CTD

2025 ATLAS student award winners

Michael Kwolek — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:35:03 +0000

2025 ATLAS student award winners Michael Kwolek Wed, 04/30/2025 - 15:35

Every year, ATLAS awards recognize distinguished graduating students in our Creative Technology & Design programs who demonstrate remarkable qualities, such as academic excellence, innovative thinking, research efforts, leadership, community mindedness, and outstanding creativity and/or technical performance.

Every award winner this year is unique, but together they all exemplify the ATLAS spirit and all have made their mark on our community through scholastic pursuits, contributions to our community, positive energy, persistence, curiosity, and compassion.

Nefeli Hadjiyiannis - ATLAS Outstanding Student Award

Nefeli Hadjiyiannis graduates Summa Cum Laude from ��ý’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a major in Creative Technology and Design (CTD) and a minor in Art Practices. Nefeli has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the ATLAS community and has become part of the fabric of the CTD program. She has been a Learning Assistant for Text (ATLS 2300), a core class in the CTD major curriculum focused on graphic design and typography. Additionally, she is part of the student staff in the BTU Lab, the ATLAS maker space, supporting students in fabricating and designing their project work. Nefeli has also worked as an undergraduate research assistant with the Utility Research Lab, which combines computational fabrication, materials science, and sustainable design practices. There, Nefeli explored bio-based material formulations to make sustainable textile fibers and helped develop various formulations of gelatin-based dissolvable textile fibers with unique properties and colors. She has also worked on research projects exploring wellbeing and digital device use. She has also been active in ��ý’s Society of Women Engineers/SWE and participated in several leadership positions to provide support and resources to other engineering students. Nefeli is interested in interactive textiles and innovative sustainable fabric creation. She is also interested in installation work and using computation for fabrication. After graduation, Nefeli hopes to attend graduate school to further her studies in engineering and creative design.

In addition to her ATLAS award, Nefeli received the Research Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

“I am incredibly grateful to the ATLAS community. Genuine enjoyment of learning has been a key factor in my success with multiple previous projects but also in keeping me inspired and motivated. I've made many close friends that have been such a support system in academic and professional settings. The opportunities that ��ý provides for research have also been incredibly important to me. The research I've completed in the Utility Research Lab has shown me what I want to continue learning.”

Sophie Berry - ATLAS Distinguished Student Award

Sophie Berry graduates from ��ý’s College of Engineering and Applied Science with a major in Creative Technology and Design (CTD). As an undergraduate, Sophie has worked as a Research Assistant in the Utility Research Lab at ATLAS. As her initial project, she demonstrated remarkable tenacity and out-of-the box thinking to design a custom extrusion set-up to prototype different bio-based materials as candidates for 3D printing. She then continued her work creating a novel material based on gelatin and agar-agar (from seaweed.) While the team are still running tests, preliminary results suggest this material’s strength is on-par with typical thermoplastics—the outcome of this could be a huge breakthrough in sustainable 3D printing materials. Sophie has approached her endeavors with fierce determination and curiosity, rapidly learning and methodically experimenting to understand how materials behave. Sophie has also served as a Learning Assistant in Object (ATLS 3100), a core class in the CTD major on fabrication and modeling. She has demonstrated a unique comprehension of technical systems, their relationship to each other, and how to see creative solutions to problems. For her senior capstone project, Sophie is building ornithopters, a group of tiny flying robots. The project is highly technical and ambitious, requiring an immense amount of investigation and fabrication expertise.

