Strategic Growth Area: Creativity and Innovation (C&I)
Permanent URI for this collection
C&I is the refinement of two early SGAs: Creative Technologies and Experiences and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. C&I melds the exploration of innovative technologies and the design of creative experiences with best practices for developing impact-driven and meaningful outcomes and solutions. C&I builds and strengthens creative communities; supports economic development; and enhances quality of life through self-sustaining and entrepreneurial activities.
The Creative Technologies and Experiences (CT+E) Strategic Growth Area develops 21st-century transdisciplinarians who are well-versed in the unique processes of collaborative environments and whose creative portfolios and capstone projects generate new, or address an existing, real-world opportunity. CT+E exists at the technology-mediated intersection of the arts, design, science, and engineering. Participants are uniquely empowered to focus on and to holistically explore opportunities while developing an integrative approach to thinking and problem solving.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship SGA was described as Working across all disciplines, we strive to address problems, innovate solutions, and make an impact through entrepreneurial ventures... We create an atmosphere and culture that unleashes creativity, sparks vision and innovation, and teaches the governing principles that are the foundation of every successful progressive enterprise. Our training, investments, and activities include discovery science, applied science, and processes related to commercialization/implementation and management – all in a global context and consistent with ethical principles.
Browse
Browsing Strategic Growth Area: Creativity and Innovation (C&I) by Content Type "Technical report"
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Center Program Snapshot (April 2009)Center for Power Electronics Systems (Virginia Tech. Center for Power Electronics Systems, 2009-04)With the widespread use of power electronics technology, the United States would be able to cut electrical energy consumption by 33 percent. The energy savings, by today’s measure, is equivalent to the total output of 840 fossil fuel-based generating plants. This would result in enormous economic, environmental and social benefits. The engineers of the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) are working to make electric power processing more efficient and more exact in order to achieve these benefits. The effort requires close collaboration with industry and with researchers across universities and fields of endeavor. Electrification is considered the greatest engineering feat of the 20th century by the National Academy of Engineering. The dream of CPES engineers is to take electricity to the next step and develop power processing systems of the highest value to society.
- Collaborative Design for Young Children with Autism: Design Tools and a User StudyMcCrickard, D. Scott; Abel, Troy D.; Scarpa, Angela; Wang, Yao (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2013-09-30)This paper provides an overview of a collaborative design effort that involves computer scientists, psychologists, and designers working together to investigate design methods to help in the creation of technology to people with cognitive disabilities. The focus of this effort was in developing techniques to help novice designers create technology interfaces to support anger management in young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The primary output for designers is a card set for which each card has a claim about an anger management technique that can help young people. Design activities leveraging scenarios and personas are suggested that leverage the card set in the creation of technology interfaces. This paper introduces the card set and supporting techniques, describes a design session in an undergraduate classroom setting, and speculates about future directions for this work.
- Collaborative Storyboarding: Artifact-Driven Construction of Shared UnderstandingWahid, Shahtab; Branham, Stacy; Harrison, Steven R.; McCrickard, D. Scott (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2009)Collaborative storyboarding, with a focus on aggregating designers’ expertise in the storyboarding process, offers the opportunity for a group of designers to make progress toward creating a visual narrative for a new interface or technology, but it requires the designers to work together to explore ideas, differentiate between options, and construct a common solution. Important in collaborative storyboarding is the shared understanding that emerges among the designers and the obstacles they face in establishing that understanding. This paper defines a model for collaborative storyboarding, presents a study that explores group interactions in collaborative storyboarding, and analyzes the interactions using the distributed cognition and common ground theories. Our findings demonstrate that joint interaction and enthusiastic efforts within each phase lead to active information exchanges and shared understanding among the members of the group.
- CPES : 10-Year Progress ReportCenter for Power Electronics Systems; Uncork-it, Inc. (Virginia Tech. Center for Power Electronics Systems, 2010-04)A major strength of CPES is its ability to use a wealth of existing resources and industrial collaboration. Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are the nation’s leaders in power electronics and advanced power semiconductor materials and devices. These three universities have combined forces with North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T) and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM), which are institutions with solid reputations in the quality of their undergraduate engineering programs as well as their power electronics and related research. Virginia Tech brings expertise in high-frequency power conversion devices and circuit technologies, power electronics packaging, and systems integration. The University of Wisconsin has expertise in industrial and utility-grade power conversion, electric machines and motor drives, and industrial controls. RPI’s expertise involves novel discrete power semiconductor materials, process techniques, power devices, and smart power ICs. North Carolina A&T contributes knowledge of nonlinear control, neural networks, and fuzzy logic-based intelligent control, and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez has expertise in controls and electric machines. The resources and expertise of researchers from each of these institutions have contributed to the success of the Center. CPES industry members have been the critical key in our success. From the beginning, industry members have been enthusiastic and involved, helping shape goals and contributing to the management of the ERC. Since 1998, CPES research goals have evolved and the collaborations with industry and university researchers have strengthened. CPES succeeded in changing the technology of power electronics, while increasing knowledge and participation in the field. As we graduate from the NSF ERC program, we look forward to building on our global collaboration and changing the way electricity is used.
