Technology and Design (Social Impact Track) from the University of Colorado Boulder’s ATLAS Institute, graduating with a 4.0 GPA.

At ATLAS, she served as the sole learning assistant for Aesthetics of Design, a 120-person hybrid course bridging the ATLAS Institute and the Mechanical Engineering Department. She also contributed as a student researcher with CU’s Sustainability Research Initiative under Dr. Jane Zelikova, launching Sustainability on Tap—a monthly speaker series bringing sustainability research into local breweries and fostering accessible, community-driven conversations that inspire action.

No course influenced Elizabeth’s thinking more than Zack Weaver’s Hacking the Apocalypse series, which shaped the guiding instinct behind her work: not just how to create something, but for whom—and what happens when it fails. Elizabeth applies this mindset through a blend of human-centered design and systems thinking, developing solutions that are equitable, resilient, and grounded in tangible, real-world impact.

This approach is evident in her practicum project: a LiDAR-based iOS foot scanning app developed with SCARPA. The app guides users through a 3D capture process to generate personalized ski boot recommendations, enhancing fit, safety, and accessibility while minimizing return-related emissions. Elizabeth also served as project manager for Give5 Mile High, a citywide volunteer platform in Denver, from conception to launch.

When she wasn't in the grad lab or the BTU, Elizabeth was outside—volunteering for Eldora ski patrol, coaching adaptive rowing, cycling, and alpine skiing, and logging over 200 ski days.

She came to ATLAS with a head full of ideas, a love for the outdoors, and a conviction that technology could do more good in the world. She leaves with the skills, the people, and the proof that it can—and the passion to continue building a more equitable and sustainable future.

College of Engineering & Applied Science Graduating Student Awards

Henry Nguyen – Community Impact Award

Creative Technology & Design taught me the importance of community and diverse perspectives gained through meaningful connections. A fellow graduate mentored me in my early years, showing me firsthand the creative freedom and remarkable people this program cultivates.

What I'd want prospective students to know about ATLAS is that it's a place where the mix of tech, art, and design opens doors to ideas you never knew you had, all while fostering a community of people who genuinely inspire one another.

Josie Armstrong – Academic Engagement Award

The biggest lesson I took away from my time as a CTD student is to try everything and put in 100%! The process is the point, and I've grown so much by trying, stumbling, and trying again. I think that's something that is uniquely possible and encouraged in CTD.

To future students, you will have so many opportunities to find and build community in your time at CU. Try as many of them as you can—you just might find something life-changing among those opportunities.

Over a dozen ATLAS students are recognized for their achievements this year.

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Exploring the ethics of AI: Can we use tools like ChatGPT consciously?

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:57:39 +0000

Exploring the ethics of AI: Can we use tools like ChatGPT consciously? Michael Kwolek Tue, 02/24/2026 - 09:57

Michael Kwolek

As adoption of AI tools speeds up on campuses worldwide, students, faculty, and staff may be tempted to simply adopt-and-go. But it pays to consider the ethical implications of how we approach such technologies.

Nikolaus Klassen, business analyst at Google, teaches Applied AI Ethics for undergraduate and graduate students at the ATLAS Institute. With a PhD in classics and work in data processing and reporting, Klassen’s career has zigzagged between the humanities and the tech world.

We discussed the ethical implications of AI tools and how students are thinking about them. This conversation was lightly edited for space and clarity.

If you were to distill the concept of AI ethics to a few major themes in our current moment, what would they be?

I think AI ethics specifically—and tech ethics more generally speaking—is often presented as a trade-off: You can use this tool for free, but we'll invade your privacy. For me that's the core of the problem, because very often it's not easy to break out of this trade-off.

Do you look at utilitarianism, at the consequences, or do you set up unbreakable rules? Again, it’s almost like a trade-off.

So my core approach to AI ethics and tech ethics in general is: How can we ask better questions and find better frameworks that will bring us beyond this simple trade-off between the good and the bad?

Is there a way to offer people better choices and to offer choices in a way that [helps us] make good decisions? Instead of letting our privacy be invaded all the time and giving away our data because the defaults are set up in a certain way, how can we dig deeper and find more root causes of bias in the data?

For me, ethics is more about how can I use these frameworks to expose structural problems and maybe make them better? Alleviate the problems or solve them where possible, rather than just accept that they're part of this bad trade-off.

Key ethics concepts

Utilitarianism - The theory that the most moral action is the one that maximizes good and minimizes suffering for the greatest number of people.
Deontology - The theory that there are absolute moral obligations that must be followed regardless of consequences, exceptions, or potential benefits.
Moral licensing - A phenomenon in which people justify an immoral action after having previously done something good.
Law of the instrument - A cognitive bias toward over-reliance on a familiar tool for solving problems, regardless of suitability.
Choice architecture - A deliberate design of a tool or environment that influences how people make decisions without directly restricting choice.

