Nuestra Ciencia: Cal Poly students explain microbiology in Spanish and English through audiovisual materials and storytelling
Alejandra Yep, Biological Sciences
Jasmine Nation, Liberal Studies
Nuestra Ciencia (NC) is a university-community partnership where college students teach microbiology concepts in Spanish to bilingual elementary students. We designed the program to address microbiology misconceptions and elevate undergraduates as STEM role models for Latinx children. Interdisciplinary teams develop experiments and educational resources, and visit classrooms to lead activities in Spanish. For this CTE seed grant, we propose to simultaneously tackle four objectives that support identity development for elementary and college students and dissemination of our materials to the broader educational community. CP undergraduates will develop audiovisual materials integral to NC lessons aimed at K-6 students and fulfill the following objectives: 1) improve our existing vaccine mechanism video and create a follow-up video explaining why boosters are needed, 2) create a video to support our herd immunity lesson, 3) use these newly developed audiovisual tools in lessons and evaluate their effectiveness through pre- and post-activity questionnaires and 4) edit and provide coherence to our series of Spanish language “A day in the life” videos that showcase Latinx undergraduate students and their majors. These videos will be shared widely to highlight the diversity of Latinx students in higher education. NC members work collaboratively with PIs and participate in every aspect including topic selection, experiment development and troubleshooting, lesson plan and materials development, teaching, data collection and analysis, conference presentations and publications in peer-reviewed journals. The work outlined in this proposal will generate bilingual materials that benefit the profession of education and tools to improve science communication and public scientific understanding.
Worker-robot collaboration in hospitality tasks: Revealing robotic integration opportunities through image analytics
Pei Zhang, Experience Industry Management
The appropriate integration of collaborative robots in specific task domains is a research focus that is poised for significant growth to reshape the future human-robot workforce landscape in the hospitality industry. However, there is a lack of identification of the specific functional areas where robots can be effectively integrated and share tasks with human workers. Addressing this issue is crucial for maximizing the potential benefits of worker-robot collaboration in hospitality, such as alleviating the physically and emotionally demanding workload of hospitality workers. This interdisciplinary study aims to fill the gap by employing one type of expressive technology, image analytic, to systematically identify functional areas where robots can collaborate with human workers in the hospitality industry, and to pinpoint the related tasks in various functional areas. The proposed one-year project is divided into three mini milestones (M1, M2, and M3). M1 involves completing data collection. M2 covers the development of a machine learning model and analysis of test set images. M3 emphasizes external proposal development and dissemination of research results. The present study has multiple expected outcomes. An image dataset with three-level labels will be established. A well-trained machine learning model that is generalizable across various hospitality sectors will be developed. The study will also unveil a holistic picture of the sectors, functional areas, and tasks that robots interact with human labors and compare the variations in tasks with which robots and human labors interact in diverse functional areas across different hospitality sectors.
Embodied Resonance Workshop
Julie Herndon, Music
The Embodied Resonance Workshop explores wearable electronic instruments and immersive audio using the Dolby Atmos spatial audio system in the Expressive Technology (ET) Studio. The material we develop will center on concepts of interactivity and physical movement using hand gestures sonified with an original wearable instrument I call Connecting Gloves. This work integrates my research in embodied composition and instrument design with student work and visiting artist demonstrations. The Embodied Resonance Workshop will build familiarity with the multichannel systems in the ET Studio by generating material in conversation with installation and spatial-audio sound designer, Taurin Barrera. His work as an artist and consultant, along with my own research, will spearhead the artful use of multichannel audio in a live performance context. The impact of this workshop is to create greater accessibility in the musical experience with the inclusion of interactive elements, learn-by-doing opportunities for students, and occasions for public engagement. The results of our research will be shared in an open workshop in Fall/Winter of 2023–2024. This event in the ET Studio will provide feedback and insight from the audience on the materials developed, focusing on the instrumental and spatial audio design of two or three students in connection to the work of Barrera and my own Connecting Gloves. The principles we refine will carry into a new piece to be premiered at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, 2024–2025.
Flying through Digital Forests across the Socioeconomic Spectrum
Andrew Fricker, Social Sciences
Jonathan Ventura, Computer Science
The state of California has aggressive goals to plant 10% more urban trees by 2035 to benefit human health, reduce air pollution, and mitigating against climate change. Scientists lack the information to accurately assess these goals, and ways to communicate the importance of the urban forest with the public. Our interdisciplinary research team is working to provide data to help inform the planting of urban trees, but our seed proposal will be an educational tool that leverages existing technology to illustrate the biophysical disparities present in our urban environments. Our team will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data to visualize colorized point cloud data of a range of urban forests in the CET’s Virtual Reality (VR) Meta (Oculus) Headsets. We can use publicly available data to create flythrough where users can navigate different urban environments in California across the range of available socioeconomic conditions, from Santa Monica to Skid Row. Our seed project will work closely with two undergraduate students from Computer Science (CS) and Geography to create our flythrough experience, and include them into a larger interdisciplinary research team across colleges and disciplines (Biology, Geography, Computer Science, and Economics) in Cal Poly’s Urban Forestry Ecosystems Institute (UFEI).
Uncovered Serial Podcast
Deb Donig, English
Kylie Parrotta, Social Sciences
This project seeks to mobilize a discourse between criminology and data science. Partnering with Uncovered and the Technically Human Podcast, we seek funding to complete an audio series that explores and explains the link between the emerging capacities of data science and information technology, and foundational changes to the criminal justice system. In this series of episodes, hosted by Professor Deb Donig, we tell one true story of an unsolved case, and the people using new technologies to solve it. Over the season, we will investigate the 1997 murder of Georgia Leah Moses. Georgia was twelve when she went missing. Her death was preventable, and remains unsolved over 20 years later. Her story tells the tale of how the system consistently failed to step in at critical moments. Over the series, we review the case, talk to true-crime experts, follow the Uncovered team as they use new technological methods, and trace how the case has moved through the criminal justice system, from 1997-present. We leverage digital audio storytelling to explain how emerging technologies are transforming concepts of evidence and practices in criminology, and how this intersects with questions of equity and inclusion in the criminal justice system. By constellating systemic issues within a single story, we bring attention to the victims, whose stories often get lost in discourse that frequently focuses on systems rather than the people subject to them. Moreover, we highlight the role that podcasting, as an expressive technology, can play in developing public discourse around these issues.