- Development of a Collaborative Design Tool for Structural Analysis in an Immersive Virtual EnvironmentSetareh, Mehdi; Bowman, Douglas A.; Tumati, P. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)This paper contains the results of an on-going collaborative research effort by the departments of Architecture and Computer Science of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, U.S.A., to develop a computer visualization application for the structural analysis of building structures. The VIRTUAL-SAP computer program is being developed by linking PC-SAP4 (Structural Analysis Program), and virtual environment software developed using the SVE (Simple Virtual Environment) library. VIRTUAL-SAP is intended for use as a collaborative design tool to facilitate the interaction between the architect, engineer, and contractor by providing an environment that they can walk-through and observe the consequences of design alterations. Therefore, this software can be used as an interactive computer-aided analysis of building systems.
- Effects of Active Exploration and Passive Observation on Spatial Learning in a CAVEMelanson, Brian; Kelso, John; Bowman, Douglas A. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2002-07-01)This experiment was a modification of Paul N. Wilson's 1999 study entitled "Active Exploration of a Virtual Environment Does Not Promote Orientation or Memory for Objects." It was hoped that changing the immersion level from a standard desktop monitor to a more immersive CAVE environment would change the results of this experiment. All subjects explored a three-dimensional virtual environment in a CAVE. Active subjects were given controls to choose their own path and explore the environment. Passive subjects watched a playback tour through the virtual environment. A unique active subject determined the tour for each passive subject. Each subject was asked to remember the objects they saw, their locations, and the floor plan of the environment. Afterward, subjects were asked to indicate the direction to another location that was not visible from the current location. Other object memory tests required recalling the location of each object and indicating it on a plan view of the environment. Similar to Wilson's experiment, this experiment yielded no significant indication that active exploration or passive observation changes the level of spatial learning.
- Immersive Virtual Environments for University Education: Views from the ClassroomBowman, Douglas A.; Gracey, Matthew; Lucas, John F.; Setareh, Mehdi; Varadarajan, Srinidhi (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2003)Education has long been touted as an important application area for immersive virtual environments (VEs). VEs can allow students to visualize and interact with complex three-dimensional (3D) structures, perform virtual experiments,#157; view scenes with natural head and body movements, and experience environments that would be otherwise inaccessible because of distance (the surface of the Moon), scale (a complex molecule), or danger (a sunken ship). Many researchers have explored the use of VEs for education [1, 2], with some degree of success. However, few VE systems have been deployed for actual classroom use, and little is known about effective methods for employing VEs in real-world settings (the work of Johnson et al. is a notable exception [4]). In this paper, we describe three VE applications developed to teach university students concepts in the areas of computer graphics, building structures, and computer networking, and discuss our experience in using them as integral parts of appropriate classes at Virginia Tech. We differ from Johnson et al. in our focus on postsecondary education and in our use of VEs as tools within a traditional lecture-based class. We present our observations of what worked and what did not, and offer guidelines for others wishing to incorporate VEs into the classroom.
- Pinch Keyboard: Natural Text Input for Immersive Virtual EnvironmentsBowman, Douglas A.; Ly, Vinh Q.; Campbell, Joshua M. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Text entry may be needed for system control tasks in immersive virtual environments, but no efficient and usable techniques exist. We present the pinch keyboard interaction technique, which simulates a standard QWERTY keyboard using Pinch Gloves™ and 6 DOF trackers. The system includes visual and auditory feedback and a simple method of calibration.
- Testbed Evaluation of Virtual Environment Interaction TechniquesBowman, Douglas A.; Johnson, D.; Hodges, Larry F. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Testbed Evaluation of Virtual Environment Interaction Techniques
- Tuning Complex Systems by Sonifying Their Performance DataHenthorne, Cody; Bukvic, Ivica Ico; Pyla, Pardha S.; Tilevich, Eli (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2013)In the modern computing landscape, the challenge of tuning software systems is exacerbated by the necessity to accommodate multiple divergent execution environments and stakeholders. Achieving optimal performance requires a different configuration for every combination of hardware setups and business requirements. In addition, the state of the art in system tuning can involve complex statistical models, which require deep expertise not commonly possessed by the average software developer. This paper presents a novel approach to tuning complex software systems by leveraging sound to convey performance information during execution. We conducted a scientific survey to determine which sound characteristics (e.g., loudness, panning, pitch, tempo, etc.) are most accurate to express information to the average programmer. As determined by the survey, the characteristics that scored the highest across all the participants were used to create a proof-of-concept demonstration. The demonstration showed that a programmer who is not an expert in either software tuning or enterprise computing can configure the parameters of a real world enterprise application server, so that its resulting performance surpasses that exhibited under the standard configuration. Our results indicate that sound-based tuning approaches can provide valuable solutions to the challenges of configuring complex computer systems.
- Using Pinch Gloves(TM) for both Natural and Abstract Interaction Techniques in Virtual EnvironmentsBowman, Douglas A.; Wingrave, Chadwick A.; Campbell, J. B.; Ly, Vinh Q. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Usable three-dimensional (3D) interaction techniques are difficult to design, implement, and evaluate. One reason for this is a poor understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the wide range of 3D input devices, and of the mapping between input devices and interaction techniques. We present an analysis of Pinch Gloves™ and their use as input devices for virtual environments (VEs). We have developed a number of novel and usable interaction techniques for VEs using the gloves, including a menu system, a technique for text input, and a two-handed navigation technique. User studies have indicated the usability and utility of these techniques.