Why do you think your AI Ethics class is so popular among ATLAS and non-ATLAS students?

I think students are pretty concerned about AI. Is it going to take away all the jobs? It seems to for entry-level jobs, so there is a direct impact. And I see students honestly grapple with how they should use AI in their own studies.

People frame it as: Is AI my crutch or is it a good tool that I'm using?

It's not like this is an abstract academic phenomenon. If you're going through your surroundings with open eyes, you can see bad impacts of unethical AI usage, so I think this is very concrete and applicable for students.

What do you hope students take away from spending a semester considering the ethical implications of AI technology?

For me it's really all about the questions—I want students to have a toolbox of questions they can ask and to teach them when they see a phenomenon not to just take it at face value. Be it a technology, an app, a use case, whatever their friends are using. To say, “Hold on a minute, let me ask some questions here,” and give them good questions to ask. To say, “How can I dive deeper into a problem?” and understand the root cause or the assumptions that are hidden here and sharpen these analytical tools to cut through the noise.

How do you think about AI in general? A tool? A platform? A way of life?

As humans, we experience these gateway transitions where we change something and then open up a new world. Agriculture enabled cities and civilizations and division of labor with all the bad and all the good [associated with that]. We suddenly could finance full-time poets and musicians and spend more resources on meaning making and culture.

Then you have the mechanical engine and the revolution that came with it. We have a lot more mobility today. We don't have to work so hard. Our life expectancy has basically doubled since then. It has enabled all kinds of different ways of living.

I think AI is probably going to be the same. The amount of information that we have in the world today is far beyond what humans can process. Because there's so much information around, it's hard to cut through it. For better or worse, we need technology to help us process it. We cannot do so on our own anymore. I think this will be the next gateway.

Most likely we will go through a valley like we did after the agricultural revolution and the mechanical revolution with unemployment rising or people being more and more hooked on digital technology. I feel like this is happening whether we want that or not.

The speed of change feels unprecedented. How does ethics apply to a phenomenon that is evolving so quickly?

I don't think it's ever going to be too late to make AI more ethical. If you think about the industrial revolution, the life of workers got so much worse when they started to work in the factories than it was when they were working in the fields. It took 50 or 100 years or so to rectify that. And within that comparatively short time span, the life of workers was better than the life of farmers. And we probably have stronger social ethics today than we had in the 18th century, so I don't think it's impossible for AI to do that. I would expect it to happen.

Want to learn more? Check out our follow-up story Using AI ethically: 6 tips for bringing AI tools into learning and work.

As tech advancements speed up, consider how best to incorporate AI tools at school and work.

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ATLAS students pair design and engineering to improve access to nature

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:46:24 +0000

ATLAS students pair design and engineering to improve access to nature Michael Kwolek Tue, 06/10/2025 - 09:46

Creative Technology & Design master's students developed a system to help birdwatchers with mobility challenges continue to participate in this popular pastime.

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�鶹��Ƶ further solidifies ranking as top 20 graduate engineering program

Michael Kwolek — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:03:22 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ further solidifies ranking as top 20 graduate engineering program Michael Kwolek Wed, 04/16/2025 - 14:03

�鶹��Ƶ ranks number 11 among public university peers for its engineering graduate programs according to U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings for 2025-26.

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ATLAS students learn design skills through the lens of the apocalypse

Michael Kwolek — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 16:53:27 +0000

ATLAS students learn design skills through the lens of the apocalypse Michael Kwolek Fri, 04/11/2025 - 10:53

Michael Kwolek

With the popularity of post-apocalyptic narratives like “Fallout” and “The Last of Us” along with ongoing coverage around global climate turmoil, we are culturally primed to ponder our place in the world—and the skills we could bring to an apocalypse (zombie or otherwise.)

At the ATLAS Institute, we approach challenges as engineers and designers, and one class in particular aims to impart practical skills on students with an eye toward becoming more capable in such times of crisis.

Assistant teaching professor and BTU Lab director Zack Weaver’s new course, Hacking the Apocalypse, teaches undergraduate and graduate students how to apply design thinking to address basic survival needs. This semester’s focus is water: students are tasked to research, design and build novel systems for collecting, storing, treating and distributing water using fabrication techniques and Arduino-based electronics.

Weaver elaborates on the origin of the idea: “I was looking at geopolitics, economics and the way I applied the technologies that we teach in the [Creative Technology and Design] program with a lot of pragmatism and practicality. In my own classes, when I'm assigning prompts, it's often whimsical—it's meant to spark play and creativity.”

Water is a surprisingly complex topic, touching on geology, chemistry and climatology as well as law, ethics and politics—before you even consider the engineering, technology and design challenges associated with harnessing and using it. In fact, the class has attracted students from several different majors.