Seneca Howell - ATLAS Distinguished Student Award

Seneca Howell graduates Summa Cum Laude from ��ý with an engineering major in Creative Technology & Design (CTD) and a minor in Technical Theater. She has served as head Learning Assistant/LA for Image (ATLS 2100), a core course in the CTD major. As an LA, Seneca demonstrated terrific leadership and was dedicated to helping students learning technical skills and applying them to coursework and projects. As an undergraduate research assistant in the ACME Lab at ATLAS, Seneca worked on designing the interactive curriculum for high school students using Cartoonimator, a low-cost, paper-based and tangible kit for computational thinking and keyframe animation. The research project utilizes computer vision algorithms running on a smartphone to detect and process hand-drawn or printed illustrations on paper templates and produces a digital animation. The paper that details the keyframe animation evaluation has been submitted to the ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction for review. Additionally, during her time at ��ý, Seneca has been involved with the Engineering Honors program and the Society for Women Engineers.

Kaya Hamon - ATLAS Distinguished Student Award

Kaya Hamon graduates from ��ý with an engineering major in Creative Technology & Design (CTD) and a minor in Art Practices. Kaya serves as the head Learning Assistant for Design Foundations (ATLS 1100), a large lecture class taught in the CTD program, where she demonstrates a rich combination of strong technical and mathematical abilities with a passion for design and ceramics. Kaya has been a student employee at ATLAS for 3 years working with communications. She is currently Social Media Manager, where she demonstrates herself to be remarkably intrepid. Kaya has the natural ability and confidence to step into a lab, understand dense research or technical material, and convey it in creative and compelling ways. As a member of the TYPO Lab at ATLAS, Kaya works as an undergraduate research assistant contributing to research and creative projects in typography and technologies of language. She is also an active student member of the BTU makerspace, where she seamlessly meshes herself into all aspects of fabrication in the lab. She is known as a capable mentor on design and UI/UX projects. A natural leader, Kaya is always interested in finding common ground, building connections and finding engaging solutions with partners and fellow students.

Andrew Widner - ATLAS Distinguished Student Award

Andrew Widner graduates from ��ý with an engineering major in Creative Technology & Design (CTD). He has served as a Learning Assistant in Form (ATLS 3100), part of the core curriculum in the CTD major, teaching topics including CAD, 3D modeling and digital sculpting. He is described as an exemplary, responsible and responsive LA. In conjunction with his CTD studies, Andrew developed a true passion in 3D printing and took the initiative to launch ��ý3D, a student club he now leads. He has developed a vibrant student community around 3D printing, rallying a diverse group of students around this passion with meetings, workshops, projects and campus outreach. Andrew has independently advocated for the club and represented the group eloquently, even securing corporate sponsorship of 3D resources and equipment. Additionally, Andrew has worked as a student production artist at ��ý’s Fiske Planetarium where he has demonstrated an outstanding enthusiasm for the immersive media development and 3D animation. He also serves as one of the student leaders of the BTU Lab, the ATLAS makerspace, demonstrating himself to be a true zealot for design and fabrication and leveraging novel perspectives or approaches to creative problem solving. Additionally, Andrew serves as a student ambassador for the CTD program, leading tours and participating in presentations about ATLAS for prospective students. He is articulate and passionate about the program and shares his academic path and student experience at ��ý as a CTD major.

College of Engineering & Applied Science Graduating Student Awards

Creative Technology and Design students were well represented in this year's College of Engineering & Applied Science Graduating Student Awards.

Community Impact Award & Perseverance Award - Ari Guzzi, BS in Creative Technology & Design

What was the biggest lesson you took away through all the community work you have been involved in during your time as a ��ý student?

One of the biggest lessons I've learned through my community engagement at ��ý is the value of applying my education to contribute positively to the world around me. I worked with Blueprint Boulder (a ��ý student-run organization) to develop websites and apps for nonprofits. That work taught me that education extends far beyond the pursuit of a paycheck. It's a powerful tool for societal betterment and self-growth.

As you reflect on what you’ve persevered through to make it to graduating, how would you say your time as a student has prepared you for the future?

Many times throughout my time as a student, I felt overwhelmed and considered giving up. However, without completing my education, I would never have received the opportunities I have post-graduation. I learned that although sometimes things feel hopeless, setbacks are temporary, and positive outcomes are just over the horizon with persistence.

