The School of Emerging Technologies (SET) at Towson University works to advance interdisciplinary and collaborative educational and research programs that address the development, application, implications and ramifications of emerging technologies. One of the ways we do so is by sponsoring workshops and events on areas of interest to the broad campus community.
HEALTH and TECHNOLOGY
Emerging technologies are rapidly transforming modern health care. From the implementation of electronic medical records to the explosion of online health care information to new technological approaches to treating patients, health care technology is moving quickly.
Come listen as the School of Emerging Technologies presents the results of two ongoing faculty projects:
The Perceived Credibility of Weight Management Apps/Websites (G. Jerome)
Context Aware Assistive Solution for People with Cognitive Disabilities (S. Acharya, J. Feng, R. Greenhaw, C. Holmes, Z. Tang)
The Perceived Credibility of Weight Management Apps/Websites
Apps and websites aimed at helping individuals make lifestyle changes to management their weight are readily available. However, the market place is buyer-beware regarding the accuracy, credible and evidence-base of these technologies. Inaccurate or ineffective apps/websites could lead to frustration and more serious health complications. We examine results of two different pilot surveys examining user perceptions of the credibility and evidence-base of apps and websites used for weight management. We will also discuss the design of two on-going pilot studies that educate participants to the strengths and weakness of available apps and supplement this technology with evidenced based approaches to weight loss.
Context Aware Assistive Solution for People with Cognitive Disabilities
Individuals on the autism spectrum face significant challenges in terms of learning and maintaining every day skills. They also experience periods of sensory-based challenges that require significant levels of support for even basic activities. Therefore, individuals with ASD need constant prompts and visual support to assist their skill development and maintenance. We are developing a portable context aware assistive application that takes advantage of context information (e.g., location, time, personal schedule) to provide intelligent support for individuals with ASD in their everyday life. The prompts will assist users to acquire, maintain, and generalize new skills. The prompts will also help users when they experience executive functioning, motor planning, and sensory processing challenges. The automated, portable, assistive aid would augment the ability of individuals with ASD to live an independent life and provide some relief to the primary support people in their life. During the talk, we will discuss the finding of requirement collection user studies, the system architecture, and design considerations. We will also demonstrate an initial proof-of-idea prototype.
Date: Friday, October 25, 2013 Time: 11:00 – 12:30 Place: Institute for Well Being, Room 209
GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY
Emerging technologies are rapidly transforming how we interact with geospatial data. From new data collection techniques, like new low cost aerial mapping platforms, to improved data management applications that allow us to draw better inferences from existing data sets, emerging technologies is changing what we can learn about our environment.
Come listen as the School of Emerging Technologies presents the results of two ongoing faculty projects:
HydroCloud: An Online Integrative Tool for Hydrologic Data (M. McGuire, M. Roberge)
Developing an Aerial Mapping Platform (J. Morgan, P. Reese)
HydroCloud: An Online Integrative Tool for Hydrologic Data
HydroCloud is a web-based framework for hydrologic data integration, visualization, and analysis. The system uses light-weight but sophisticated Javascript libraries to create responsive visualizations that operate in a web browser. Behind the scenes, the system uses a scaleable, distributed document-oriented database, making it possible to quickly add new data types or provide efficient access to continental-scale stream gauge and rain fall data. This presentation will discuss the technology behind the HydroCloud system, as well as its potential for application in other disciplines. New developments such as social coding and HTML 5 have made it easier than ever before to learn how to code for mobile phones, while scaleable databases and hosted cloud computing have lowered the barriers to entry for new developers.
Developing an Aerial Mapping Platform
Aerial photographs are one important source of data for geographic information systems (GIS). In addition to their use for developing planimetric or topographic maps, aerial photographs are used to provide contextual information not provided on traditional maps; they also provide stakeholders with ways to visually identify areas where recent changes have occurred in the physical or human landscape. Using funds provided by the School of Emerging Technologies, Dr. Morgan and Phil Reese have developed an aerial mapping platform based on a remote quadcopter. They will describe the platform and its capabilities, and discuss its application and use on projects both on campus and off campus.
Date: Friday, October 11, 2013 Time: 11:00 – 12:30 Place: LA 2310
PESTICIDES IN KENYA: FIELD, MAPPING, and LABORATORY STUDIES- A STUDENT'S EXPERIENCE
Dr. Clare Muhoro (Department of Chemistry) and her undergraduate and graduate students are working with Jeremy Monn (Center for Geographical Information Systems) on the environmental fate of a popular family of pesticides, the N-methylcarbamates (NMCs), used globally as potent insecticides. The ultimate goal of this study is to design suitable remediation technologies for contaminated surface water in tropical environments.
This summer, Dr. Clare Muhoro and her students Bao Ha and Leili Zamini went to the Ruiru River in Kenya to collect data for their analysis. The students will be giving a photo presentation that documents their experience.
Friday, August 30, 2013
1:00 - 2:00
Towson University, Smith Hall, Room 554
PLAYING with LIGHT: VISUALIZING SOUND with HUMAN-GENERATED POWER
Jenn Figg and Matt McCormack discuss their collaborative research with electromechanical kinetic light sculptures. Their light instruments leverage the potential energy of musical performance, analog technology, and human-generated power to visualize sound. With bangs, hits, taps, and shakes, users generate enough power to light up multiple LEDs. The instrument’s simple mechanics and immediate, responsive light reveals complex energy relationships.
Jenn Figg is an Assistant Professor of Art at Towson University in Maryland, and pursuing her Ph.D. in Media, Art, and Text at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Matthew McCormack graduated with a BFA in Glass from The Ohio State University and is now pursuing an Interdisciplinary MFA at Towson University.
Selected exhibitions include: The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, The Art House at the Jones Center in Austin, TX, MOCA Cleveland, OH, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, VA, the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, OH, the National Museum of Glass in Eskisehir, Turkey and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency, NY, NY.
Friday, February 22, 2013
2:00 - 3:00
Towson University, Smith Hall, Room 420
THE TEACHING of ETHICS and TECHNOLOGY
Are you interested in the teaching of ethics? Join your colleagues for a conversation about how technology has impacted ethics and society! We will be talking about how ethics cuts across disciplines and approaches we have all taken to teaching these issues in our classes. We are looking to craft one or more modules that can be used across multiple disciplines, as well as thinking more broadly about developing an interdisciplinary case study event around an ethics technology issue.
Previous workshops in the series:
Tuesday, January 22
10:00 – 11:30
7800 York Road building, room 459
Thursday, December 6, 2012
11:30 - 1:00
School of Emerging Technologies
7800 York Road building, room 307C
GEOSPATIAL DATA AWARENESS
Do you have a project that involves spatial data? Are you having trouble identifying data sets or getting the data into a form you can analyze? Come to our workshop on Geospatial Data!
In this workshop, we will show you how to find the right geospatial data for your research project. We will walk step-by-step through sample projects to highlight available campus and internet resources, and introduce you to the tools you can use to perform your analysis. We will provide access to geospatial data resources at the local, state, and national levels, and will show how you can link non-spatial data to such data sets.
8000 York Road | Towson, MD 21252 | 410-704-2000