In developing the course curriculum, Weaver says he “found some really interesting reading on water policy and all kinds of design/build projects for collecting and storing water—things like rain barrels and even dew collection in the middle of the desert, which sounds impossible.“

Watershed moments

Students took a field trip west of campus to the Mountain Research Station, hosted by Jen Morse (MRS climate, water, snow technician), to learn about Boulder’s watershed and the complex monitoring systems they have in place to measure snowpack, humidity, flow rate, water quality and other data.

Elizabeth Saunders, Creative Technology and Design master’s student (social impact track), shares her impressions: “The experience was eye-opening, especially learning about the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research Program and the Mountain Climate Program, which has been collecting climate data from the Colorado Front Range since 1952. One of the most fascinating facts I learned was that the air samples collected from the station serve as the global standard for air quality research. This underscores just how pristine and significant this environment is for understanding atmospheric changes on a worldwide scale.”

Students were surprised to discover the facility uses similar sensor technology to what they receive in the physical computing kits they buy for class. Weaver notes, “The Arduino platform makes things inexpensive and friendlier than a lot of commercial electronics,” though at the cost of reduced durability and accuracy.

The increasing accessibility of such technologies undergirds much of the popularity in DIY culture and maker spaces like the BTU Lab, and is indicative of the can-do spirit that defines the ATLAS community.

photo credit: Graham Stewart

Wave of innovation

Students also visited the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools (SVVSD). Weaver notes, “The Innovation Center might be one of the best technology STEM programs in a public school in the world.” They offer flight simulator training, a full aeronautics program, entrepreneurship, competitive robotics, and more.

The Innovation Center even works with Boulder County Parks and Recreation to survey watersheds and test water quality and conserve the Northern Leopard Frog in Colorado’s Front Range.

SVVSD biosciences teacher, Jayme Sneider, led ATLAS students in experiencing what water quality testing looks like at scale, demonstrating what they test for and how. The class then focused on replicating that work on the DIY level to develop open source alternatives to expensive commercial technologies.

A cascade of expert insight

The class recently hosted Mark Giordano, Professor and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Giordano previously held multiple roles at the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize—the "Nobel Prize for Water." He shared insights on water, emphasizing the importance of understanding its physical and social aspects to address global challenges.

Giordano detailed how climate change has two main impacts on weather events: intensity and frequency. “We expect that when it rains in the future it will rain even more, and then there will be longer periods between when it rains again.”

Water scarcity is a growing concern that manifests in many ways. Contrary to common assumption, Giordano noted that as much as 90% of our water goes to agriculture, not drinking water or sanitation. We may also believe water scarcity is an issue exclusive to arid places, but we have seen in recent years how inadequately-maintained infrastructure in American cities like Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, can create clean water scarcity even in places with abundant supply.

Water is a political issue, with implications around where it originates, where it flows and who claims ownership over it. Giordano elaborated, “You need clean water to live. You need it every day. It's not particularly expensive in most parts of the world to provide the minimal amount of water it takes to live a healthy life. Investment in basic water has really high returns, and yet over and over and over, we see it not being not being provided.”

A wellspring of water projects

Students are tasked with developing a water-related project over the course of the semester leveraging the tools and techniques they learn in class. They focus on one or more key areas: treatment, distribution, storage, power and collection.

ATLAS undergraduate student Rystan Qualls explains, “I’m working in the distribution group. We’re making a water distribution system that will allow a community in the apocalypse to send water to various sites like a garden or to the showers.”

Saunders details her project: “This semester, I am researching plant resilience and decay in extreme environments, with a particular interest in graywater and saltwater agriculture. My project seeks to answer the question: ‘How quickly can I kill plants so the future Utopian people don’t?’ While the phrasing is unconventional, the research focuses on identifying environmental stressors that lead to rapid plant degradation, with the broader goal of developing strategies for sustainable plant growth in challenging conditions.”

Other student projects range from a storm runoff irrigation system to a 3D-printed moisture evaporator to a smart rain barrel and even a 3D-printed steam engine prototype.

Flow of information

Hacking the Apocalypse - Fall 2025

Hacking the Apocalypse will run again in Fall 2025 with a focus on food.

Students will research, re-create and design novel systems for growing containers, soil mediums, soil and water quality monitoring, and indoor/outdoor urban agriculture systems utilizing fabrication techniques and electronic input/output systems based on the Arduino platform.

ATLS 4519/5519 Hacking the Apocalypse: Food (3 credit hours)

Learn More

Weaver describes his ambition for Hacking the Apocalypse: “Each class is supposed to end in documentation of the projects to a degree that you can hand it off to lay people who don't have to be particularly highly trained to understand it. This is ‘Book One.’”

The goal is to follow this semester with versions of the class focusing on other basic needs—food, clothing and shelter—before returning to water. “Then that water class will inherit everything the first class did, and their expectation will be a different set of design challenges where they have to incrementally improve or iterate on what people did before.”

