Events

Invitation to Meet Virtual Reality Gaming Experts from Oculus VR

 * RSVP:**@http://ter.ps/OculusRSVP **| April 4, 2014 2:00 p.m. **
 * Room 0200, Skinner Building**
 * Speakers:** Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe and Chief Software Architect Michael Antonov, both former University of Maryland students

The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of its first product, the Oculus Rift, a groundbreaking virtual reality headset for immersive gaming. With the support of top video game companies including Valve, Epic Games and Unity, the Kickstarter was an enormous success, raising over $2.4 million in funding. The company hopes that the Facebook deal will make virtual reality cheaper and better. Oculus VR is a sponsor of this weekend’s Bitcamp and Brendan is a keynote speaker at the event.
 * About Oculus VR:**

**About Brendan and Michael:** Brendan, Michael and the late Andrew Reisse (in whose memory there is a computer science scholarship) started the company Scaleform while they were students at the University of Maryland. As co-founders, Brendan served as CEO and Michael served as CTO of Scaleform, which was the #1 user interface technology provider in the video game market when Autodesk acquired it in March 2011. Under their leadership, thousands of video game developers worldwide adopted the Scaleform SDK. Prior to co-founding Oculus, Brendan was the chief product officer at Gaikai, the innovative GPU cloud streaming company that was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in July 2012.

**Felice Frankel (MIT) at the CVP Lecture series[[image:FFHome.png align="right"]]**

 * [] | March 5, 2014 4:00 p.m. **
 * CSIC 1115** (reception in the CSIC lobby at 3:30 p.m.)


 * Title**: **Make Me Look! To SEE and Understand Your Research**


 * Abstract**: Graphics, images and figures — visual representations of scientific data and concepts — are critical components of science and engineering research. They communicate in ways that words cannot. They can clarify or strengthen an argument and spur interest into the research process.

But it is important to remember that a visual representation of a scientific concept or data is a re-presentation and not the thing itself –– some interpretation or translation is always involved. Just as writing a journal article, you must carefully plan what to “say,” and in what order you will “say it.” The process of making a visual representation requires you to clarify your thinking and improve your ability to communicate with others. Communication, however, is a two-way enterprise. The viewer must first choose to look. This talk will include examples of my own attempts at creating various representations, some more successful than others. I will discuss the iterative process of getting from "here" to "there," in order to create representations that are more than good enough.


 * Biography**: Science photographer Felice Frankel is a research scientist in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working in collaboration with scientists and engineers, Felice’s images have been published in over 200 journal articles and/or covers and various other publications for general audiences such as National Geographic, Nature, Science, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Materials Today, PNAS, Newsweek, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, and New Scientist among others.

** Beverly Harrison (YAHOO) at HCIL Brown Bag **
=** Cancelled due to weather **= **Time.** 12:30pm - 1:30pm, Friday, February 14th, 2014 **Location.** 2119, 2nd floor, south wing, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, 20742 ( directions ) **Title.** Strategic research areas and directions at Yahoo Labs **Abstract.** In this talk, Beverly will highlight strategic research areas and directions for Yahoo Labs overall, and then describe key areas the Mobile Research team is actively working on(and hiring for!). Several recent research projects will be presented including a study of teens use of smartphones and mobile apps, a study about people’s understanding of what “personalized ads” means, asocial TV prototype app, and some highlights of wearables and hardware prototyping efforts. **Biography.** Beverly Harrison is currently a Principal Scientist and Director of Mobile Research at Yahoo Labs. Her expertise and passion over the last 20 years is creating, building and evaluating innovative user interface technologies and in inferring user behavior patterns from various types of sensor data. She has previously worked at Xerox PARC, IBM Research, Intel Research, and Amazon/Lab126 as well as doing startups. Beverly has 80+ publications, holds over 50 patents, and held 3 affiliate faculty positions in CSE, iSchool and Design (Univ of Washington). She has a B. Mathematics (Waterloo) and a M.Sc. and PhD in Human Factors Engineering (Toronto). 

** Martin Wattenberg (Google) at the CVP Lecture series - RSVP required at @http://ter.ps/cvp2 and password is cvp2 | February 12, 2014 12:00 - 1:15pm **

 * Abstract. **Data visualization is a powerful technology with applications ranging from science to art. This lecture will focus on making visualization more broadly accessible. One key theme is that many aspects of modern culture--ranging from baby name fashions to viral videos on YouTube--can be displayed and understood visually. A second theme is that these new applications require a new type of design process.


 * Biography. **Martin Wattenberg is a computer scientist and artist. He is a co-leader, with Fernanda Viégas, of Google's "Big Picture" data visualization group. From 2005 to 2010, Wattenberg managed IBM's Visual Communication Lab, exploring new forms of visualization and how they can enable better collaboration. A key project was Many Eyes, an experiment in open, public data visualization and analysis. Prior to joining IBM, Wattenberg directed a research group at Dow Jones. His work included the Map of the Market--showcasing visualization technology developed at the University of Maryland. Wattenberg is also known for his visualization-based artwork, which has been exhibited in venues such as the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New York Museum of Modern Art. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from U.C. Berkeley.



**Wearables & Things + Live Event Beta**

 * [[|Piazza]] [[|Meetup]] | February 4th, 2014 6:00pm - 9:00pm **