What is it about ATLAS that you think would be most exciting to prospective students?

I loved my experience at ATLAS because it offers a unique blend of aspects in engineering that most majors wouldn’t get the opportunity to learn. However, the most significant skill I developed at ATLAS was the ability to approach and persevere through challenging problems. We frequently encountered tasks that initially seemed daunting and beyond our immediate capabilities. However, the program encouraged us to be self-reliant and resourceful, teaching us to seek out and apply solutions independently. This ability to persevere and innovate in the face of obstacles is perhaps the most valuable skill ATLAS taught me, significantly influencing every aspect of my life.

Research Award - Lily M. Gabriel, BS in Creative Technology & Design

What did you focus your research on in the Unstable Design Lab?

My focus in research is really on the structural study of fiber, specifically in fabricating textiles through a variety of methods, (like spinning, knitting, and weaving) along with how older methods of textile production might be used in modern e-textiles.

What was the most important thing you learned as a research assistant?

The most important thing I learned as a research assistant might be how to approach research in an organized way, how to actually produce written work from my findings, and how to work with others in a lab setting.

Research Award - Nefeli Hadjiyiannis, BS in Creative Technology & Design

What did you focus your research on in the Utility Research Lab?

I was completing materials design research on fabricating fibers and alternative 3D printing filament from diverse biomaterials for the creation of bio-based, sustainable smart textiles and fabrication methods. As well as researching mechanical properties of various bio-based polysaccharides and proteins in the use of dry-jet wet spinning fiber creation.

What was the most important thing you learned as a research assistant?

In my previous research positions, I was tasked with purifying specific proteins and performing laboratory tasks while following detailed instructions, whereas at the Utility Research Lab I was able to freely explore topics that I found not only intriguing but also motivating. The most important thing I learned in this exploration was how to design my own experiments, fail, and continue to redesign new tests. It takes an immense amount of mental rigor to fail over and over again until a positive result is achieved, especially when those failures are a result of tests you designed.

Three ATLAS students received awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science for community impact, perseverance, and research, while five earned student awards from ATLAS.

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The challenges of user testing made "easy"

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 17:17:43 +0000

The challenges of user testing made "easy" Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/08/2022 - 11:17

The appeal of Dashboard-Zero is its simplicity.

User-testing is employed across almost every industry, most often with surveys given to users after they experience a product. However, memory is fallible–feedback captured in the moment, as users experience a product, yields much more reliable information. But how can you do that without creating a distraction?

Elsy Meis, who graduated with a BS in Creative Technology and Design this spring, proposes an approach in a paper she will present later this month at the Human Computer Interaction International Conference, held online June 26—July 1. Titled “HCI Strategies for Informing the Design of a Teacher Dashboard: How Might Real-Time Situational Data Determine the Potential for Technological Support in the Classroom?,” she discusses user testing of a teacher dashboard developed by a ��ý Boulder team from the Institute of Cognitive Sciences.

Teacher dashboards provide teachers with information about real-time student learning. In this case, the system gauges student learning by using natural language processing to monitor conversations among small groups of students working on specific problems. Based on the content of the conversations, the system provides the teacher with a real-time assessment of student learning group by group.

However, given the existing stresses of the classroom environment, the user experience for such technology must be finely tuned for teachers to adopt it. In her paper, Meis critiques the current retrospective user-survey approach to testing, pointing out the weakness of relying on memory. Instead, she proposes an approach to gathering data during the lesson that involves a single red button on an iPad:

“When they press the button, they are answering yes to the question: ‘Are you feeling overwhelmed?’” says Meis. “The testing sessions are recorded from multiple angles, so have all the context and it’s not hard to figure out why they were feeling stressed.”

“Until now, the research group has interviewed teachers after their class ended to determine how they felt at different points during the class, or they would interview teachers based on hypothetical situations. Using this approach, we get more information without having to ask them,” says Meis.

