Grassroots movements shape our cities, cultures and politics. Our two-day workshop "HCI, politics and the city" invites HCI researchers, activists and artists to engage with the processes, materials, challenges, and goals of grassroots communities in Vancouver, the city hosting CHI'11. Please read more about our workshop themes and visit our call for submissions.

Giant, super cool, glowing balloons that visualize surrounding air quality! Inside each balloon is a tri-colored LED that reacts to data from an air quality sensor, turning green, yellow or red based on low, average, and high values. Public installations and user study reveal spectacle computing as a new and exciting strategy for participatory sensing and urban activisim. This project was done with Jian Cheung, George Davis, and Eric Paulos.

step-by-step tutorial on instructables

Drawing from design studio culture and art therapy literature, we explore wearable computing as a creative and tangible medium (similar to markers, paints, clays, etc.) for motivating ‘at-risk’ children in hands-on making and expressive instantiation of ideas. Working with Laura Trutoiu, Kasey Kute, Iris Howley and Dan Siewiorek, we organized a series of workshops with Gwen's girls- an outreach organization for middle and high school girls. Starting with a few basic circuits and programming excercises, we helped the girls brainstorm, design and implement their own interactive projects. More details coming soon!

We ask how four different communities (parents, bicyclists, homeless, and students) approach environmental sensing in public spaces. Members of each community were given sensor probes that represent the measurement of exhaust, smog, pathogens, chemicals, noise or dust, and simulated sensor usage throughout their daily routines. Results reveal design opportunities for merging grassroots data collection with public expression and activism, suggesting low-cost sensors as instruments of social currency and political change. More on building and testing physical sensors.

Working with Eric Paulos and Mark Gross, I developed WallBots- autonomous, wall-crawling robots as as a research probe for public expression across a wide range of surfaces and hard-to-reach places, including bus stops, whiteboards, streetpoles, trashcans, and moving vehicles. Our work with individuals who contribute to public spaces through graffitti, street music, light painting, and political activism exposes a research space for technological interventions in the context of grassroots urban expression.

	full paper forthcoming in DIS 2010
	WallBot Interaction Techniques Demo

This project (with Eric Paulos) explores persuasive displays in the domain of water conservation and public health. Abstract and literal visualizations of personal and public water usage were deployed in public bathrooms and private homes. We reflect on persuasive displays as an approach for sustainability research in HCI.

We present a large-scale study of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) communities, cultures and projects. Our survey of over 2600 individuals across Instructables, Dorkbot, Craftster, Ravelry, Etsy, and Adafruit highlights open sharing, learning, and creativity as the core values that sustain these vibrant communities. We derive design implications to embed these values into other everyday practices, and hope that our work serves to engageCHI practitioners with DIY expert amateurs. Check out our survey!

full paper forthcoming in ACM NordiCHI2010

This project aims to raise public awareness about water use. Working together with Eric Paulos I developed a low-cost water flow sensor to be installed at water facilities around the Carnegie Mellon University campus and gather data about public water consumption. This information will bevisualized in order to motivate conservative and sustainable water use.

Many people experience difficulty recalling and recognizing information during everyday tasks. Our work explores vibro-tactile feedback as an unobtrusive aid for human memory. Working with Scott Hudson and Anind Dey, I developed a prototype that will eventually result in a context-aware wearable device that augments human memory with haptic cues.

This is a brand new project at the Living Environments Lab with Eric Paulos. We hope to develop low-cost air quality sensors to understand how different communities approach public sensing. The project will culminate in a real-time visualization of air quality data throughout Pittsburgh. Stay tuned!