LUCI Blog

I believe that two of our natural resources that we don't leverage enough for research in the LUCI lab are sunshine and traffic. We have both in abundance and don't do much with either. So in the spirit of pushing on those fronts, here is a link to a cool alternative traffic light design courtesy of Wikipedia via information aesthetics.

"The Marshalite is a form of rotary traffic signal that was designed by Charles Marshall in 1936. It consists of two rotors pointing at coloured sections that denoted whether traffic in either direction should proceed, prepare, or stop. Variations exist for pedestrian crossings with additional text instructing crossers to "Walk" or "Don't Walk". The last Marshalite to exist before they were removed in the 1970s was along the Nepean Highway, in Victoria."

Congratulations to Informatics undergraduate student, Sam Kaufman, who is being nominated as UROP Researcher of the Month!

"This is in recognition of your outstanding undergraduate research efforts. In addition to recognizing your efforts, other students can also benefit by learning more about your experience. Your profile will be highlighted on the UROP Website under opportunities."

Congratulations to Informatics undergraduate student, Gabriela Marcu, who will be presenting "Reactions to the use of wearable recording technology for aiding people with memory impairments" at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing this fall. This work was conducted under the advisement of Gillian Hayes (also in LUCI) and Khai Truong (University of Toronto) in collaboration with LUCI Ph.D. student, David Nguyen. Congratulations and good luck to all!

"To finish a dissertation, you are expected to move toward distant goals with few concrete milestones. For many, the instinct is to go it alone. Grinding it out in isolation, however, is unlikely to produce your highest-quality work most efficiently.

But, you may ask, what choice do you have? A graduate student's support system can be thin. Getting time with the busy professors who ostensibly provide our main guidance is not easy. Even if they are accessible, it makes sense to use their time efficiently. They may expect to review only polished products and engage in only crucial conversations, rather than assist with everyday decisions."

"the largest color LED display worldwide, & the first photo-voltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China. the display requires zero external energy, as the facade harvests solar energy by day & uses it to illuminate the screen after dark. the display comprises of 2,292 color (RGB) LED’s light points comparable to a 24,000 sq. ft. (2.200 m2) monitor screen for dynamic content display"

The Nomatic*IM team is proud to announce the release of Nomatic*IM 0.0.5.
This is a general purpose version for the Mac.
You can download it from http://djp3-pc2.ics.uci.edu/LUCICodeRepository/nomaticIM/wiki/Download

New features and enhancements:

• Post User Study:
  • Removed suggestion shuffling so that predictions are better.
  • Allowed Nomatic*IM to fill in best guess as default.
• New broadcast options:
  • Added support for Twitter.
  • Added more flexible broadcasting via the preference pane.
  • Rearchitected the broadcast code for better speed.

This is a video interview with the senior curator of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" show at MOMA. Click on the image to view it.

"To document MoMA's wonderful, monumental exhibit spanning design, science and technology, "Design and the Elastic Mind," we enlisted the help of the show's esteemed curator, Paola Antonelli. Paola speaks in detail about several of the exhibits, including "The Afterlife," a system for turning corpses into batteries, robots that act as personal climatizers and DNA origami. She also weighs in on her curatorial approach, addressing the role of the designer, her mission to shift public perception of design and how design revolutionizes our lives."

Congratulations to Informatics undergraduates Gabi Marcu and Sam Kaufman on being asked to speak at the UROP Undergraduate Research Symposium regarding their two separate projects, SenseCam and Nomatic*IM, respectively. The symposium will be held on Saturday, May 31 at the UCI Humanities Buildings.

" UROP sponsors the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium, an annual event held in May that allows hundreds of undergraduates the opportunity to present their research results or creative activities in a professional setting. The Symposium provides the opportunity for students to attend and learn about the work of their fellow students, and to volunteer to assist at the event. Members of the larger UCI community are also invited to attend."

Congratulations to Informatics Master's student Kah Liu and Informatics Professor Don Patterson on having received a grant from the Ted and Janice Smith Faculty Seed Fund:

"We propose to test the concept of a context-aware to-do list. Such a to-do list would enable a user to filter their to do items according to their current place or activity. This system builds on the existing Nomatic*IM architecture but takes the research in a new direction."

The dashboard for the Lamborghini Reventón. How much does good design cost? Well this design will cost you 1 million euro. Oh for the day when my car needs an artificial horizon indicator....