The HCI International selection committee for late-breaking work clearly agreed, admitting her paper to the conference. “The paper deals with a very specific application of this idea,” says Meis, “but the hope is that it is seen as applying to a wide range of user-testing scenarios.”

This research was supported by the NSF National AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT) (DRL 2019805).

Publication

Elsy Meis, Samuel Pugh, Rachel Dickler, Mike Tissenbaum and Leanne Hirshfield, 2022, “HCI Strategies for Informing the Design of a Teacher Dashboard: How Might Real-Time Situational Data Determine the Potential for Technological Support in the Classroom?” In Proceedings of the 2022 HCI International, pdf. (Virtual—June 26-July 1, 2022).

In a paper she will present later this month at the Human Computer Interaction International Conference, recent CTD graduate Elsy Meis proposes Dashboard Zero, an "easy-button" approach to user testing that is both simple and immediate.

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Spring 2021 ATLAS Student Awards

Anonymous — Tue, 04 May 2021 19:29:06 +0000

Spring 2021 ATLAS Student Awards Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/04/2021 - 13:29

Graduating in May 2021 with degrees in Creative Technology and Design, the graduate and undergraduate students listed below are recognized for exceptional accomplishments, having demonstrated initiative in their academic and extracurricular activities, completing outstanding research or creative projects, or contributing significantly to the ATLAS community.

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Spring 2021 Capstone Projects

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 22:40:00 +0000

Spring 2021 Capstone Projects Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 16:40

CTD Capstone (previously TAM Capstone) is a rigorous, two-semester course sequence required for all Creative Technology & Design majors. Normally taken during the senior year, it involves the completion of a culminating project that goes through multiple rounds of faculty review and iteration. This small collection of project presentations gives a sense of the kind of work students complete in the CTD program.

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Shapeshifting: The varied applications for bioplastics

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 22:32:28 +0000

Shapeshifting: The varied applications for bioplastics Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 04/26/2020 - 16:32

In the accompanying video, Fiona Bell shares a class research project that explores bioplastics, including making bioplastic that changes color in ultraviolet light, concocting edible bioplastic packaging for ramen that has flavor impregnated and a variety of decorative applications. Conducted in the Living Matter Lab, directed by Mirela Alistar, Bell's work provides a refreshing exploration of sustainable alternatives to traditional plastics that are choking ecosystems around the planet, while illustrating the diverse interdisciplinary fields students are able to explore in the ATLAS Creative Technology and Design professional master's program.

In recognition of both her bioplastic research and academic achievements, Bell recently won two ��ý Boulder awards totaling $5,000:

[video:https://player.vimeo.com/video/388648147]

In this short video, Fiona Bell, ATLAS CTD student and member of the Living Matter Lab, shares a class project she completed for Design Foundations where she made a variety of bioplastics for a range of different applications.

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ATLAS grad student Ted Thayer helps NIMB.LY team to New Venture Challenge win

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:46:26 +0000

ATLAS grad student Ted Thayer helps NIMB.LY team to New Venture Challenge win Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/03/2019 - 06:46

Ted Thayer, Creative Technologies and Design master's student, and two team members won fourth place and $7,500 at the New Venture Challenge (NVC) championships on April 3 for their startup, Nimb.ly, beating nearly 120 other teams that initially participated in the annual competition. Overall Nimb.ly, a revolutionary software platform that helps catering companies keep their events efficiently staffed, won $11,000 in funding, initially bringing home NVC's IT Track $3,500 first-place prize after the team pitched their business idea to a panel of judges and more than 100 people in attendance.

Six ��ý Boulder startup teams advance to the New Venture Challenge 11 Championships on April 3

Software company Nimb.ly alleviates staffing problem for caterers, wins first place in New Venture Challenge 11 IT Track Finals competition

Ted Thayer, Creative Technologies and Design master's student in the creative industries track, was one of three students on the IT Track winning team for the New Venture Challenge Championships, taking home a $7,500 prize for their startup, Nimb.ly, a revolutionary software platform that helps catering companies keep their events efficiently staffed.

