Abstract:
My group’s research in Human-Computer Interaction focuses on design, prototyping and implementation tools for the era of ubiquitous embedded computing and digital fabrication. We focus especially on supporting the growing ranks of amateur designers and engineers in the Maker Movement. Over the past decade, a resurgence in interest how the artifacts in our world are designed, engineered and fabricated has led to new approaches for teaching art and engineering; new methods for creating artifacts for personal use; and new models for launching hardware products. The Maker Movement is enabled by a confluence of new technologies like digital fabrication and a sharing ethos built around online tutorials and open source design files. A crucial missing building block is appropriate design tools that enable Makers to translate their intent into appropriate machine instructions – whether code or 3D prints. Makers’ expertise and work practices differ significantly from those of professional engineers – a reality that design tools have to reflect.
I will present research that enables
Makers and designers to rapidly prototype, fabricate and program
interactive products. Making headway in this area involves working in
both hardware and software. Our group creates new physical fabrication
hardware such as augmented power tools and custom CNC machines; new
design software to make existing digital fabrication tools more useful;
software platforms for the type of connected IoT devices many Makers are
creating; and debugging tools for working at the intersection of
hardware and software. Our work on these tools is motivated by the daily
experience of teaching and building in the Jacobs Institute for Design
Innovation – a 24,000 square foot space for 21st-century design
education that opened in 2015. I will give an overview of institute
activities and projects, and how they inform our research agenda.
Biography:
Bjoern Hartmann is an Associate Professor in EECS at UC Berkeley and the faculty director of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. He previously co-founded the CITRIS Invention Lab and also co-directs the Berkeley Institute of Design. His research has received numerous Best Paper Awards at top Human-Computer Interaction conferences, a Sloan Fellowship, and an NSF CAREER Award. He received both the Diane S. McEntyre Award and the Jim and Donna Gray Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. He completed his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University in 2009, and received degrees in Digital Media Design, Communication, and Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Before academia, he had a previous career as the owner of an independent record label and as a traveling DJ.
