Abstract:

How can creativity drive our experiences with technology, how we learn and create?  This talk will explore our relationship with technology and each other through the lens of expressive computing.  Personal expression in computing can be used as a motivational content for learning how to code, how to explore our own personal creativity, and how to make new kinds of connections to technology.  We will introduce the EarSketch environment, a computational music learning environment with over 160K users worldwide.  We’ll show how this work can empower underrepresented populations in computing and have measurable positive changes on their attitudes towards computing.  This will lead to a discussion on being co-creative with computers as collaborators, introducing our work on computational creativity and improvisational AI systems.  This talk will illustrate how expressive computing can enable us to be more computationally literate and creative, both of which may be increasingly valuable in the technological age.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Magerko is a Professor of Digital Media, Director of Graduate Studies in Digital Media, & head of the Expressive Machinery Lab at Georgia Tech. He received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from Carnegie Mellon (1999) and his MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan (2001, 2006).  His research explores how studying human and machine cognition can inform the creation of new human/computer creative experiences.  Dr. Magerko has been research lead on over $15 million of federally-funded research; has authored over 100 peer reviewed articles related to computational media, cognition, and learning; has had his work shown at galleries and museums internationally; and co-founded a music-based learning environment for computer science - called EarSketch - that has been used by over 160K learners worldwide.  Dr. Magerko and his work have been shown in the New Yorker, USA Today, CNN, Yahoo! Finance, NPR, and other global and regional outlets.