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"Hot Swap" wins top spot in alt.ctrl.GDC

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 00:28:21 +0000

"Hot Swap" wins top spot in alt.ctrl.GDC Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/29/2019 - 18:28

At the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco, March 18–22, ATLAS graduate students Peter Gyory (left) and Clement Zheng were awarded the coveted alt.ctrl.GDC award for their game, Hot Swap. Reporting from the alt.ctrl.GDC showcase, Makezine's Donald Bell recorded this interview with Zheng and Gyory while covering this fun, offshoot of the Game Developers Conference, the world's largest annual gathering of professional game developers. Their award came with a $3,000 prize.

Clement Zheng (right) and Peter Gyory celebrate at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco after winning the Independent Game Festival's alt.ctrl.GDC award, which came with a $3,000 payout.

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Wearable technology brings high-tech to mushroom hunting

Anonymous — Wed, 09 May 2018 21:24:51 +0000

Wearable technology brings high-tech to mushroom hunting Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/09/2018 - 15:24

Assistant Professor Laura Devendorf and Jen Liu, ATLAS doctoral student, co-authored a new study that brings wearable technology to one of humanity's oldest pursuits.

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Danny Rankin: Hacker, Farmer, Technologist, Designer

Anonymous — Mon, 01 May 2017 18:00:00 +0000

Danny Rankin: Hacker, Farmer, Technologist, Designer Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/01/2017 - 12:00

Danny Rankin is a farmer, designer, artist, instructor, musician, hacker, coder, craftsman, husband, veteran and visionary. And this spring, he adds Master of Science in Technology, Media and Society from ��ý Boulder’s ATLAS Institute to his credentials.

“He doesn’t fit any single box,” says Ruscha Cohen, co-director of the institute’s graduate program. “Everyone in ATLAS knows and respects Danny. He embodies so much of who we are as an interdisciplinary institute.”

And Rankin will be extending his ATLAS stay, teaching several classes in the fall as an adjunct instructor, as well as continuing to mentor students in the institute’s Blow Things Up Lab.

He’s just not ready to leave, he says.

“BTU is made up of people who don’t like to fit into one box,” he says. “They are self-motivated people who like to make things all the time; and I, too, put myself in that category.”

For Rankin, “that category” means building things with electronics. Experimental things. Useful things. And sometimes, weird things.

Rankin invented a mobile chicken house that follows grazing cow herds. Chickens subsequently peck at the manure, reducing fly larvae and improving soil fertilization. He tried it out on his farm east of Boulder, and it worked well until it was destroyed in a windstorm. But he’s not deterred.

“The farm has become a laboratory for me,” he says. “You can mess with stuff at the BTU Lab, but you can’t find out if it really works until it gets rained on and stepped on by animals.”

His most recent project is a room-sized, working model of the Internet that transmits ping pong balls around the BTU Lab, sorting them by color. “It’s hard for people to conceptualize how the Internet works, so I built something they can see at work.” He also relished the design challenge of mechanically sorting the balls by color and sending them to the right destination.

The Road to BTU

Rankin first became involved with the BTU laboratory as an undergraduate student. But he almost followed a different path.

Skilled in both piano and bass, he planned to major in music as an undergraduate. When he auditioned for ��ý Boulder’s College of Music, a professor advised him to continue playing music, but to choose a different major.

He’s grateful for that advice. It’s how he found his way to ATLAS.

“I immediately fell in love with hacking and building circuits and doing weird projects with electronics,” he said. “The BTU lab has been my home ever since.”

In the BTU lab, Rankin was encouraged to pursue his personal interests, and he explored his passions. A farmer himself, he wanted to help farmers and ranchers gain control over how they used agricultural technology, without having to worry about being sued by Intellectual Property owners for modifying the technology.

