News

  • The Interaction Hour podcast: Autism and Computing

    The Interaction Hour - School of Interactive Computing, Apr 23, 2019

    In the late 1990s, Professor Gregory Abowd of Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing developed a tool to allow people to collect and reflect upon memories over a long period of time. Motivated by his father’s collection of 30 years worth of videos, Gregory wanted to create something that assisted in annotating and searching videos to create short memories. Around 2002, he began using this for his own family memories and made a discovery while watching one of the videos. His oldest son, who was then 5 years old and already diagnosed with autism, demonstrated stark differences in behavior and communication between videos at 18 months and others at 26 months. Amazed by what he saw in the videos, Gregory began to consider other more serious applications of this memory-capturing tool. In the coming years, it would become a key research initiative for Gregory and others at Georgia Tech.

  • People May Be Able to Find Images on a Computer Based Solely on Their Eye Movements

    April 12, 2019

    What if we could find images on our computer just by tracking our eye movements? ML@GT assistant professor James Hays explores this idea in new research that will be presented next month at CHI 2019.

  • IC Student Brianna Tomlinson Earns Campus Life Scholarship

    April 11, 2019

    The scholarship provides $5,000 from Campus Services and offers a lunch to honor recipients on April 18.

  • Georgia Tech’s Newest AI System Explains Its Decisions to People in Real-Time to Understand User Preferences

    April 9, 2019

    Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed an artificially intelligent (AI) agent that can automatically generate natural language explanations in real-time to convey the motivations behind its actions.

  • In The News: Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Military?

    Tech Register, Apr 9, 2019

    School of Interactive Computing Professor Ron Arkin offers some insight on the question of lethal autonomous weapons. What are the pros and cons of utilizing artificial intelligence in the military?

    Related: The Interaction Hour -- Don't Call Them Killer Robots, With Professor Ron Arkin

  • HackGT Hopes to be a ‘Catalyst’ for Underserved Atlanta Students

    April 5, 2019

    Set for April 13 on the Georgia Tech campus, Catalyst is a one-day workshop, blended with traditional hackathon challenges.

  • Six Members of GT Computing Awarded Prestigious Fellowships

    April 4, 2019

    J.P. Morgan, IBM, Snap, and Facebook awarded six College of Computing faculty and students.

  • The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain

    New York Times, Apr 4, 2019

    Congestion pricing has the potential to significantly change how traffic flows through Manhattan streets, how commuters get around the city, how companies like Uber and Lyft operate. But most radically, if the policy spreads it could challenge a deeply embedded cultural idea, requiring people to pay for something Americans have long demanded — and largely believe they’ve gotten — free of charge. Congestion pricing is premised instead on the notion that public roads are a valuable and scarce resource. And we should pay in some places to use it not primarily to gin up revenue, but to help manage access for everyone. “It’s a huge departure from how we’ve culturally thought about this over the years,” said Kari Watkins, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

  • Charles Isbell Named Dean of College of Computing

    April 1, 2019

    Charles Isbell, professor and executive associate dean of the College of Computing, has been named the next dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, effective July 1.

  • New 'Realities' Coming to a Browser Near You

    GT Alumni Association, Mar 28, 2019

    A historical moment for technology not dissimilar to the advent of motion films or the creation of the Internet is coming, and Georgia Tech’s Blair MacIntyre is helping lead the way. But this time around, the experience won’t be limited to a simple screen. 

    The movement centers on rapidly maturing 3-D technologies needed to create virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. 

  • Coda, Georgia Tech’s newest and largest home in Tech Square, was envisioned in a digital world years before it became a part of Midtown’s skyline

    March 27, 2019

    In 2015, the IMAGINE Lab, part of the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization at Georgia Tech, was tasked by stakeholders at the institute to create a pilot project for a quick visual tool for planning the future Coda building.

  • 3 IC Faculty Members Awarded Promotions

    March 22, 2019

    Devi Parikh and Dhruv Batra were awarded tenure and elevated to associate professor, while Karen Liu was elevated to full professor.

