NSF career awards

Ariane Middel and Robert LiKamWa, both faculty members in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, have earned National Science Foundation early faculty career awards for 2020. The NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program selects young faculty members throughout the U.S. and supports them with funding to pursue outstanding research and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Middel, who is also assistant professor in the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, is researching how people experience heat, with hopes that cities can use the findings to inform their design guidelines for the amount of shade a path or a playground should have. LiKamWa, who is also an assistant professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, will continue work that grew out of his dissertation: studying the energy efficiency of visual computing systems.

AI curriculum 

Artificial intelligence algorithms have become pervasive in daily life, but should they? And what are the drawbacks and advantages of using machine learning? Several ASU faculty members, including those in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a new curriculum that challenges students to think about these complex issues while they’re learning how to create the technology. The grant is funding a yearlong process for the school to create the new program, which will be a concentration within the existing Bachelor of Arts in digital culture. 

Suren Jayasuriya, a professor jointly appointed with the Arts, Media and Engineering and the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, is working on the project as well as another AI curriculum program with Kimberlee Swisher, ASU lecturer and co-founder of the Digital Culture Summer Institute. The second project aims to use computational cameras to integrate computer science, math and design thinking in teaching visual AI concepts to middle school students while also drawing inspiration from media arts to enhance science learning experiences. The work is funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant Jayasuriya and Swisher received, and will be completed in partnership with other researchers from ASU and the University of Georgia. 

Movement and computing

Artists, engineers and humanists from more than 20 countries visited ASU to explore what it means to merge mind, movement and machines in ways that may someday help resolve some of life’s biggest challenges. These movers and makers were innovating art and science at the sixth annual MOCO International Conference on Movement and Computing, which was hosted by the School of Arts, Media and Engineering in October 2019. 

Above Digital Cultural Showcase
Dec. 6, 2019

NSF Career photos courtesy of faculty.

Movement and computing photos by Jarod Opperman.

Digital Cultural Showcase photos by Laura Segall.