Labs

GVU labs are located in the Technology Square Research Building, the College of Computing Building, the Centennial Research Building and the Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology. Our total lab
space comprises more than 8,000 square feet. In addition, affiliated laboratories are operated by the College of Architecture; the School of Literature, Culture and Communication; the School of Psychology; and the Interactive Media and Technology Center.

In addition to research facilities, the Technology Square Research Building and Centennial Research Building contain ample social and conference room areas. All GVU facilities described herein are open to the entire community of GVU faculty, staff and students.

For more information, please check out our Lab FAQs page, or click on the link at the end of each lab description.

Augmented Reality/Wearables/Virtual Worlds/Expressive AI Lab
Faculty: Blair MacIntyre, Maribeth Gandy
Lab activities focus on understanding how to build interactive computing
environments that directly augment a user's senses with computer-generated
material. Researchers are interested in augmenting the user's perception,
and place particular emphasis on the interaction between the users and
their environment. [more]

Biointerface Lab
Faculty: Melody Moore, Beth Mynatt
The Biointerface Lab explores innovative ways of accomplishing
human-computer interaction through biometric inputs. Biometric interfaces
identify and measure small changes in a person's behavior or physiological
responses to certain stimuli. These changes may then be processed with
sophisticated electronics to control a computer. The work has enormous
potential in many areas, especially for providing individuals with
disabilities a means of personal "hands-off" control of computers and other
devices. [more]

BORG Lab
Faculty: Tucker Balch, Frank Dellaert, Thad Starner
Research at the BORG Lab focuses on enabling large-scale physical
multiagent systems - including humans, robots and other automated systems -
to collaborate effectively in dynamic, noisy and unknown environments.
Researchers are especially interested in the problems associated with
making the most effective use of sensors distributed among collaborating
agents. Additional resources include a BORG machine shop. [more]

Broadband Institute Residential Laboratory
Faculty: Gregory Abowd, David Anderson, Aaron Bobick, Irfan Essa, Janet Murray, Beth Mynatt
This lab is a three-story, 5,040-square-foot home that serves as a living
laboratory for the design, development and evaluation of new home-based
technologies through a program called the Aware Home Research Initiative.
The interdisciplinary endeavor involves four complementary themes, all
related to finding ways to improve domestic life through computing and
related technologies: design for people, technology, software engineering
and social implications. [more]

Collaborative Software Lab
Faculty: Mark Guzdial
The Collaborative Software Lab is focused on collaboration in education to
support contextualized learning. Its aim is the creation of collaborative
"Dynabooks" - that is, by composing and experiencing dynamic media,
computers become effective learning tools. Lab group members design and
implement innovative technology with the goal of improving learning, then
empirically explore the benefits and usefulness of the technology with
actual users. [more]

Computational Perception Lab
Faculty: Aaron Bobick, Frank Dellaert, Irfan Essa, Jim Rehq, Thad Starner
The Computational Perception Laboratory is developing the next generation
of intelligent machines, interfaces and environments for modeling,
perceiving, recognizing and interacting with humans. Lab domains of
interest include computer vision, computer graphics, human-computer
interaction, artificial intelligence, digital special effects, pattern
recognition and learning, "aware" home environments, ubiquitous computing
and sensing, eldercare technologies and audio processing. [more]

Electronic Learning Communities Lab
Faculty: Amy Bruckman
The concept that people learn best when they are making something
personally meaningful - also known as constructionism - is the lab's
guiding philosophy. Computer networks have the potential to facilitate
community-supported constructionist learning. The Electronic Learning
Communities Lab examines ways communities of learners can motivate and
support one another's learning experiences. [more]

Everyday Computing Lab
Faculty: Beth Mynatt
Researchers are leveraging computational capabilities to support many
informal and unstructured activities. The integration of ubiquitous
computing into the activities and routines of daily life could bring a
profound transformation in the lives of many people, particularly the
elderly and disabled individuals for whom many ordinary tasks are
challenging. [more]