As for takeaways from this semester, Saunders says, “My research in Hacking the Apocalypse builds upon my background in water policy and sustainability, as well as my ongoing work with FLOW [a legal organization dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes Basin.] My work in this class has given me hands-on experience in water purification, sustainable irrigation and the challenges of resource-limited environments.”

As the semester concludes, Weaver observes, “I'm rediscovering the whole world. I've engaged with it becauseI'm outdoors all the time. But I never understood the planet from a systems perspective, and this is just blowing my mind.”

ATLAS students can now add “apocalypse preparedness” to the engineering, design and creative skills they develop here. Though Weaver does clarify, “It's not an apocalypse class. It's about if you do certain things, you avoid the apocalypse. I'm trying to tell the students it's a utopian class.”

photo credits (unless otherwise noted): Ashley Stafford

At the ATLAS Institute, students tackle real-world challenges through design. Hacking the Apocalypse, a course led by Zack Weaver, teaches undergraduate and graduate students to apply design principles to address a surprising topic: apocalypse preparedness. Using Arduino-based electronics and fabrication techniques, students develop novel water collection and treatment systems.

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Creative Technology and Design master’s students collaborate with City of Denver to enhance civic engagement

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:28:39 +0000

Creative Technology and Design master’s students collaborate with City of Denver to enhance civic engagement Michael Kwolek Mon, 12/16/2024 - 10:28

Michael Kwolek

Building civic pride and engagement are essential for cities to thrive. This semester, teams of Creative Technology and Design (CTD) master’s students developed proposals in coordination with the City of Denver aiming to do just that.

The CTD program engages students in pursuing practical solutions to real-world design challenges by blending behavioral insights, technology, branding and marketing, and physical objects. This comprehensive approach can yield more meaningful outcomes than one-off fixes are often able to achieve.

Indeed, while CTD students pursue unique paths focusing on creative industries, social impact or performance technology, they also work on cross-disciplinary team projects that push their boundaries and prepare them to succeed in careers across many industries.

Many methods to design
This year’s cohort had the opportunity to collaborate with the City of Denver to propose solutions for two initiatives as part of Design Methods, a foundational class all CTD students complete.

By nature, good design has no one right approach. Design Methods, taught by Derek Friday and John Breznicky, familiarizes students with many different ways to address design prompts, including the concepts of deliberate observation (e.g. cultural probes, ethnography); “problem finding” and “design thinking”; “wicked problems”; iterative design; and alternative generation and assessment.

The class culminates with month-long final projects in which teams collaborate on proposals to address real-life design needs. This semester, four teams of CTD master’s students worked on projects in partnership with the Denver Mayor’s Office to develop solutions to support two remarkable initiatives.

They delivered final presentations in ATLAS’s B2 Black Box Experimental Studio. In attendance were representatives from the City of Denver, including First Lady Johnston, and Tran Nguyen-Wills, Deputy Outreach Director, along with Josh Wills, Creative Director & Partner at Consume & Create. Each team’s members brought a variety of skills, talents and interests to their groups and collectively they proposed a series of multidisciplinary solutions.

Friday noted, “[The teams] were able to generate solid ideas based on the brief and using the process that we taught them during the semester with the caveat that [the process of] developing your own method for problem solving continues to evolve throughout your entire creative process… They were pros and we were really, really proud.”

Here is some of what the teams presented:

Little Saigon / Saigon Azteca

Team 1 - Abena Gyimah, Julia McKeag, Harsita Rajendren, Shreya Pradeep Sekar, Justin Chan, Lavan Kumar Baskaran, Mythiresh Gajendra Babu
Team 2 - Sylvia Robles, Colin Egge, Jax Whitham, Jacy Ashford, Ayesha Rawal, Noah Reardon
Team 3 - Scott Ehrlich, Eli Skelly, Clayton Hester, Shraddha Shinde, Nick Barcalow, Arjun Ramachandran

Little Saigon Denver is a vibrant cultural enclave known for its rich Vietnamese heritage and community dating back over 40 years, as well as a growing Hispanic community. The City of Denver has identified opportunities to enhance cultural preservation, spark economic development and engage the community in this district.

City designers presented this strategy: “Exploring the intersectionality of the AAPI and Latino/Indigenous cultures, including music, dance, and ceremonies, will result in a compelling brand that amplifies the rich heritage of the communities that call this Cultural District home.”

Three teams proposed comprehensive design solutions incorporating branding (logos, color palettes, typography) and digital solutions (web and mobile integrations) along with physical interventions ranging from modular planters to signage to walkability improvements.

In lieu of an ornamental archway over a busy thoroughfare to mark the neighborhood, one team proposed a pedestrian bridge incorporating cultural design elements, with the aim to improve accessibility and safety. This combination of aesthetic enhancement and cultural relevance combined with practical, human-scale problem-solving powered by technology exemplifies what makes the CTD program special.

