Selected student projects and publications of work developed in my courses. In a number of courses, students are encouraged, and required, to pursue outside visibility of their work and share it with a broader public. In many instances, they collaborate with outside advocacy groups and nonprofits to help them develop marketing campaigns and strengthen their visual message.
Publications+Shows
Mom’s tray: real-time dietary monitoring system, Jung G. (KAIST), Zarzycki A., and Lee JH, SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 | Portfolio: Additional Materials
The Dana Knox Student Research Showcase
The algae-based facade system tied for first place among undergraduate research projects (university wide) at the 2015 Dana Knox Student Research Showcase. Presented work was developed as part of the research-based Options Studio–Adaptive and Autonomous Environments.
About: The event highlights the range of outstanding research being done at NJIT by its graduate and undergraduate students. All of the work to be presented has been previously presented professionally by the students, typically at technical conferences. All student presenters first have to be nominated by a faculty member. Each nominee will be reviewed by a screening committee to ensure that the nominated presenter and his/her work are appropriate for the showcase.
Portfolio: Additional Materials
Oysters, Daniel Acosta MetroCAF 2014 NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Animation Festival (final selection) | Portfolio: Additional Materials
Grey Matter, a Kickstarter project by Chris Narine. Grey Matter was originally developed for the final Digital Design studio. As part of his studio project was to develop a first chapter of his comics book with all the characters and backstories, and to organize Kickstarter campaign to produce the remaining part of the book. Michael Ehrlich of NJIT’s School of Management served as a consultant for the crowdsourcing campaign.
Another Perspective, Stephanie Thompson, Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach, 2011
Reactive architecture, Sobers, Sophia (NJIT), ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Posters
Furnimals, Swarms, and Mutations, Tara White (RISD), form•Z Joint Study Journal 2007
Tradition, Tools, Technique & Technology, Naomi Crellin (RISD), form•Z Joint Study Journal 2007
The Affects of Virtual Light in Aalto’s Tallinn Art Museum, Aaron Lehr (RISD), form•Z Joint Study Journal 2007
Danteum & Escher: Two (Un)Realized Visions, Sophia Chan (RISD), form•Z Joint Study Journal 2007
(Selected) Courses and Outcomes
Digital Design Studio (Final/Diploma)
In this studio, students will continue to hone their design skills and problem solving ability. Computer environments will be the primary design media for creating narrative-based and/or interactive content. As part of the final studio semester of the Digital Design Program, students are expected to propose their own project (within the framework defined below) and develop it through all stages from concept development to post-production. An ability to express an idea, present it in an engaging manner, and deliver the final product is essential for professional success. Students will be evaluated on the quality and sophistication of their designs as well as on their ability to take advantage of human and computational resources.
As you are about to join society as college graduates, you also need to become engaged in our collective future. Consequently, all studio projects will work around a central theme of the resilient design. Students are expected to address a topic associated with resilient and/or sustainable practices such as water management, energy efficiency, pollution, recycling, or environmental or constructed response to climate change. These should serve as examples not as a definite list of possible topics. Students could propose and formulate their own take on this topic and consult it with the instructor. The produced work should have a broader social, cultural, or intellectual reach and engage currently urgent issues.
project links: Gaming for Health | Gaming for Environment | Video & Animation III | Video & Animation II | Video & Animation I |
Adaptive and Autonomous Environments (Research-based Options Studio)
This Option Studio will investigate emerging attitudes toward adaptive and autonomous buildings and cities. It will survey state-of-the-art practices with in-depth analyses of smart buildings, adaptive designs, and networked cities. Students will apply this knowledge in the design of buildings and building components, and connect them into a broader urban ecosystem of autonomous buildings—agents.
project links: Algae Facade | Kinetic Facades | Adaptive Media Facade
Designing for Augmented Reality
In this course students learn the conceptual framework behind Augmenter Reality (AR) with its applications in art, design, and sciences. The class topics include commercial applications of AR, M-learning, public un-commissioned art (graffiti, hacking, and tagging) with electronic civil disobedience, and QR coding. The discussion places AR in the broader context of the mobility-on-demand culture, location-based and ubiquitous technologies, and the authoring of the public realm.