Experimental Games Lab
Faculty: Ian Bogost, Jay Bolter, Ali Mazalek, Janet Murray, Michael Nitsche, Celia Pearce
The Experimental Game Lab explores the frontiers of video games at the
intersection of technology and the liberal arts. In this interdisciplinary
lab, scholars work together to better understand the medium of video games
and to create new forms of games. [more]

Graphics and Animation Lab
Faculty: Irfan Essa, Jarek Rossignac, Greg Turk
The GVU Graphics Lab is the central hub and workplace for most of the GVU
community. The main lab is equipped with more than 30 workstations
including Sun, SGI and Windows NT workstations as well as numerous
Macintoshes. The Animation Lab explores techniques for creating computer
animation of people, animals and robots. Specifically, control algorithms
are applied to physically realistic models, thereby allowing the animator
to control the system at a high level and without an understanding of the
underlying forces and torque, or the motion of the individual joints. [more]

Information Interfaces Lab
Faculty: John Stasko
At the Information Interfaces Lab, computing technologies are developed
that help people take advantage of information to enrich their lives. The
lab group develops ways to help people understand information via user
interface design, information visualization, peripheral awareness
techniques and embodied agents. The goal is to help people make better
judgments by learning from all the information available to them. [more]

Learning Technology Laboratory
Faculty: Jim Foley
The research group associated with the lab uses, adapts and develops
technologies in support of learning and teaching. Interests in technology
and learning/teaching are balanced by understanding the needs of students
and teachers first, and then studying the use of appropriate technologies
in the service of learning and teaching. In some cases current technologies
are employed and their effectiveness is evaluated; in other cases
technologies are adapted or created as needed.

Mobile Robotics Lab
Faculty: Ronald Arkin, Tucker Balch, Ashok Goel, Ashwin Ram
The role of the Mobile Robot Laboratory is to discover and develop
fundamental scientific principles and practices that are applicable to
intelligent mobile-robot systems. In addition, the laboratory facilitates
technology transfer of its research results to yield solutions for a range
of applications. [more]

Personal Policy Lab
Faculty: Colin Potts
[info to come]

Pixi Lab
Faculty: Keith Edwards
Pixi Lab researchers are exploring the boundaries between interaction and
infrastructure with the goal of creating technology that is not simply
usable, but also useful. Taking a human-centered approach, researchers
begin by understanding the needs and practices of people through empirical
methods, then designing compelling user experiences that fit that context
and, finally, building the underlying systems and networking infrastructure
necessary to realize that user experience. The lab's interdisciplinary,
collaborative projects include new methods to simplify home network
management and troubleshooting, as well as security technologies that are
more useful and usable by ordinary people. [more]

Synasthetic Media Lab
Faculty: Ali Mazalek
Synlab explores emerging modalities in new media. Our research focuses on tangible interaction and sensing technologies that support creative expression bridging the physical and digital worlds. Applications range across media arts, entertainment and educational domains. [More]

Usability Lab
The Usability Lab is where human-factors studies of computer software and
hardware are performed. Subjects are monitored through remote control
cameras, microphones and a one-way mirror while using specialized hardware
and software.

Video Lab
The Video Lab is a production, capture and editing studio for the GVU
community. Equipped with professional-grade audio and video equipment,
users work with analog and digital media formats such as SVHS, Beta,
miniDV, DVD, and digital video footage of research projects for
presentations, conferences and so forth. To accommodate the wide range of
projects, the facility is centered on RGB, S-video (Y/C), and Composite
patch bays with cable links to the Usability Lab. Its PC and Mac edit
stations are outfitted with commercial software and hardware.

Work2play Laboratory
Faculty: Beki Grinter
The Work2play lab follows several related research themes which combine to
ensure a broad and deep base of knowledge about how computing affects daily
life from work to play. Project topics include usable security, religion
and technology, nutrition and culture, the digital home and domestic
gaming. Work2play researchers often collaborate with other researchers
within GVU, the College of Computing, Georgia Tech and other research
institutions. [more]