  • Meet IC: Atlanta Native Matthew Guzdial Merges Passions for Machine Learning and Creativity

    March 22, 2019

    Meet Matthew Guzdial, a machine learning and creativity researcher under advisor Mark Riedl who has already gained plenty of attention for his work on artificial intelligence in video games.

  • Engineering Georgia Names Four Tech Women Most Influential

    Georgia Tech, Mar 21, 2019

    Georgia Tech faculty claimed four spots in Engineering Georgia’s second annual listing of Top 100 Influential Women in Georgia. They are Ellen Dunham-Jones, Lauren Stewart, Christine Valle, and Kari Edison Watkins.

    The women were recommended and reviewed by their peers, industry leaders, and members of the Engineering Georgia editorial board. The top 100 were selected for the positive influence they have made and continue to make on the transportation systems, utilities, buildings, parks, trails, and communities that Georgia citizens interact with every day.

    Kari Edison Watkins (No. 94) - the Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research includes multi-modal transportation planning and the use of technology in transportation. She won numerous awards for the OneBusAway program, which she co-created for greater Seattle-Tacoma. Mass Transit magazine named her to the Top 40 under 40 in 2013, and the Council of University Transportation Centers awarded her the New Faculty Award in 2017.

  • Body Surrogate Robot Helps People with Motor Impairments Care for Themselves

    Digital Trends, Mar 18, 2019

    Robots might be coming for your job, but they can do tremendous good in the world as well. Assistive technologies can benefit people with disabilities by giving them greater independence and control over their lives, like the assistant robot developed by a team at Georgia Tech to help people who have severe motor impairments. “Our goal is to give people with limited use of their own bodies access to robotic bodies so they can interact with the world in new ways,” Professor Charlie Kemp from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech said in a statement. The system they came up with is based on a robot called a PR2 mobile manipulator manufactured by Willow Garage. It is a wheeled robot with two arms and a head, and it can manipulate objects like water bottles, washcloths, hairbrushes, or an electric shaver.

  • Metro Atlanta Transit Pitch: Flying Pods, Lots of Questions

    AJC, Mar 15, 2019

    Five metro Atlanta governments bit on entrepreneur Mike Stanley’s idea for what some thought might be too good to be true. His Boston-area company Transit X proposed developing affordable transit using flying pods that would hang from overhead monorails and be entirely privately funded and owned. Officials in Henry County and several southside cities agreed in recent months to negotiate access to public rights of way along roads for a future system. Some mentioned being impressed by Stanley’s background as an MIT graduate. Kari Watkins, a Georgia Tech professor who focuses on transportation systems, questioned whether a Transit X system would have enough capacity to meet needs. And she suggested some communities might not want its visual impact along streets. She cautioned communities about selling one private company broad access to land along roads: “Don’t tie yourself to some sort of technology that is not yet proven.” So far, Stanley’s only example of Transit X pods hanging from a rail is on a 40-foot-long test section inside a building in Leominster, Mass. He said he is trying to raise private funding for an outdoor test track that could be operational later this year in Ohio.

  • Michael Best to Speak at U.N. for Release of Report on Digital Gender Equality

    March 8, 2019

    Michael Best will speak at the United Nations next week during the formal release of a research report by the EQUALS Global Partnership, a coalition of more than 90 partners from government, industry, and academia that he helped found in 2015.

  • Celebrating International Women's Day 2019 -- GVU style

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, Mar 8, 2019

    Of more than 100 faculty advancing human-centered technology research through the GVU Center at Georgia Tech, a full third are women. To celebrate International Women's Day and the release of Captain Marvel on March 8, the center created a data visualization using an image of actress Brie Larson, who plays Captain Marvel. The movie of the same name is the first major MCU film starring a woman. Georgia Tech projects from more than 900 researchers through the years are mapped to the image of Larson and can be searched for more details on the center's work.