Josh Will, who developed the project briefs the students worked from, noted in his feedback to one team, “Given the community’s curb appeal—or lack thereof—it’s a very vibrant district and community, and you have done a great job of taking everything that exists on the inside. When you go into a restaurant or any of the businesses, the community is very welcoming and energetic, uplifting, bright and vibrant. And throughout your entire visualization and also the physical planters and archways—you’ve taken what exists inside and brought it outside.”

Give5 Mile High
Team: Aaron Neyer, Elizabeth Saunders, Pavan Dayal, Shawn Duncan Jr., Stephanie Babb

Give5 Mile High is a citywide volunteer initiative led by First Lady of Denver Courtney Johnston and the Mayor’s Office outreach team. This program empowers Denverites to come together to strengthen the community through collective service.

The City of Denver’s design team identified two key needs to ensure Give5 Mile High success:

A technology solution to support and connect volunteers, organizations and local businesses.
A marketing campaign to raise awareness among key stakeholders.

The student team presented a detailed mock-up of a mobile app designed to simplify connectivity and improve participation in Give5 Mile High. They also built a comprehensive brand and marketing strategy incorporating social media and local influencers to boost program awareness and engagement.

In her feedback to the team, First Lady Johnston said, “This is exactly what we were hoping [the team] would achieve. It made sense to think this should be a very user-friendly app that invites people to participate, and you all did it. This is incredible. I love that there are lots of things we didn’t even think about that you can do.”

Mayor Johnston was able to view the presentation remotely and added, “What I love about it is that it fundamentally understands and accelerates the two major principles of the project. One—how to make it so much easier for folks to sign up—the ease of sign-up is so powerful that the app makes possible. The second is the idea that the service is an act of community building. It is a way in which you serve with other people that binds you together, and this seamlessly connects you to other people.”

Additional project presentations
Aside from the work with the City of Denver, two more student teams presented projects combining engineering, design, data and art. Take a look:

Climate Threads
Team: Sara Runkel, Robyn Marowitz, Caitlin Littlejohn, Kate Rooney

Climate Threads aims to raise awareness about air quality and its impact on public health. Through data visualization and textile design, invisible disparities in air quality become visible and tangible. Explore the data on the project website.

Confluence
Team: Abe Homer, Shalimar Alvarado Cruz Hebbeler, Abhinav Mehrotra, Alexander LaFontaine, Cambria Klinger

Confluence is an interactive, immersive experience that explores the artistry of water. The dynamic fluid simulation can be interacted with by tilting a cairn on all four axes. Laser-cut and built using chipboard, the cairn represents the confluence of both the digital and physical world. The installation was completed with the use of projection, spatial audio, and soft ambient lighting for a peaceful and immersive experience. Learn more on the project website.

Designing through radical creativity and inclusion
Gordon Müller-Seitz, guest researcher and Chair of Strategy, Innovation and Cooperation at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) in Germany, provided students support and guidance throughout the semester. In addressing attendees, he summed up the ATLAS program by saying, “I really appreciated that you live up to your motto that you strive for radical creativity. But it is not only radical creativity—it is also this radical inclusiveness.”

Learn more about the Creative Technology and Design master’s program

Students proposed design solutions to bolster community interaction and pride in support of the Little Saigon neighborhood and local volunteering initiative, Give5 Mile High.

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16 Members of the ATLAS Community Present Groundbreaking Research on Human-Computer Interaction at ACM DIS 2023

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:43:45 +0000

16 Members of the ATLAS Community Present Groundbreaking Research on Human-Computer Interaction at ACM DIS 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/05/2023 - 13:43

Michael Kwolek

ATLAS is well-represented at this year’s ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2023 conference convening at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh from July 10-14, 2023. This year’s theme is resilience.

"Resilience is at once about flexibility, durability, and strength as well as a sense of mutuality and hope where solidaristic modes of engagement make new kinds of worlds possible.

This also recognizes that resilience takes many forms in design discourse, ranging across: indigenous knowledge, more-than-human perspectives, and the relationship between human, material and artificial intelligences."

It is exciting to see members across more than half of ATLAS labs represented in this year’s proceedings, with broad-reaching research covering microbiomes as materials for interactive design; 3D printing with spent coffee grounds; personal informatics systems; improving cross-disciplinary collaboration among artists and researchers; expressive movement for altering emotions and awareness; and the intersection of crocheting and data. Take a look:

µMe: Exploring the Human Microbiome as an Intimate Material for Living Interfaces
Fiona Bell (ATLAS PhD alum), Michelle Ramsahoye (ATLAS affiliate PhD student), Joshua Coffie (ATLAS MS alum), Julia Tung (ATLAS BS student), and Mirela Alistar (ATLAS Living Matter Lab director, assistant professor)

Our bodies are home to an unseen ecosystem of microbes that live in symbiosis with us. In this work, we extend the “human” in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to include these microbes. Specifically, we explore the skin microbiome as an intimate material for interaction design. Viewing the body as a microbial interface, we start by presenting a method to grow our microbiome such that it becomes visible to the human eye. We then present a design space that explores how different environmental parameters, such as temperature and growth media, can be controlled to influence the color of the microbiome. We further investigate how our interactions in a daily uncontrolled environment (e.g., exercising, hugging, typing) can impact the microbiome. We demonstrate several wearable applications that reveal and control the microbiome. Lastly, we address the challenges and opportunities of working with the microbiome as an intimate, living material for interaction design.

