Current/Recent Projects

Debugging by Design
Developing a Tool Set for Debugging with Electronic Textiles to Promote Computational and Engineering Thinking in High School

Funded (2017-2021) by The National Science Foundation.

PIs:  Ann Eisenberg and Mark Gross
CU Researchers:   Chris Hill (ATLAS doctoral student),  Michael Schneider (CS doctoral student).
Contributors: Arielle Blum (CU College of Engineering), Ethan Frier, Rona Sadan.
In collaboration with Yasmin Kafai (University of Pennsylvania),  Debbie Fields (Utah State University)

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JavaGami/HyperGami

Mike and Ann Eisenberg  

HyperGami/JavaGami form the foundation of the Craft Tech Group’s philosophy of combining high-tech materials with real-word crafting.  These software programs were developed almost twenty years ago, in anticipation of a time when ink jet printers would become ubiquitous in homes and schools.

Using the software tools, kids and adults customize three-dimensional polyhedra on-screen; the program generates a two-dimensional folding net which the user may decorate, print to a color printer, and then assemble into a real three-dimensional paper model. Using basic polyhedral building blocks and operations such as stretching, capping, truncation, and slicing, it is possible to build everything from hippos and penguins to ice cream cones, carnivorous plants, and bubble gum machines.
To keep pace with the growth of technology for at-home fabrication, our current work in the development of JavaGami enables users to output their polyhedral forms directly to a 3D printer.  The sculptures shown have been exported from JavaGami and 3D printed on a Lulzbot. 

Downloadable Thingiverse models are available here.

• Eisenberg, M.  3D Printing for Children:  What to Build Next?  International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.  1:1, 2013, pp. 7-13.
• Eisenberg, M.; Eisenberg, A.; Blauvelt, G.; Hendrix, S.; Buechley, L.; Elumeze, N.  2005.  Mathematical Crafts for Children: Beyond Scissors and Glue.  In Proceedings of Art+Math=X Conference, Boulder, CO, pp. 61-65.
• Eisenberg, M. and Eisenberg, A.  Middle Tech: Blurring the Division between High and Low Tech In Education. In A. Druin (ed.) The Design of Children’s Technology. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 1999.
• Nishioka, A. and Eisenberg, M.  1997.  Paper Modelling from a Distance: Computational Crafts on the Web.  Proceedings of Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 97 Calgary, August 1997, pp. 757-762. (Recipient, Best Paper Award).
• Eisenberg, M. and Nishioka, A.  1997.   Orihedra: Mathematical Sculptures in Paper.  International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning., 1(3):  225-261.
• Eisenberg, M. and Nishioka, A.  1994.  HyperGami: A Computational System for Creating Decorated Paper Constructions.  Proceedings of the Origami Science Meeting, Otsu, Japan, November 1994.

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Paper Mechatronics

Funded (2017-2019) by the National Science Foundation.  Sherry Hsi (PI), The Concord Consortium; Mike Eisenberg (Co-PI), CU Boulder.  Ann Eisenberg, (Co-PI), CU Boulder.  Primary development by Hyunjoo Oh, ATLAS Ph.D. graduate, CU Boulder, now faculty at Georgia Tech.

Funded (2014-2016) by the National Science Foundation.  Sherry Hsi (PI), Lawrence Hall of Science/UC Berkeley; Mike Eisenberg (Co-PI), CU Boulder;  Nikolaus Correll (Co-PI), CU Boulder.  Primary development by Hyunjoo Oh.

In this Cyberlearning EAGER project, the project team is developing foundations for using “paper mechatronics” as a learning technology. Paper mechatronics makes possible a craft-oriented approach to engineering and computing education that integrates key concepts from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems, and computer programming, while using paper as the primary material for learner design, exploration, and inquiry.

Here are overviews of Paper Mechatronics in the March 2018 and May 2018 issues of ACM Interactions.

• Oh, H.; Kim, J.; Morales, C.; Gross, M.; Eisenberg, M.; and Hsi, S. 2017. FoldMecha: Exploratory Design and Engineering of Mechanical Papercraft. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 131-139.
• Oh, H.; Hsi, S.; Klipfel, K.; and Gross, M. 2017. Paper Machines. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 771-774.
• Oh, H. 2015. From Papercraft to Paper Mechatronics: Exploring a New Medium and Developing a Computational Design Tool. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology (UIST ’15 Adjunct). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17-20.
• Oh, H.; Eisenberg, M.; Gross, M.; Hsi, S.  2015.  Paper mechatronics: a design case study for a young medium.  IDC ’15:  Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.  Medford, MA, June 21-25, 2015.  Pages 371-374.

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Previous projects:

Catalyzing Scientific Inquiry and Engineering through Wearable Intersubjective Sensation Devices

Funded (2017-2020) by The National Science Foundation.  Ben Shapiro (PI), CU Boulder ATLAS Laboratory for Playful Computation;  Mike Eisenberg (Co-PI), CU Boulder Computer Science Craft Tech Lab;  Joe Polman (Co-PI), CU Boulder School of Education.

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Math on a Sphere

Antranig Basman and Mike Eisenberg (Craft Tech), in collaboration with Sherry Hsi (The Lawrence Hall of Science); with programming development from Michelle Redick (M.S. Computer Science thesis project, CU Boulder) and educational development by Hilary Peddicord, (NOAA, Boulder).

Math on a Sphere is a National Science Foundation-funded project in collaboration with The Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA.  Michelle and Antranig have developed a programming language that children can use to play with three-dimensional spherical geometry and program their own beautiful mathematical patterns onto a 3D spherical display.

• Eisenberg, M.; Basman, A.; and Hsi, S.  2014.  Math on a Sphere: Making Use of Public Displays in Mathematics and Programming Education.  In Knowledge Management & E-Learning, 6:2, pp. 140-155. An extended version of a shorter conference paper presented at Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2013).
• Eisenberg, M.; Basman, A.; Hsi, S.; and Nickerson, H. 2013.  Turtle Temari.  In Proceedings of Bridges 2013, Enschede, The Netherlands, pp. 255-262.
• Hsi, S. and Eisenberg, M. 2012. Math on a sphere: using public displays to support children’s creativity and computational thinking on 3D surfaces. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 248-251.

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Computational Tools for Motivating Health Awareness

Swamy Ananthanarayan, Ph.D. Thesis Project  [2015]

• Ph.D. Dissertation:  Health Craft: A Computational Toolkit for Motivating Health Awareness in Children
• Ananthanarayan, S.; Siek, K.; and Eisenberg, M. 2016.  A Craft Approach to Health Awareness in Children.  In Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2016), Brisbane, Australia, pp. 724-73.
• Eisenberg, M.; Ananthanarayan, S.; and Siek, K. 2015.  A Strategy for Teaching ‘Real’ Computer Science Through Wearables.  In Proceedings of Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS ’15), July 2015, Las Vegas, NV, pp. 37-43.
• Ananthanarayan, S.; Lapinski, N.; Siek, K.; and Eisenberg, M.   Towards the Crafting of Personal Health Technologies.  DIS ’14:  Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing Interactive Systems. Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 21-25, 2014.