    GVU also celebrated the day - and hopes to continue the conversation through the year - through a data graphic highlighting some of the women that have inspired its community.

  • Dream Makers: How the Women in AI Are Shaping Our Future

    Vogue, Mar 6, 2019

    School of Interactive Computing Assistant Professor Devi Parikh was featured in a Vogue magazine story highlighting the contributions of women in artificial intelligence. This was part of a larger campaign where they highlight American women who are doing inspiring work.

  • The Interaction Hour: How Virtual Reality Could Transform Education

    The School of Interactive Computing, Mar 4, 2019

    Over the years, virtual reality has become a mythical new medium with promises of immersive gaming and enriched experiences. Novels and movies like Ready Player One have teased the potential – and raised the expectations. In many ways, though, the technology is a largely untapped resource for reasons varying from the usability of the equipment to the premium cost.

    In this episode, however, we’ll hear from former Georgia Tech student Aditya Vishwanath and current Georgia Tech assistant professor Neha Kumar who are examining the potential for virtual reality in education and instruction. What are the affordances of the technology inside of a classroom, and how can issues of cost and access be overcome to ensure it is a truly democratized medium?

  • Ph.D. Candidate Caitlyn Seim Earns Prestigious Neuroscience:Translate Grant From Stanford

    March 1, 2019

    Seim was awarded for her research into passive haptic stimulation that could assist in stroke recovery.

  • Novel App Uses AI to Guide, Support Cancer Patients

    February 27, 2019

    Artificial Intelligence is helping to guide and support some 50 breast cancer patients in rural Georgia through a novel mobile application that gives them personalized recommendations on everything from side effects to insurance.

  • Researchers Use Social Media to Model Stress Following Incidents of Gun Violence on Campus

    February 27, 2019

    Using Reddit posts following incidents of gun violence on 12 American campuses as a test bed for their algorithm, researchers were able to identify sharp upticks in stress levels in the weeks immediately following these events.

  • Women and Girls in Science Podcast Series: Roboticist Dr. Ayanna Howard

    United Nations Academic Impact, Feb 27, 2019

    Listen to UNAI’s interview with School of Interactive Computing Chair Ayanna Howard to learn about how a popular TV show piqued her interest in robotics when she was young, why she thinks artificial intelligence could level the playing field in education, the importance of inclusion of persons with disabilities in STEM fields, and the value of role models and mentorship in increasing the number of women in STEM.

  • Deep Learning Helps Robot Find Its Voice

    February 25, 2019

    Researchers at the College of Design’s Center for Music Technology and the College of Computing have trained robot Shimi to communicate emotions.

  • Georgia Tech Graduate Student’s Augmented Reality App Plays Starring Role in DramaTech’s ‘Safety Show’

    February 25, 2019

    The augmented reality app was part of 'The Safety Show," a presentation of DramaTech.

  • Georgia Tech a Leading Contributor to Computer Science Education Symposium

    GVU Center at Georgia Tech, Feb 22, 2019

    Improving computer science (CS) education for K-12 and college students in the United States is a priority, but several challenges and unanswered questions remain. Georgia Tech researchers have been working to address many of these challenges and questions and are set to share results from their latest research at the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) annual technical symposium in Minneapolis, Minn., from Feb. 27 to March 2. 

  • Doctoral Student Adriana Alvarado Garcia Selected as UN Global Data Fellow

    February 18, 2019

    The Digital Media Ph.D. student was selected to work with the United Nations Development Programme.

  • Team of Researchers Headed to SXSW EDU to Discuss VR in Education

    February 12, 2019

    The panel, Virtually Real: Using Immersive Tech in Education, is set for 5 p.m. March 4 in Room 11AB of the Austin Convention Center.

  • College to Host More Than 60 Undergraduate Women for Inaugural I.AM.GradComputing

    February 12, 2019

    Between 60-70 undergraduate women from institutes located in the Southeast are participating thanks to a gift from Google.

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