Designing a Sustainable Material for 3D Printing with Spent Coffee Grounds
Michael L. Rivera (ATLAS Utility Research Lab Director, assistant professor), S. Sandra Bae (ATLAS PhD student)

The widespread adoption of 3D printers exacerbates existing environmental challenges as these machines increase energy consumption, waste output, and the use of plastics. Material choice for 3D printing is tightly connected to these challenges, and as such researchers and designers are exploring sustainable alternatives. Building on these efforts, this work explores using spent coffee grounds as a sustainable material for prototyping with 3D printing. This material, in addition to being compostable and recyclable, can be easily made and printed at home. We describe the material in detail, including the process of making it from readily available ingredients, its material characteristics and its printing parameters. We then explore how it can support sustainable prototyping practices as well as HCI applications. In reflecting on our design process, we discuss challenges and opportunities for the HCI community to support sustainable prototyping and personal fabrication. We conclude with a set of design considerations for others to weigh when exploring sustainable materials for 3D printing and prototyping.

For additional details, see our article on how this and other Utility Research Lab projects won awards at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival.

Being, Having, Doing, and Interacting: A Personal Informatics Approach to Understanding Human Need Satisfaction in Everyday Life
Michael Jeffrey Daniel Hoefer, Stephen Voida, (ATLAS affiliate assistant professor, founding faculty, information science)

A grand challenge for computing is to better understand fundamental human needs and their satisfaction. In this work, we design a personal informatics technology probe that scaffolds reflection on how time-use satisfies Max-Neef's fundamental needs of being, having, doing, and interacting via self-aspects, relationships and organizations, activities, and environments. Through a combination of a think-aloud study (N=10) and a week-long in situ deployment (N=7), participants used the probe to complete self- aspect elicitation and Day Reconstruction Method tasks. Participants then interacted with network visualizations of their daily lives, and discovered insights about their lives. During the study, we collected a dataset of 662 activities annotated with need satisfaction ratings. Despite challenges in operationalizing a theory of need through direct elicitation from individuals, personal informatics systems show potential as a participatory and individually meaningful approach for understanding need satisfaction in everyday life.

Enhancing Accessibility in Soft Robotics: Exploring Magnet-Embedded Paper-Based Interactions
Ruhan Yang (ATLAS PhD student), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (ATLAS ACME Lab director, faculty member)

This paper explores the implementation of embedded magnets to enhance paper-based interactions. The integration of magnets in paper-based interactions simplifies the fabrication process, making it more accessible for building soft robotics systems. We discuss various interaction patterns achievable through this approach and highlight their potential applications.

[Workshop] Towards Mutual Benefit: Reflecting on Artist Residencies as a Method for Collaboration in DIS
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS Unstable Design Lab director, assistant professor), Leah Buechley, Noura Howell, Jennifer Jacobs, Hsin-Liu (Cindy) Kao, Martin Murer, Daniela Rosner, Nica Ross, Robert Soden, Jared Tso, Clement Zheng (ATLAS PhD alum)

While cross-disciplinary collaboration has long been, and continues to be a cornerstone of inventive work in interactive design, the infrastructures of academia, as well as barriers to participation imposed by our professional organizations, make collaboration for some groups harder than others. In this workshop, we’ll focus specifically on how artists residencies are addressing (or not) the challenges that artists, craftspeople, and/or independent designers face when collaborating with researchers affiliated with DIS. While focusing on the question “what is mutual benefit”, this workshop seeks to combine the perspectives of artists as well as researchers collaborating with artists (through residencies or otherwise) to (1) reflect on benefits or deficiencies in what we are currently doing and (2) generate resources for our community to effectively structure and evaluate our methods of collaboration with artists. Our hope is to provide recognition of and pathways for equitable inclusion of artists as a first step towards broader infrastructural change.

Refer to the Unstable Design Lab website for more details on this research.

[Demo] SoniSpace: Expressive Movement Interaction to Encourage Taking Up Space with the Body
Ruojia Sun (ATLAS PhD student), Althea Vail Wallop (ATLAS MS student), Grace Leslie (ATLAS Brain Music Lab director, assistant professor), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (ATLAS ACME Lab director, faculty member)

Movement forms the basis of our thoughts, emotions, and ways of being in the world. Informed by somaesthetics, we design for "taking up space" (e.g. encouraging expansive body movements), which may in turn alter our emotional experience. We demonstrate SoniSpace, an expressive movement interaction experience that uses movement sonification and visualization to encourage users to take up space with their body. We use a first-person design approach to embed qualities of awareness, exploration, and comfort into the sound and visual design to promote authentic and enjoyable movement expression regardless of prior movement experience. Preliminary results from 20 user experiences with the system show that users felt more comfortable with taking up space and with movement in general following the interaction. We discuss our findings about designing for somatically-focused movement interactions and directions for future work.

