STAR :: Social and Technological Action Research Group

Congratulations to the stellar (no pun intended) undegraduate students who recently got funding for summer research:
Ryan Wallace, ”Evaluating Innovative Technologies for Supporting the Needs of Children with Autism”
Jared Haren, “Visualizing Personal Digital Traces Using Mobile Phone Logs”
Alex Bretana, “Understanding and Envisioning Ubiquitous Computing Systems in Volunteer Management and Coordination”
Chris Combs, “Evaluation of Health Information Systems at [...]

Our paper on the design of a mobile tool based on the Social Compass Curriculum was accepted for publication at this year’s Ubicomp conference. The citation and abstract are below…. look for the camera ready version of the paper to show up on our publications page as soon as it is done.
Tentori, M. and Hayes, [...]

Ever wondered if Pippin has Wifi? Does the campus Starbucks take gift cards if so, then “UCI Dining” is the app for you!
UCI Dining has just been named one of six finalists from across the nation in the Google “Juicy Ideas Collegiate Competition.” Teams from MIT, Stanford, and University of Washington are among the [...]

vSked: An Interactive Visual Schedule System for use in Classrooms for Children with Autism
Michael T. Yeganyan, Meg Cramer, Lou Anne Boyd and Gillian R. Hayes
Children with autism often experience substantial challenges in understanding, structuring, and predicting the activities in their daily lives. The use of symbols to represent a series of activities, also known as [...]

STAR group did really well on the NSF front this year. First year PhD students Meg Cramer and Jed Brubaker won a fellowship and an honorable mention, respectively. STAR alumna, currently a PhD student at CMU, Gabi Marcu was also a winner.

More on the fellowship program can be found at: http://www.nsfgrfp.org/
The National [...]

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Call for Papers:  Theme Issue on Technologies for Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), also known as Pervasive Development Disorder, includes impairments in social interaction, communication—both verbal and non-verbal—and stereotypical or repeated behavior, interests and activities. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control using data from the United States in 2006 indicated [...]

UC Irvine wants to make a real impact on problems that matter the most to the people living in our communities. We want our commitment to making a difference
to be a part of how we learn, why we conduct research, and where we allocate our time and resources. SHARE YOUR VISION for our legacy at [...]

An excerpt from the article….
Although mobile technologies are nearly ubiquitous in the lives of teenagers in modern industrialized nations, they are rarely used in schools—places where these youth spend a significant percentage of their time. Today’s teenagers, 75% of whom own cell phones, are considered by many to be responsible for the rampant uptake of [...]

Interactive Visual Supports for Children with Autism
Gillian R. Hayes, Sen Hirano, Gabriela Marcu, Mohamad Monibi, David H. Nguyen, and Michael Yeganyan
Interventions to support children with autism often include the use of visual supports, which are cognitive tools to enable learning and the production of language. Although visual supports are effective in helping to diminish many [...]

After a fun skit-filled panel discussion on social networking, Gen Y, and security in the workplace, a few different news outlets have added some colorful commentary of their own.