Seminars

Randy Kulman, PhD
LearningWorksForKids.com
Peace Dale, RI

Date and Time: Friday, February 29, 2008 @ noon
Place: 126 Tyler Hall

Abstract: This talk centers on the use of video games for teaching critical-thinking skills such as planning, organization, time management, and metacognition. There is an increasing body of research that describes how to use video and computer games to teach academic skills. However, there is limited work describing how to apply the thinking skills required for success in video games to the real world.
This talk examines theories of game-based learning, the use of video and computer games to teach alternative learners, and describes the LearningWorks for Kids project.

Bio: I. Randy Kulman, Ph.D., is a licensed child clinical psychologist. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Rhode Island in the Psychology Department. He has been involved in a private clinical practice for the past 21 years. His interest in the use of digital technologies for learning originated from his work with thousands of children who struggle at sustaining their effort and attention at school but who become immersed in their involvement with digital technology.

John Cayley
Visiting Professor of Literary Arts
Brown University

Date and Time: Friday, March 7, 2008 @ noon
Place: 126 Tyler Hall

Abstract: In this relatively informal talk and presentation, John Cayley will introduce some of his recent work, 'writing digital media,' especially the ambient poetic pieces overboard and translation, including the latter's recent rendition as imposition, 'the networked performance of an evolving collaborative work engaged with ambient, time-based poetics and harmonically organized, language-driven sound.' (Sound design by Giles Perring) Besides placing this work in the context of literary studies and what is sometimes called code studies, he will also touch on related and subsequent research he has been doing with writing for immersive VR at Brown University's CAVE facility where he now also teaches a workshop course in CAVE writing. Further information can be found at his personal website, http://programmatology.shadoof.net, and at Brown's new wiki, http://writingdigitalmedia.org.

Bio: John Cayley has practiced as a poet, translator, publisher, and bookdealer, and all these activities have often intersected with his training in Chinese culture and language. Links to his writing in networked and programmable media are at http://programmatology.shadoof.net. His last printed book of poems, adaptations and translations was 'Ink Bamboo' (London: Agenda & Belew, 1996). Cayley was the winner of the Electronic Literature Organization's Award for Poetry 2001 (www.eliterature.org). He has taught and been associated with a number of universities in the United Kingdom, and was an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of English, Royal Holloway College, University of London. In the United States, he has taught or directed research at the University of California San Diego and Brown University, where, arriving in the Fall of 2007, he is now appointed as a five-year Visiting Professor of Literary Arts with a brief to teach and develop writing in digital media. His most recent work explores ambient poetics in programmable media and writing in immersive VR, with parallel theoretical interventions concerning the role of code and the temporal properties of textuality. (Bibliographic links are available at the shadoof site.)

Dr Matthew Dickerson
Professor in Computer Science
Middlebury College, VT

Date and Time: Friday, April 4, 2008 @ noon
Place: 126 Tyler Hall

Abstract: Given a set S of points in the plane, and a convex polygon P, how can you translate P to cover the maximum number of points in S? What if you can rotate P also? Or scale P? What if you want to cover points with an annulus region around P instead of with P itself? Or, instead of maximizing the number of points contained, you wish to minimize the size of P (or its annulus) such that all the points are contained? And what if P is not convex? Problems like this arise in pattern matching, geometric tolerancing, and robot navigation. WeÕll look at all of the problems... and maybe even solve two or three.

Bio: Matthew Dickerson has been a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont since then earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University in 1989. His main research interest is in algorithms and data structures, especially related to computational geometry, and particularly proximity problems and Voronoi diagrams. He also did graduate work in Old England Language and Literature and is a member of the Environmental Studies program Middlebury and directs the New England Young Writers Conference. He is the author of seven books, one of which is actually related to computer science.

Pamela O'Hara, President
Sean Ransom,Vice President of Technology
BatchBlue Software
Providence, RI

Date and Time: Friday, April 18, 2008 @ noon
Place: 126 Tyler Hall

Abstract: Pamela O'Hara, President, and Sean Ransom, Vice President of Technology of BatchBlue Software will talk about the ins and outs of running a start-up software company. Started in 2006, BatchBlue recently launched their inaugural product, BatchBook. A web-based contact management system, BatchBook has been well received and recently featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and MSNBC's website of the week. Pamela and Sean will discuss many aspects of starting and running a software-as-a-service business including writing a business plan, co-founding a business, establishing revenue models, hiring support, setting up a development environment, planning for scalability and managing a remote development team.

Bio: Pamela O'Hara is the President of BatchBlue Software. Prior to this Pamela worked as a consultant to small businesses advising on technology needs, specifically data management tools and methodologies. Pamela's Web career started in 1994, when she designed Web sites and managed online communications for U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn and the Food Marketing Institute. Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to co-found and manage operations at Matrix Group International, a web-development firm in the Washington, DC area that develops web-based technologies for large and small trade associations.

Sean Ransom is the VP of Technology. Sean shapes the direction of everything from what programming languages are used to how the end products will look and behave. During his eight-year tenure at Amazon.com, he built customer service-based applications in Java, Perl and C++. He built a phone order tool that enabled Amazon to partner with third parties, which generated millions of dollars in revenue. Sean also has a background in bioinformatics, having worked in the prostate cancer research field for the University of Washington.