[Demo] Crochet and Data Activity Book
Mikhaila Friske (ATLAS affiliate PhD student)

This demo focuses around crocheting and data. In addition to a physical workbook for conference goers to peruse and try, there will be a few small set-ups for specific activities and a small craft circle for people to craft within if they so choose.

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Spring 2023 ATLAS Student Awards

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 16:15:31 +0000

Spring 2023 ATLAS Student Awards Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/27/2023 - 10:15

Graduating in May 2023 with degrees in Creative Technology and Design, these graduate and undergraduate students listed are recognized for exceptional accomplishments, having demonstrated initiative in their academic and extracurricular activities, completing outstanding research or creative projects, or contributing significantly to the ATLAS community.

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Black box designed by ATLAS students rises 101,000 feet, captures data and imagination

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 19:54:41 +0000

Black box designed by ATLAS students rises 101,000 feet, captures data and imagination Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/12/2022 - 13:54

You're standing in the middle of this vast—as far as the eye can see—grassland. And this thing that you just let go of in downtown Boulder has traveled there on its own. There's this moment of disbelief until you're right there with it. ~ Zack Weaver, CEAS lecturer, ATLAS Institute

Video from almost 101,000 feet, beginning shortly before the balloon bursts.

First students built the instrumentation. Then they attached it to a high-altitude weather balloon that took it to an altitude of 101,000 feet. Thanks to the geolocation technology they had incorporated, they were then able to locate it 120 miles away in Eastern Colorado.

The collaborative project was part of a class taught by ATLAS Lecturer Zack Weaver called Creative Technologies, a required class in the College of Engineering MS in Creative Technology and Design, offered through the ATLAS Institute.

The instrumentation they built included an Arduino microcontroller connected to sensors that measured and recorded location, temperature, air pressure and altitude. A GoPro was sent along for the ride, capturing continuous video of the four-hour flight that began outside the Boulder Public Library’s BLDG 61 Makerspace, where Weaver works, and ended in a field in Eastern Colorado 120 miles away.

The students, many of whom began the class without much of a technical background, wrote and tested the code for the microcontroller, designed and built the insulated casing that held the camera and protected the electronics and batteries from temperatures of approximately -35° Fahrenheit. The payload design allowed environmental sensors and a GPS antenna to capture and record data to an SD card. The students were then able to plot and compare flight simulation data and actual data visualized in Google Earth.

“The students learned which creative technologies could be used to pull off this feat,” Weaver said. “It’s probably not the right terminology, but they get a ‘crash course’—learning many things very quickly.”

Besides coding and electronics, students also learned wireless communication, design and fabrication techniques, including laser cutting, 3D printing and integrating electronic components into the student-designed payload. As required by the Federal Aviation Administration, the team registered the balloon flight, providing its anticipated flight path based on their models.

“This class is a blast,” said Neill Shikada, who is enrolled in the Creative Industries track of the ATLAS Creative Technologies and Design master's program. “I've come from knowing nothing about electronics to designing quite a few aspects of the instrumentation for our balloon flight."

Alejandra Guerro, a social impact master’s student, echoed Shikada’s sentiments. “I'm definitely enjoying the class,” she said. “A lot of technologies that seemed intimidating or difficult, now feel more accessible. I've learned that I can learn just about anything with enough Googling, patience and help from classmates.”

“Needle in a stack of needles”
As the pressure decreased with the rising altitude, the 7-foot-diameter balloon at ground level expanded to an estimated 25 feet before bursting. Its dizzying descent was captured on video.

Prediction software provided an estimate of the balloon’s location within a five-kilometer radius. Then, using the Automated Packet Reporting System (APRS), a ham radio network connected directly to a web server, they were able to pinpoint the balloon’s location to within one-tenth of a mile. As a backup, the team put a small commercial GPS tracker onboard that tracked the balloon's position online in real-time, but the APRS system worked perfectly.

“We added as many redundant tracking systems as possible without weighing it down more than necessary,” Weaver said. “Every gram is critical to how high the balloon can fly.”

Because the flight took approximately four hours, Weaver and some of the students had plenty of time to drive out to Eastern Colorado, initially aiming for where they thought the balloon would land and then course-correcting once they had actual coordinates.

“We dream of seeing this thing coming down, but in Eastern Colorado, it’s like finding a needle in a stack of needles,” Weaver said.

Crash course
In addition to mapping the actual flight path on Google Earth, students were asked to analyze variations and anomalies compared to the predicted flight path. While examining the data, students discovered that the sensors recorded higher temperatures than the APRS reported and concluded they were mistakenly measuring the interior of their insulated casing. They also learned the limitations of a $5 altitude sensor, which loses accuracy over 60,000 feet.