As part of the class, students develop mobile-based AR projects (fully functioning environments) that build on one of the themes provided by the instructor. The structure of the course—its open framework–allows students with various technical and design backgrounds and proficiency levels to effectively interact and contribute to team projects.
project links: Interactive Print | Context Awareness | xxx
Interactive and Reactive Environments
Digital technology increasingly, and more and more seamlessly, bridges the physical landscape with virtual environments to form coherent narratives that are visually rich and emotionally engaging. Digital landscapes are becoming interactive and reactive environments reflective of human relationships with each other. They are not merely spaces that we inhabit, but also co-participants impacting and reformulating the roles we play within them.
This course investigates contemporary attitudes toward digital public spaces, from mainstream media facades, interactive art installations, and mobile apps to guerrilla-like techniques such as tactical media, activist gaming, and electronic civil disobedience. The balance between ownership and authorship of the public realm, and the role design plays in this balance, will help to frame the discussion.
project links: Prototyping | xxx | xxx
Designing for Smart Futures
This course discusses emerging attitudes towards adaptive and autonomous objects, building, and cities. It surveys current state-of-the-art practices with in-depth analyses of smart buildings, adaptive designs, and networked cities. Student study various aspects and scales of smart designs; starting with adaptive building components such as facades to entire buildings, urban, and smart-infrastructure ecosystems. As part of the course, students design and develop working prototypes of autonomous adaptive building components, urban sensory network, or extensions to smart infrastructure.
project links: Smart Closet | Smart Egress | xxx
3D Character Design
This course is an in depth exploration of 3D character design, modeling and animation for video games and cinematographic production. The class will focus on both conceptual and technical/production topics for character design. For the conceptual part, students will study relevant precedents from illustration, gaming and video animation disciplines as well as theatrical and cinematographic choreography including fashion designers and make-up artists. We will discuss different modes of representation (realistic, stylized) and their appropriateness for various types of productions. Students will develop a number of design sketches, both two- and three-dimensional, before concentrating on the final project. For the technical/production part, students will learn current practices of 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, and rigging as well as understand the pipeline for the entire production process.
project links: Student Projects
Im/Possible Spaces (RISD)
Envisioning New Experiences in Architecture, Defining Limits
This digital design studio focuses on the fluid aspects of architectural environments–environments that aspire to be exciting and meaningful, not necessarily rational or possible to implement with today’s knowledge. The question of ‘what’ space is will supersede ‘why’ it is. The final articulation of the exploration process will be space based on the play of forms, lights, textures and materials.
Students will be encouraged to develop their ideas by drawing inspiration from other disciplines such as film, stage design, art and literature. Students are encouraged to see design as both ephemeral and perpetually adapting. Final delivery of the design should reflect the character of individual designs as well as the digital nature of the creative process. Visual expressions and the design process will be driven, expressed and communicated through the use of computer graphics.
project links: Im/Possible Spaces | Narrative Spaces
Formal Mutations (RISD)
Designing transformative experience
This digital design studio focuses on the dynamic aspects of architectural environments–environments that adapt and interact in a similar way as life forms need to do in nature. The expectation will be to apply digital tools to simulate morphological variations in architectural forms while considering a space’s functional requirements.
Students will be given an existing architectural environment and will be asked to design a space that can be a home, a workshop and a museum, however we are not looking to design just a generic multipurpose space that could accommodate all three program components simultaneously. On the contrary, we are looking for three separate, highly specific, idiosyncratic spaces sharing some common threads each with a unique character. Later, we will look into ways to digitally transform these spaces (map one to another) using their common threads as morphing trajectories and explore ‘in-between’ solutions that often emerge as ‘missing links’ in architectural environments. As a result, these three spaces (home, workshop, museum) will form distinct stages of a single architectural metamorphosis not unlike many organisms undergo in nature. One simple analogy in nature would be larva, cocoon to butterfly.
project links: Formal Mutations