As an undergraduate, he developed agricultural sensors that detect soil temperature and moisture, giving farmers real-time data about their land. His work is rooted in an Open Source Hardware methodology, where documentation on how his devices are created, fabricated and programmed are publicly available. Anyone can use or modify the hardware as they wish.

“Having a space where you work on your own interests rather than a class project was fundamental,” he says. “I would have never pictured myself doing this kind of research, but the ATLAS community made it happen.”

Rankin’s technology reduces labor costs for farmers, he says. Instead of needing to drive from field to field or hiring extra farm hands to assess the condition of crops, his sensors provide continuous feedback, he said. By providing farmers with such tools, they will be better able to manage their land and the commodities they’re producing.

“For me, sustainable agriculture is not only environmentally sustainable, but also human sustainable,” Rankin says.

In the future he hopes to work in creative fabrication design.

“I want to custom build for anyone who has weird ideas that they want to turn into reality,” he says. “I really just like hands-on work. That makes me super happy.”

“He doesn’t fit any single box. Everyone in ATLAS knows and respects Danny. He embodies so much of who we are as an interdisciplinary institute.”

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Creative++ attracts participants with non-tech backgrounds

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:00:00 +0000

Creative++ attracts participants with non-tech backgrounds Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/07/2017 - 11:00

On a recent weekend, 32 students and community members joined for the first Creative++ jam, where participants formed teams and collaborated to design and build creative technology projects. Some were artists and musicians. Others were computer scientists. Some of the participants had no programming experience.

But they all had one thing in common: a desire to express themselves with new technologies.

“Creative++ brought together people of different cultures, backgrounds, disciplines and ages to build creative technology projects,” said Monica Bolles, a master’s student in the Creative Technologies and Design track. Bolles organized the event with ATLAS doctoral student, Annie Kelly.

The event was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (CNS-1562030), which funded Assistant Professor Ben Shapiro and his students to research new creative pathways into computer science. Shapiro, whose tenure home is Computer Science, leads ATLAS’s Laboratory for Playful Computation. The event was run in collaboration with the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, which provided the space and staff support.

Creative++ attracted majors from ethnic studies to mechanical engineers and students from ��ý Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, ��ý Denver and a local high school. It was a diverse group culturally, and almost 45 percent were female. Ages ranged from high school students to a woman in her 70s.

“One of the main goals of the event was to empower women to get creative with technology and programming,” Kelly said.

BlockyTalky
The event’s only constraint was to build projects with BlockyTalky, an educational toolkit created by the Laboratory for Playful Computation. BlockyTalky teaches modern computer programming and networking by inspiring users to build creative and meaningful projects. It also allows users to rapidly prototype new interactive devices through connection of a wide variety of sensors and a drag-and-drop browser-based programming interface. It easily interoperates with a wide variety of other technologies.

It’s designed to be easy for beginners to use, and powerful enough to be expanded for those experienced with developing creative technology projects.

“Though most of our past work with BlockyTalky has been with middle school students, we are now exploring BlockyTalky as not just a tool for children, but also as a toolkit that can empower adults to invent their own creative interfaces,” said Kelly, who has been the lead developer for BlockyTalky since 2015.

In less than 12 hours, participants developed roughly a dozen projects. They included a game that resembled a pyramid with a voice offering clues, such as to touch the pyramid with a wet hand or shine a light on it to move to the next level. In another project, the closer the player moved toward a plate of cookies, the closer a shark projected on the ceiling would move toward the player, while theme music from the movie “Jaws” would get louder. Another project involved using sign language to control a synthesizer.

“What’s nice about BlockyTalky is you can build new ways of interfacing with things very quickly,” Bolles said. “It’s an easy way to try out different ideas in one learning curve.

“Everybody had a really a great time. They all learned a lot. They worked together. Everyone had a role.”

No longer just for kids, the Laboratory for Playful Computation's BlockyTalky toolkit empowers adults to invent their own creative interfaces.

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