“These limitations, and the opportunity to read the data to discover them, are intentionally baked into the experience,” said Weaver. “It contextualizes the affordances and constraints of the toolset.”

“The project helped the students understand that they can’t learn all creative technologies,” he added. “We set a context that provided constraints for deciding which technologies are needed and to what extent. It helped them to not be overwhelmed by an overabundance of choices.”

The balloon flight was the key project for the first half of the Creative Technologies course; the second half is designed so students use the balloon experience as a reference for their independent design projects. There’s also a lineup of guest speakers, giving students diverse perspectives on similar types of technologies and how they are used professionally.

“I've shown them a reasonable amount of new technologies,” Weaver said. “The students will define any additional technologies they need to work with on a more individual basis. So at this point, they're in charge of the class, and I'm just there as support to run logistics and to bring in cool people for them to meet.

“I remember sometimes feeling almost complete isolation as a grad student on campus," said Weaver. "Getting off-campus and out in the world came as such a novelty. I think this group of students had that experience, particularly driving out to Eastern Colorado. And they didn't just learn how to work with electronics and design tools; they applied them, and it took them to new places."

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ATLAS students take home HackCU's top awards

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 22:13:49 +0000

ATLAS students take home HackCU's top awards Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/04/2022 - 16:13

For the second year running, Creative Technology and Design students won first place at the largest university hackathon in the Rocky Mountain region, HackCU, held this year March 5-6 on the �鶹��Ƶ campus. Another student, whose two majors include CTD and computer science, took second place this year as the sole member of his team.

Océane Andreis (MS-CTD), Katherine Tran (BS-CTD), Sangati Shah (engineering and business, CTD minor) and Patricia Chin (computer science, minoring in CTD and business) together won first prize overall, as well as the social impact prize, for their project TL-DR, which helps users understand what they consent to when agreeing to data privacy terms and conditions. The team of four formed after working together as organizers of the ATLAS Institute’s 2022 T9Hacks, a hackathon that aims to attract women and other groups typically underrepresented at such events. Michał Bodzianowski (majoring in computer science and CTD, with a business minor) won second prize overall for his solo invention, Creatle, a web-based game engine/platform where technical novices can create their own remixes of the classic Wordle game. Creatle also won the Best Game and Entertainment Prize.

Last year, CTD undergraduate students Mason Moran and Colin Soguero, working alongside Colin's brother, Luke Soguero (computer science), took first prize at HackCU for their project, ChessLens, an augmented reality application that helps chess players improve their game.

HackCU is an annual invention marathon where participants build and share their creations in just 24 hours. This year there were 29 submissions from 96 participants. The TL-DR team and Bodzianowski won electronics and other prizes.

All of this year's ATLAS winners said that participating in T9Hacks was a key component of their success.

“We felt inspired by the T9Hacks participants who worked incredibly hard, and we wanted to work just as hard,” Andreis said.

Inspired by others

Bodzianowski said his Creatle invention was inspired by T9Hack’s winning entry, Complexify, a Worldle-like game platform.

“Creatle is my attempt to create a platform for people to create, share and play their own remixes of the classic Wordle format with minimum effort,” he said.

But things did not go well at first for Bodzianowski. First he arrived an hour late to the hackathon; then at 3 a.m. he decided to scrap the experimental technologies he was using and restart his project. He almost quit, he said, but then pivoted to the technologies he used during the 2022 T9Hacks hackathon.

“With the help of a copious amount of caffeine, I was able to get a working prototype of Creatle finished just in time for judging,” he said.

At that point the actual "create" part of Creatle wasn't working— instead Bodzianowski showed the judges how he made the games through a development database and focused on the technical and design aspects of the project.

TL-DR allows users to take control of their data by encouraging them to stay informed about their data privacy. The solution is two-pronged: first a Google Chrome extension displays the terms and conditions of a viewed platform in short digestible bullet points. There’s also a website that helps users visualize the data that they willingly provide when blindly agreeing to website terms and conditions.

All of TL-DR’s team members had completed ethics classes where data privacy was covered, such as the "Meaning of Information Technology." Those ATLAS classes helped inspire their project idea, Tran said.

“Most people accept the lack of data privacy as the price to pay for free services,” she said. “Having learned about the extensive information that huge technology companies collect and seeing how invasive and harmful it can be, we felt motivated to respond to this topic.”

Everyone on the TL-DR team played to their strengths, Shah said. Andreis coded the Chrome extension and worked alongside Tran on the website. Chin prototyped the team’s visuals while Shah pulled together the sample data and reviewed terms and conditions.

“In the midst of all the coding and designing, we had lots of fun eating the food, attending the side events, and, of course, just enjoying each others’ company—like any other team would,” Tran said.

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