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Space-Time Student Competition 1997 - Interactive

As with the other venues at SIGGRAPH 97 we wanted to offer attendees a direct, personal, and interactive experience with these educational applications. SPICE is a competition open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students and each of the selected projects received a Student Full Conference Passport so that they might come to the conference and demonstrate their winning entries. All of these winning projects can be experienced first hand in the Computer Applications Laboratory (CAL). The AI project (listed first) can also be seen at the SIGGRAPH Education Committee's booth.

SPICE Logo

In its inaugural year, the Committee selected four winning SPICE submissions:

1.

Project Name:  "The Effectiveness of AI / Human Interfacing in Educational Software"
Authors:  Elena Page and Suzanne Schultz
Collaborators:  Alexandria Gunn and William Murray
School: North Carolina State University
Instructor: Dr. William Allen

Description:

Interactive multimedia combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) has opened new doors in education. AI enables the software interface to dynamically adjust to a particular student. This project varied the interfaces in an educational software package, which the team designed for children with autism. Three versions were produced, each with a different interface. The goal of the project was to discover any significant impacts in individual learning by varying only the interfaces. The interfaces used were autonomous agents. For children with autism, it was found that the critical set of agent attributes were voice pitch, frequency of responses, length of responses and visual appearance.

2.

Project Name:  "Please Rescue Me"
Authors:  Soo-Hee Baek
Collaborators:  Chee-Hoon Kim and Peter Mackey
School: Pratt Institute
Instructor: Lynn Pocock

Description:

"Please Rescue Me" is an interactive CD-ROM game that is designed to encourage students in grades 4-6 to understand mathematical concepts. The primary goal of this game is to prompt students to think reflectively and reason mathematically. By employing logical reasoning, students will gain confidence in their ability to do mathematics. The CD-ROM presents a series of logic puzzles, within the content of a story about a young boy who has made a regrettable wish which has come true. The player must solve the series of puzzles in order to undo the wish. 

3.

Project Name:  "Deciphering the Rosetta Stone"
Authors:  Martin Linde
School: Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Instructor: David Famillian

Description:

This project is an interactive learning experience in which the user will learn the background to the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Through several easy to follow guidelines and links, the interactee is led through the history, discovery, and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone.

4.

Project Name:  "Basic Fluid Power"
Authors:  Chris Berry
Collaborators:  Damon Lowell, Eric Nelson, Jon Cho, Mike Knight, Arline Meehan, Brandon Oelling, Guinnevere Poernomo, Joe Shriver Tim Siebert, Bryan Bertoline (from Ball State University)
School: Purdue University
Instructors: Gary Bertoline, Craig Miller, James Mohler, Hans Stern and Steve Witmer

Description:

The purpose of this project was the development, evaluation, and implementation of an interactive CD-ROM-based training package for training of entry level steelworkers in the basic concepts of hydraulic fluid power. It was a university/industry partnership between the School of Technology at Purdue University and the Burns Harbor Division of Bethlehem Steel Corporation (BSC).
The project allows an individual with an eighth grade reading level to gain a basic understanding of hydraulic fluid power.

For more information about SPICE and other SIGGRAPH Education Committee activities and projects, visit the SIGGRAPH Education Committee Booth or our web site http://education.siggraph.org/.

(page originally created by Valerie A. Miller / miller [at] siggraph.org)